My Dad passed away May 25th. I seem to pause every time I say or write that to see if I believe it's really true. And, no, I don't. Not yet.
Family and friends spent the week after his death sitting around the kitchen table he and my Mom bought shortly after they married 60+ years ago, sharing stories, and eating. Not that we were having to cook -- friends brought more to us than 10 families could eat. I don't know about other places, but that's what we do in the South, and I'm grateful.
A covered dish means that there are people who care enough about you to make something special and put it in their very own dishes and take it to your house for you to eat without even the slightest expectation that they will stay and share it with you. It's for you and your family because you need to think about other things at this time besides cooking but you still need to eat.
And every single plate, napkin, bag of chips or ice, cup, pie, cookie, sandwich, salad, and casserole says, "I love you and I'm sorry for your loss and I'm here to help you get through it," because the words are just too hard when everything is fresh and raw.
I don't know where Dad got the recipe, but Grandad's Pickles are extremely popular with his grandsons. The ice cream recipe was one of his favorites, too.
And, oh yeah, he mixed a mean Jack and Coke. Easy recipe -- half and half.
Grandad's Pickles
Take 1 jar of whole dill pickles (do not use kosher dills), drain them, slice them into 1/2" rounds or quarter the rounds, and place the chopped pickles back in the jar. Cover the pickles with sugar. Make sure the pickles are completely covered. Add Louisiana hot sauce to taste. I like them hot, so I add a couple of tablespoons. I've also added whole cloves of garlic. Refrigerate several days until the sugar has completely dissolved. You may need to turn the jar a few times to get all the sugar dissolved. These are sweet, hot, crunchy, and wonderful.
Ice Cream
2 cans sweetened condensed milk
2 tall cans evaporated milk or 1 quart heavy cream
fruit (see note below)
milk
1 - 2 teaspoons vanilla
Mix the sweetened condensed milk and the evaporated milk with the fruit. Add vanilla and put in the freezing container of an ice cream maker. You need an ice cream freezer with a 1 to 1-1/2 gallon capacity. Add milk to the fill line. Freeze according to manufacturers directions.
Fruit note: Measuring the fruit is not an exact science. Peach ice cream requires a blender-full of peach puree. Pineapple takes two tall cans of crushed pineapple undrained. Add 1 can of coconut milk to the pineapple for pina colada ice cream. Four or five jars of stemless maraschino cherries drained and run through the food processor with some extra vanilla makes cherry vanilla.
Cherry vanilla was quite a hit at the Greenbrier First United Methodist 4th of July celebration this past Sunday.
If you're going to make this recipe in a counter top ice cream freezer, use 1 can Eagle Brand, 1 cup of fruit, a splash of vanilla, and cream or evaporated milk to the fill line. It's just me, but that just seems like such a sad little bit of ice cream.
