Sunday, July 26, 2009

Pickled Baby Carrots

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Waiting….

Waiting….

You might not realize this but I am a wisp of a person. I hit 5 foot 3 only on days humid enough to give my hair extra lift. I am the sort of gal who can shop in Gap Kids. But husband on the other hand is a bit shy of 6 feet and has the build of someone who played football in high school. (He didn’t—he was an art nerd.)

With each pregnancy, I take on the appearance of a young sapling taken over by an enormous gall. People see me walking around and wonder how I can keep all that baby up. Luckily, pregnancy turns me into a weeble-wobble—I can’t fall down.

With my last pregnancy there was the fear that my body wouldn’t make it 40 weeks as an incubator. Everyone said, oh you will go early; you will never make it your due date; you are having THAT baby early. With Belle, I was a couple weeks early. Not scary early, just early enough to rescue me from the terrible nausea and illness that typifies pregnancy for me.

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But as one of those wonderful aphorisms goes, “Every pregnancy is different.” While people are still amazed by my girth—many woman at work have kindly told me that you are HUGE!, this baby shows no sign of budging. I am now just a few days before my due date and after ages of Braxton hicks, I am still just waiting. After weeks of being careful to conserve calories to help the baby, I am imagining taking long walks, eating spicy food and doing jumping jacks to help get things going. But frankly, I am still too nauseous to walk or to do any of those things.

There is another old wives tale about nesting—as soon as you start nesting and are in the middle of things getting settled you go into labor. You basically run to the hospital with the house half cleaned, the mop still in the water bucket.

While I am not one to mop the floors ever (my husband is much neater than I), I thought pickling might be a sort of nesting thing. I don’t mean to say I went through the whole 9 yards and pickled 17 gallons of anything, but I did make a small batch of pickled carrots. Putting things by seems like an age-old form of nesting.

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We have plenty of baby carrots from Snake Hill Farm and some homegrown spicy peppers. I wasn’t organized enough to write down the recipe—but basically equal parts water and vinegar, salt, sugar, cumin seeds, homegrown dill weed, and mustard seeds.

This is my entry to One Local Summer for this week and for Grow Your Own hosted by Amy of Playing and started by Andrea of Andrea's Recipes.

It didn’t seem to help budge the baby at all—so I spent the rest of the day standing up cooking. Maybe a fridge full of cheesecake bites will start labor… well, if she doesn’t come I will post those next.

35 comments:

Amy I. said...

Lovely photos! Thanks for participating in this month's Grow Your Own! Best of luck with the rest of your pregnancy.

Fran Z said...

MM- Sounds tasty, I will try it! Good luck to you and your family as your delivery day comes soon!

eatingclubvancouver_js said...

Eel is supposed to induce labour --eel ceviche? ;) But I suppose sometimes there can be a calmness to waiting, so enjoy it and pickled carrots while they last. I've been craving something pickled the past few days too.

Chou said...

Yummy carrots, and a great description of how you feel . . .

angela@spinachtiger said...

How cute!

FoodJunkie said...

Maybe you should take up dancing classes or something, but that might be a problem if the baby likes the moving around and decides that it is nice in there, no reason to get out! I can't imagine what it would be like to be nauseous for 9 months. You are a brave woman. As for the pickles, they look lovely.

Chibog in Chief said...

you're photos are always amazing..goodluck and can't wait to see the new baby coming :-) hold on dear!!

Joanne said...

I will be keeping my fingers crossed that she decides to be born soon! I've never heard of pickled carrots, but they sound good. I've heard having a glass of beer helps to push labor along. Or walking up many flights of stairs.

glamah16 said...

Love he baby carrots. Roates some this week with chicken. So delicate.Even when I was kid I was kind of big for Gap Kids! LOL.

Reeni said...

Freshly pickled carrots sound delicious! Lots of luck - hope the precious baby decides its time to see the world - and soon!

Rosa's Yummy Yums said...

An interesting recipe! I bet they taste wonderful!

Cheers,

Rosa

Anna said...

I'm another one shy of 5 foot 3! I'd really convinced myself I'd be taller by now... then I went to measure myself and found that I only reached 5'2" with the help of a hella hairspray. Sigh.

Those baby carrots are the cutest things ever... and let's hope we see the *actual* baby soon!

grace said...

never fear--the bun in your oven will decide to make its way out probably precisely when you're most unprepared for it. :)
love the pickled carrots--they're something i crave almost as often as sweets (like cheesecake bites, for example), and i'm not even pregnant. :)

Soma said...

Now I can admit to someone that I shop in kids department too... well sometimes:-)..

Sending you labor vibes & easy ones.. stop working & cooking & relax now!

Mama Mia said...

hope your healthy happy baby comes soon! I love anything that is pickled. so fresh and summery.

Y said...

Looking forward to the cheesecake post ;)

Life is certainly too short to mop floors, but there's always time for something as rewarding as pickled carrots!

Cynthia said...

That's a beautiful pickle and I smiled all through your post about pregnancy.

Bombay-Bruxelles said...

Nice of you to drop by my blog! I've responded to one of your questions ... Nice blog you have here.

Congratulations for the baby!!

Dharm said...

Lovely post! You DO know what is good for bringing on baby right...??!! Lots of Love from all of us here!

~~louise~~ said...

I will never forget the day my cousin went into labor. She was in the middle of painting the living room. We all told her about the "signs" but she didn't heed the warnings. She went dressed to the hospital in a painter's jumpsuit 3X to large for her (and yes she carried BIG) her hair was tucked under a worn out painter's cap and she was spattered in chartreuse. I'm hysterical just thinking about it.

Soon, MM, soon...

I'm off to look at that corn on the cob recipe again.

Jackie at PhamFatale.com said...

Wow your spicy peppers look gorgeous. I'm very intrigued by what you grow in your garden. I always find it fascinating to grow your own herb and veggies and make basic dish like pickles or an even more basic sauce like ketchup. oh btw Love your photography

Anonymous said...

Ah.. lovely pickled vegetables. I ate them a lot during my previous pregnancy.

Anonymous said...

I made pickled cauliflower and green beans this past weekend, but have never had pickled veg (other than cucumbers of course)... what does it taste like? How do you use your pickled baby carrots? They look great!

Shelby said...

You are the winner of the Pillsbury giveaway (Simply Cookies)! Please email me with your mailing address :-) grumpyshoneybunch at yahoo dot com. Thanks for participating!

Sophie said...

I'm ashamed to admit that I have never pickled anything. :D I remember when my mom was nesting, when she was about to have my brother, she baked so many cakes! I certainly didn't complain :).

La Cuisine d'Helene said...

What a great entry. Love baby carrots, so delicious.

lisaiscooking said...

I was just thinking about pickling something. I haven't decided what yet, but I love homemade pickles. Your carrot and pepper combination sounds great!

Heather S-G said...

Oh my gosh...there's no comments...are you having a baby right now!!!??? These look so yummy...I love anything pickled :D

Kristen said...

Oh dear...still no baby? I just came over here to check on you! Keep us posted and don't go too stir crazy. Best of luck with delivery too :)

Anonymous said...

Oh wow...how much joy and excitement you must be feeling right now! I wish you all the best in your delivery!
And baby carrots! Haha, PICKLED? I heard that most pregnant ladies crave pickles during their pregnancy...

Andrea Meyers said...

Best wishes for a safe delivery and healthy baby! Thanks for sharing your carrot pickles with Grow Your Own!

Claudia said...

Do you have a hot tub handy? People around here have found that relaxing in our local warm pond near the sea induces labor. My daughter did it, went into labor that night. That salad looks refreshing and easy. Good luck.

Alicia Foodycat said...

I hope she gets a move on! All the best for her birth.

Thistlemoon said...

These look lovely! I can't wait to start pickling! Hope that baby budges soon!

maybelles mom said...

thanks to everyone for their support and advice.

MM