Pickled Onions

Hello first day of "retirement", if I can call it that.  As per usual, my day began with exercise, today Animal Flow followed by a half hour movement PT session, which I had on Victor the Vibrating Machine - he makes my nose and ears itch. Victor is wonderful for loosening sore/tight muscles and gives you a workout, without even working out. It was so good to be back doing Animal Flow, I knew I had been missing it, just didn't realise how much.

Then instead of coming home to my usual protein smoothie breakfast, I decided to treat myself to avocado, egg and bacon just down the road. I sat outside watching the sea and saw whales playing about 4-500 metres over shore. They were breaching, waving their fins and flukes around. As soon as I had finished my breakfast, I went and sat right down by the beach and watched them for about half an hour. Then it was off to buy Pete a birthday present. I won't say what I got him, as he reads this:). I then called in to see my nephew's mum, who has terminal cancer. She was just on the way out to visit her oncologist - the pain becoming unmanageable.

Yesterday I peeled 5 kg of pickling onions and covered each layer with a sprinkling of salt. No matter how many times I have washed my hands, I can still smell onion on them. My intention was to get onto bottling them as soon as I got home, however, I got side tracked into dealing with the cherry tomatoes I picked on Saturday. I washed them all and put them in a roasting pan with a sprinkling of olive oil and salt. Then I cut up two red capsicum and put them and a heap of garlic cloves onto another tray and treated them to olive oil and salt. Then into the oven with the whole lot. Once cooked and cooled, I whizzed it all up with some fresh picked basil. It tastes delicious. I can either have it as is as tomato soup, or use it as a pasta sauce or even in mince dishes. So versatile. I'll divide it up into 2 cup lots and freeze it.

I washed and washed the onions, firstly outside in the bucket I salted them in to get most of the salt off them and then inside in the kitchen sink. It is essential that all the salt is washed off as salty pickled onions are not nice - speaking from experience.  Once that was done, I packed them into jars and then made the "pickling liquid" up - discovering I had forgotten to get Golden Syrup when I did the shop on Sunday - duh! A quick trip to the local supermarket, thankfully it's only 5 minutes around the road.

While the pickling liquid was cooling I hung a load of towels on the line and put the above tomato mixture into 4 containers, ready to freeze.

The onions all finished and I've cleaned out the bottom of the pantry and these jars are now stored down there, where they will stay for at least a month before we begin to eat them. My stepdaughter's eyes lit up when she saw them on the bench. I told her she need not think she was going to 'pig out' on them when they were ready unless she was prepared to sit and help peel them - which of course, is highly unlikely. She can eat half a jar in one sitting, if allowed. 

So, I've had a very productive first day of not 'working' in the paid workforce. Now I'm off to the gym to do an upper body workout and then I think I'll relax in front of the TV and watch some more of River Cottage Australia on SBS on Demand. I rather enjoy it and hope to be able to find the first three seasons of the show somewhere. He's living my dream. 

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