Now that's the best tasting pickle I ever heard

Do you remember those telly adverts about Vlasic Pickles?

I have been craving pickles lately. Seriously craving.

If hadn't had the horrible hysterectomy I might have thought I was pregnant.

I haven't had pickles since we lived the U.S. I am fond of only one sort of particular pickle. Not too sweet. Not too sour. The Goldilocks of pickles. The Sweet Dill. 

This was the preferred pickle of my childhood. They can be pretty hard to come by over across the pond.

Besides, they are referred to as gherkins here as pickle is something *completely* different here. Think pickle relish but with veg like carrot, swede and cauliflower mixed in. Blech.

I like the word gherkin because it rhyme with firkin (a container for holding liquids, traditionally beer)

Or jerkin (a type of old fashioned clothing)

or merkin ( a pubic wig)

We found some sweet dill pickles at Lidl for 65p a jar and they really hit the spot. Also the sweet  part is made from sugar not high fructose corn syrup. When we last visited the U.S. we tried to buy pickles and they were all made with HFCS so we didn't buy any.

Somehow I have really been craving that vinegary dill flavour and so it was natural that I fell in love with this recipe for Ranch flavoured hummus.

Plus it really does taste like cool ranch doritos. 

I cannot get enough of this stuff. It makes a huge batch and so I freeze half and defrost overnight in the fridge when the first batch is eaten and it seems to suffer no ill effects of having been frozen.

My attempts at homemade hummus always end up a bit dry and pasty. maybe it is due to the tahini (no offence tahini, I love you but you are glopping up my homemade hummus) but this recipe has no tahini and therefore has no glops.

Thanks to the amazing Chocolate Covered Katie for inventing this recipe:
www.chocolatecoveredkatie.com/2015/05/28/cool-ranch-hummus/

it is great on a sandwich or in a little gem lettuce leaf or on the scoopy end of a spoon.

Are you mad for pickles? Do you prefer the word gherkin? What do you crave?