Good for you! And if you marry her, you two should have an oil painting done.
Given her face, may I suggest ‘Rankin / Bass’…?
I can only say that the difference between store-bought and homemade sweet pickles is HUGE. I never cared for sweet (bread & butter) until we started making our own. Holy shit, what a flavor explosion! It’s probably because there is so much sugar in the store brands, or the pickling spices are over the hill. Whatever it is, it’s worth the effort to make your own.
Please (pretty please!) post the recipe (or PM it to me if it seems too weird for the Pit).
Believe it or not, I have made my own. My mother-In-law makes them too. They were better than store bought, but I really needed that hot pepper in it to make it something I would use with regularity. I actually do like sweet and savory, just not so much here. But I won’t not eat a sandwich or burger because they’re in there.
Absolutely true! No cheese on tuna! Ever!
Ditto.
When I used to get Subways tuna sub, would add pickles.
Ya know, I’d love to be able to say that I have some exotically special recipe, but it was a pretty generic one. One shouldn’t muck around too much when canning, as there are good reasons for the recipes being like they are. Basically, just use the freshest pickling spice blend you can find (probably Penzeys) and buy the freshest pickling cukes, hopefully at a local farmers’ market. Now if you like it hot, I’m sure adding a pepper wouldn’t be a problem.
Again, not a current problem. Probably a future problem, but that’s going to be a worldwide thing anyway.
Why not? It’s not like all South Africans have access to clean water. And again, a dated issue, the cholera outbreak (introduced from South Asia) is over.
Nevertheless, not a current (ha!) problem.
Look, I’m not saying South Africa is problem-free. Very far from it. I’m just saying it’s not on some rapid downwards spiral.
What Subway uses in their “tuna” subs is unknown, but it’s likely ground-up fish parts that didn’t meet the quality standards of cat food manufacturers, sprinkled with artificial tuna flavour. Feel free to add whatever you like. 
Not exactly.
My diabetic very-low-carb diet does not like sugar added to anything, because modern chefs seem to add it by the cupful, not the pinch. And for spicy things, the sugar tends to hide the heat. Which works great for people that don’t really like heat, but for me it means I grossly OD on sugar before the food is remotely spicy enough. Sriracha being a prime example of something with more sugar than pancake syrup.
Can’t Shouldn’t eat fried chicken at all, and sure as heck not with honey on it. Ditto for waffles, much less waffles and syrup.
Diabetes or no, fortunately I really never developed a taste for sweet + savory. Lamb is better without mint jelly. Pork is much better without applesauce. Tzatziki needs no sugar and should have no sugar. etc.
YMMV, but that’s how I roll.
I’m trying to rectify this comment:
with this one:
Several sources on the web tell me that a tablespoon of ketchup contains about 4 grams of sugar. ‘Lots & lots of ketchup’ seems to be adding quite a bit of sugar to your diet.
Yeah, the tzatziki reference had me shaking my head. I’ve never made it with sugar. Not because I’m against it, I’ve just not been taught to make it with sugar and don’t notice it in local versions of it. I’ll note sugar in some shawarma white sauces, though. I make a version of that when doing something Mediterranean because my wife likes it, but I’ll take a sugarless yogurt sauce for myself.
You’re right. Patty melts are one of my rare guilty pleasures.
I only eat a half a one maybe once a month from a nearby restaurant that makes great PMs. I ought to eat zero of them ever, but a man’s got to live a little now and again.
And as I mentioned, the TJs’ ketchup is about half that sweet (2g/tbsp) which helps. And I don’t use as much as I would have when I was e.g. 30 & didn’t have this annoying problem.
One of the most delicious salads in the world is lettuce, pears and blue cheese with a honey mustard dressing. It’s a perfect mix of sweet and savory.
I do like onions, I use them on and in just about everything. But I generally don’t prefer to make them the star or focus, but rather leave them as complimentary. Usually. Onions = good, oniony = okay, I guess .
That said…
I am now recalling I have leftover caramelized onions in the freezer, leftover from making caramelized onion pasta which kinda makes me a big fat liar about not making onion-focused dishes. Maybe I need to thaw them out and revisit the ancient art of the patty melt.
I’m always up for a tuna melt 
.
So, I always despised bread and butter pickles. Dill was fine, but I prefer to eat them on their own and generally leave them off burgers/sandwiches. However one thing that has been going on as I age is that my tastes have been steadily broadening, so I like to revisit stuff I used to not like from time to time. There is a fancy, upper-end butcher shop I go to from time to time, usually for pricey heritage pork chops. They have fridge and freezer with various pricey store-made food items, mostly stuff like demi-glaces. But one day I shrugged and picked up a jar of their home-made sweet and very mildly spicy bread and butter pickles. They were excellent.
Having surprised myself I then proceeded to buy a more standard jar at a supermarket. They were extremely disappointing, to the point that the partially eaten jar has sat untouched in my fridge for weeks. Time for it to go, I guess. So apparently I do like them now, but only if I buy absurdly pricey “homemade” versions.
They are absurdly easy and cheap to make, if you ever want to go that way. All you need is a large pot, some canning jars, new lids and some canning rings (the rings and jars can be reused). All very cheap items. Buy a basic paperback canning book (or find directions online) and you’re good to go.
My father grew cucumbers, and at the peak of cucumber season, he and my mom would make bread and butter pickles. I remember it taking all day. But they made an enormous batch, and we had pickles for the rest of the year, and pickles as gifts, and …
Bread and butter pickles are both too sweet and too sour to grow botulism. So while you should always be careful when canning, it’s a pretty safe project. Just, you know, don’t cut down on the sugar or the vinegar.
are you Belgian by chance?
I get it: you guys like sweet pickles. It’s just that they are too sweet for me.
It’d rather have plain slices of cucumbers because for me… it’s just too much sugar and too sweet. I like dill chips… it’s what most chains put on their burgers.
Well sir, you warm my cockles (purely platonic cockle-warming, no funny business). The mission? To convert one unsuspecting soul at a time to the glory of bread & butter pickles. It’s a briny crusade, if you will.
And worry not, fellow diabetics (I too am a proud club-member): you too can savor this sweet, tangy miracle—saccharin B&B chips! Mmm!
Ironically, I love dill in sauces, dressings, and mystery dips at potlucks… just not in pickles. Go figure.