Marriage is a melding of families and experiences. We were very young (I was 19 and Lyd 20) and incredibly naïve when we married. We set up house first in a 2 1/2 room apartment  of a house subdivided into several apartments. That was Spring break of our sophomore year. In June we moved to Portland, where Lyd got a job and I resumed studies at Portland State.

During this time we learned about each other and our expectations of what our home would be. We discovered that I could cook and also liked to do so. Lydia preferred doing laundry to cooking. Our roles were quickly defined for the next 50 or so years.
There were a few exceptions to this pattern along the way. When I went to work, I pressed my own shirts and slacks, for example. Lydia excelled at a few food items, such as her potato salad, (the egg to potato ratio is perfect…one egg for each two potatoes plus one more egg). I would never dare to attempt these; hers were too good. Her family introduced me to “super juice”, a powder mix which, combined with buttermilk and mayonnaise, became a sauce used on nearly everything on their plates. This was long before Ranch Dressing became famous. Her sister made zucchini relish from a recipe of her mother-in-law’s. We loved it and, given the abundance of free zucchini in Oregon in late summer, and the relative scarcity of dollars in our household, it quickly became a staple in our cupboard. This is how the food culture of a family develops.
A batch of zucchini relish lasts us about two years these days. We eat a bit less and the grandkids are fairly picky eaters. We try to time a batch so that we have a couple of days to do the project together. This year our timing was off and we had to resort to store-bought pickle relish. It was not the same.
Lydia got the recipe from her sister and dutifully put it on a card in the notecard box of recipes she had begun in Home Ec. in high school. Every two years we pull the card out when we have too many zucchinis cluttering up the kitchen counters, shop for the missing ingredients, and dig out the chopper. It usually takes me an hour or two to cop the vegetables…I take a lot of breaks. Lydia takes over and performs her culinary magic. In two days our pantry is once again full of jars of relish.

10 C. ground zucchini
4C. ground onions (I chop not grind as I prefer more texture)
2 green peppers chopped
1 chopped red pepper
SPRINKLE THE ABOVE WITH ¼ CUP SALT. LET STAND OVER NIGHT. DRAIN AND RINSE TWICE THE NEXT DAY

2 ½ C. vinegar
4 C. sugar
1 tsp black pepper
2 tsp turmeric
2 Tbs cornstarch
1 tsp nutmeg

MIX DRY INGREDIENTS, MOISTEN WITH SMALL AMOUNT OF VINEGER, THEN ADD THE REST OF THE VINEGAR. ADD TO THE VEGETABLES, BRING TO GOOD BOIL AND SEAL IN JARS.

MAKES 3 QTS.