Okay, so maybe they’re not real pickles, but they sure look good in a fall kitchen display. And they could impress visitors. Just look how much time you must have spent growing, harvesting and pickling your produce. Or not.

I like the idea of pickles more than eating them. There’s such a thing as quick pickles, but the ones I just “put up” are even quicker. I raided my mom’s condiment pantry and found a jar of “fire and ice” pickles she made some time ago. That’s the sugar and hot sauce trick on store-bought pickles. Love them.

There were only two pickles left in a jar of spicy liquid. I further consolidated other jars of capers, peppers, etc. and then cut up a store-bought squash my sister brought over. I packed the yellow slivers into the “new” liquid and have a jar full of fresh something to admire before I crack it open to enjoy.

If you have more faux pickling ideas, share them with our readers.

How about dessert?

For 20 years Mary Younkin has remembered how a berry sauce concocted of nothing but frozen berries and sugar transformed bowls of ice cream. She shares Five-Minute Berry Sauce for your own pleasures, including cheesecake, brownies, cakes and yogurt.

She follows up her book “The Weeknight Dinner Cookbook” with “The Weeknight Dessert Cookbook” giving readers a grip on coconut lime cookies, brown sugar peach cobbler and pretzel avalanche fudge. Need something to take to all those school and church dinners? Younkin can make you popular. But tell everyone where you got this recipe. It’s a Page Street Publishing Co. book subtitled “80 Irresistible Recipes with Only 5 to 15 Minutes of Prep.”

Darragh Doiron is a Port Arthur area foodie who loves pickle and other ideas from readers. Share with her at darraghcastillo@icloud.com