Tuestorial - Easy Refrigerator Pickles!

With all of the farmers markets out there just overflowing with amazing ingredients this summer & no doubt some of you have gardens that are overflowing...let's talk about pickling!

As you all know by now...I just love taking a bit of my weekend and channeling it into cooking and baking. About a month ago, I was talking to someone about pickling and she brought me a HUGE HUGE BOOK about pickling to read all about the different ways of pickling... so, like I said...that was a month ago. This book is HUGE... huge I tell you...I've been reading all about different techniques and then trying to figure out which of the zillion recipes to use... it's been a bit overwhelming.

Well, last weekend I decided...it's time. It's time for me to just dive in. So I posted a notice on my Facebook page... asking if anyone wanted to come over and pickle with me. Everyone seemed excited for me, but no one wanted to come over. However! My friend sent me her easy refrigerator recipe and it was so non-intimidating that I just thought to my self - self, why didn't you ask your friends for a simple recipe to start with?!
I mean... the recipe is so so so easy that I really would have saved myself a lot of time just putting a little word out there to friends first.

RECIPE:
Refrigerator Dill Pickles

5-7 lemon Cucumbers
3 LARGE cloves Garlic
one bunch of Dill
One spring or two of Thyme
1 tablespoon sea salt
One beet sliced thin
1/2 c red raspberry vinegar (I used fresh raspberries here instead)
3tblsp sugar
2 cups apple cider or white vinegar (I split my vinegar between the two and increased to 2.5 cups since I didn't have Raspberry Vinegar)
1/2 of a HOTtatah pepper

And water to taste

let sit three days in fridge in pint size mason jars.

OTHER TIPS:
- be sure you use cucumbers that are labeled for pickling...this will help them have that "snap" when you bite into them.

- These pickles will keep in the fridge for about a month. But... they are so tasty...they will be gone well before that.

- I didn't use mason jars, since it was much easier for me to just put all of the ingredients in one large jar first and then portion it out later once I got the flavor right.

- Also, I used red beets which did, as you can see, turn my pickles pink... I don't think this is at all a bad thing...but if you wanted, I'm sure you could use some golden beets and side track the whole color "issue".







The next thing I'm going to tackle is canning! :-) I want to go to a fresh fruit stand and get a case of peaches. I know it's labor intensive...but to have canned peaches in the middle of winter will be such the treat! Any recipes out there?... best ask now before I start reading a 600 page book on canning. ha ha

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