Pickles!

I must admit. I never really "got" making your own pickles. Sure, regular store bought pickles are kind of ugly, but what do I really do with them beside chop them up to go in tuna salad or throw a couple on a burger. I'd see these lovely photos on other blogs of jars of beautifully vibrant pickles and think oh those are pretty, but is it really worth the effort? We took Jack to play on the Pilchuck river in Snohomish last week and on the way out had to stop at one of our favorite farm stands. We always buy more than we know what to do with, the abundance of fresh food is just intoxicating somehow, and we ended up with a bag of pickling cukes. I figured they would sit in the fridge for a week and I'd get sick of them staring at me and make a cream cheese sandwich out of them. Enter the glory of Pinterest and this link to Zaaberry. It looked too easy not to give it a shot.

Took all of about 5 minutes to whip up 2 jars (even with a fussy baby I had to randomly hand kitchen instruments to).

I'll never go back to store bought. These pickles are salty, crunchy, sour and beautiful. I followed the recipe exactly. The only thing I might change would be to try dividing the garlic into each jar instead of mixing it into the brine. It did tend to get stuck to the sides of the bowl as I poured it into the jars, and I ended up scooping it out with a spoon to make sure the garlicky goodness made it in. If you've been on the fence about making your own pickles just dive in and try it out. I'm thinking pickled cabbage next. Mmmmmmm.