*wherefore art thou, pickles?

This jar, I suppose, says it all. They were good.

I am feeling pretty accomplished, if I do say so myself. The pickles I put up last week have been sitting on the cupboard shelves soaking through and waiting to be opened.  The recipe stated to wait at least one week before opening.  I could wait no longer!  Tonight we opened three different jars with three different mixes inside.  The one that was most popular was the jar with a 1/2 tsp powdered mustard added in with the dill seeds and weed. 

Up until today I had not put any more up because we were unsure if we would like them.  This past week mom and I have dutifully been picking some beautiful cukes from the prolific vines and then giving them away as well as consuming as many as possible.  Now today mom picked in the morning and then again this evening after we decided that the pickled cukes was a HIT!

We used a basic pickling recipe and along with that we added just 1/4 of dill seeds, a sprig or two of dill from the herb garden and 1/4 tsp of yellow powdered mustard.    As I said before, in some we placed garlic too.  We have sliced the cukes up and they are now in an ice bath for 24 hours and at that point we will pickle them.  I love canning. Something about canning just feels right.   It feels old fashioned and I like that feeling.

On a recent post about canning pickles and peppers, my friend Julie mentioned that her grandmother used to pickle green beans.  I have never had pickled green beans, but it sounded intriguing!  I gave some thought to putting up a few jars but had not followed through yet.  Momma was busy one afternoon putting a "mess" of beans up and putting up a few jars of peppers. On the stove was a pot of boiling water to blanch the beans and a pot of the vinegar mixture to pickle the peppers.  It just so happened that momma dropped the beans in the boiling vinegar mixture by accident.  I was getting ready to pour the vinegar mixture into the mason jars where the peppers were tightly packed.  Right before I poured it in Momma caught her mistake. So, we took advantage of the situation and went ahead and pickled the beans too! I am really grateful that Julie mentioned that because we were going to otherwise throw the beans out thinking we had ruined them. Can't wait to taste them!  

The jar in the center is the pole beans or green beans with a few garlic cloves added. 

Pickling is EASY. Go ahead try it! Pickle your peppers for an added punch to your mustard greens, rice dishes or other plates. Pickle your green beans, even though I haven't tasted them yet, I encourage you - go ahead!  Pickle your cukes and add different things for variety but take note of what you put in each jar so you can make your favorite again and again!  All you need is a canning pot or a large pot and a dish towel.  We do not have a canner, but we have lots of nice heavy stainless steel pots. So we used what we have and instead of the rack that holds the jar up off the direct heat inside the canner we used a hand towel to put in the bottom of the heavy stainless steel pot to keep the jars safe.  (wisdom from Momma)  Go ahead - pickle something!