{45 by 45} spicy bread & butter pickles and pickled pea pods...

long before snookie rolled or stumbled rather on to the scene and made pickles popular, i loved pickled.. always have.. as a child for lunch my mom would take sweet pickles wrap american cheese around it and put a tooth pick in it to hold it and that would be my lunch.. and to this day, much to shelby’s horror (because she thinks american processed cheese is the devils work) i will come home and need a snack.. not a meal just a snack so i will take a pickle and cheese and, well, be in heaven.. but my favorite kind of pickles are bread and butter and i am really loving the spicy ones lately.. I can’t always find them in the store so i’ve been known to take my jar of bread and butter pickles and add a tablespoon of crushed red pepper and let them sit for a few days and viola spicy pickles.. but in my last bountiful basket I got a bag of pickling cucumbers.. and i thought what the heck i should make my own spicy bread and butter pickles.. now partly because the whole canning process scares me.. sheesh what if i do it wrong and poison someone augh.. and mostly because i only had enough to make one large jar I opted for refrigerator pickles.. now they won’t last on a shelf for months on end, hence the name refrigerator, but they will last in the fridge for about 3-4 weeks and only takes about about 1-4 days to pickle, per say.. so I googled it (of course i just love google) got about 10 recipes...narrowed it down to about 4 and picked and chose from each what i wanted in mine..none called for the crushed red pepper but I went and added it because well i wanted them spicy, and let me tell you friend, they will put a little zip in your zing.. a bit of spice to your life.. enjoy.. (meaning these babies where hot!!)

sweet and spicy bread and butter pickles

prep time: 7  minutes

cook time:  10 minutes
servings: approx. 4 cups.. fills a 1 quart mason jar including pickles..

ingredients:

½ cup vinegar

½-1 cup sugar (depending on how sweet you like yours..)

¼ cup kosher salt

1 tsp turmeric (all the recipes called for it I didn’t have so I didn’t use it)

1 tsp. celery seed

i used about a ½ tblsp. of pickling spice

1 tblsp. of crushed red pepper and yes they are hot!! (so use less of you want or eliminate all together)

1 lb. small cucumbers, sliced *pickling cucumbers work best* 

1 sweet onion, sliced

In a medium pot add everything but cucumbers and onions.. heat gently until salt and sugar are dissolved.. remove from heat and cool.. slice your cucumbers and onions.. for the cucs i used a mandolin.. now place your onions and cucumbers in a large mason jar.. pour cooled syrupy mixture over cucs and onions.. place jar in the fridge for 24 hours.. you can start sampling after that but for the best pickles wait about 4 days.. (I had left over syrup mixture so i put some pea pods in a mason jar and poured the remaining syrup.. super yummy)