“Pickles are cucumbers that sold out” Mitch Hedberg

I’m pretty sure that I’ve spent the last 7.5 years of my marriage trying to figure out how to feed my husband amazing, eye-popping baked goods. These very same baked goods I had pictured myself making to hand to him after a hard days work, with a nice refreshing glass of milk, and maybe a cute little 1950s apron.  Well, that never happened and I just gave up and focused my efforts on making less exciting awesome dinners. This bring us to the spring of 2010. I canned my first jar of pickles and changed my husband’s life forever. I gave him a pickle (a month after canning, naturally) and in return I got the same look I had dreamed about. Who cares if it was a pickle and not a cookie? Plus, I can make 25 jars at a time and sit back for a few months…good deal.

The recipe I used is adapted from a fabulous book called Canning for a New Generation, which I could not say enough good things about. You can find Liana Krissoff’s cute blog here and the actual recipe here. I changed up the pickling spices according my husbands taste (less sweet spice more mustard seeds and peppercorns) and switched to regular vinegar the 3rd go-around. The overnight soak she uses is VITAL for crispy pickles and I love the use of a grape leaf.