Recipe To Try - Homemade Refrigerator Pickles

Have y'all seen my garden?  I'm pretty proud of it.

My 8-year-old is hiding back there

Our garden just took off this year.  The cucumbers and tomatoes have just taken over everything.  It took a long time before we got veggies, but they're coming in slowly but surely.

I swear I feel like Indiana Jone scouting out pathways to grab the veggies.  I feel like I need a machete or something - but if I used a machete, I'd cut down all the beautiful young baby veggies that aren't ripe yet.

Since I wasn't a schooled gardener, I thought that I'd be able to actually pickle and can tons and tons of cucumbers all at once, and I'd have jar after jar after jar of delicious pickles that would last us all year - I thought the same thing with the tomatoes.  That just isn't the case with this small of a garden - at least it's not happening that way for me. 

But I digress...since we're only getting a couple of cukes at a time, we came up with this yummy recipe for refrigerator pickles.  It really is delicious and it's super easy.  My girls could eat a whole jar of these in one sitting.

You can even have your little ones help you load the jars up.  What a great learning and fulfilling experience it is to have your kids help you in the kitchen.  You could feel like Mama Of The Year letting them help you.  It's so awesome having your kids help you...until they start fighting about who gets to put what in the jar.  No, it's my turn to put them in the jar.  No, it's my turn.  That's MY pickle.  That pickle is ME.  I GET TO PUT IT IN THE JAR!  IT'S MY TURNNNNNNNNN! 

That's when you scream at the top of your lungs THIS IS SUPPOSED TO BE A HAPPY LEARNING, BONDING EXPERIENCE FOR ALL OF US!!  LOVE AND PEACE AND ALL THAT CRAP!  NOW IT'S COMPLETELY RUINED BY Y'ALL FIGHTING.  And then you just quit for a few minutes and grab you a big ol' glass of Moscato and then all is right with the world.  

What? 

You know that happens in your kitchen too, right?

I'm not, like, a lone wolf in this situation, right?  Right?  I'm right, right?  Please tell me I'm right!!


But I digress again...here's the fabulous pickle recipe. The pickles really are awesome, no matter how much drama you have to put up with while making them!

Homemade Refrigerator Pickles

2 cucumbers - sliced
2 garlic cloves - sliced
1 very, very, very small onion - sliced (I use ones picked from my garden which are about the size of a big gumball)
1 tablespoon of kosher salt - plus a little more
ground pepper - however many shakes you want
fresh dill
vinegar
quart mason jar

Slice everything up.  Put a sprig or two of dill in the bottom of jar.  Then add couple of slices of onion and couple of slices of garlic.  Add a couple handfuls of cucumbers.  Keep going like that until the jar is full - dill, onion, garlic, cukes until you use everything up.  

Next fill the jar about 1/4 to 1/3 full of vinegar.  I put the salt in next and the pepper.  I use about a tablespoon of salt plus a few more shakes.  I also put quite a bit of ground pepper in.  Then fill the jar the rest of the way up with water.  

Put lid on.  Give it a good shake, shake, shake - let your kids shake, shake, shake the jar - then put the jar in the refrigerator.  

24 hours later, you'll have delicious pickles and your kids will be fighting over who gets the last dang pickle. And you'll be saying to yourself, Summer, I love you, but I'm kind of over you right now!

What?  I know they're cute!  They're also a tad ornery.  And they could quite possibly be one of the reasons why mama drinks a little...okay a lot a little... or a little a lot - either way works.