And now we wait

I woke up bright and early at 7am to finish up my first batch.  After I drained the brine off the cucumbers, I set the vinegar/salt/sugar/water mixture on the stove to boil.  While I waited for that to happen I prepped the jars.  I'm making a spicy recipe this time, and it called for jalapenos.  I got some from the Culver City Farmers market and let me tell you what those things are hot.  You know how when you wake up first thing in the morning and your eyes are kind of dried out and sensitive.  Now imagine jalapeno fumes wafting into them.  It was brutal.  I started coughing and had to leave the kitchen!  So I decided to only use one jalapeno between the two jars instead of a whole jalapeno per jar.

I'm also using baby dill instead of pickling dill.  That was all they had at the store and I forgot to pick some up at the Farmer's Market.  I think it will be a little more delicate of a flavor, but should still be great.  I used a little more than the recipe called for, 4 heads instead of two to make up for the delicate nature of the Baby Dill.

I also decided to add onion to the mix.  I just love onion so I think they will taste good pickled and add great flavor to the pickles.  I used a giant red onion and cut them into long skinny slices.

Many recipes tell you to place a fresh grape leaf in the bottom of your jar.  It's supposed to assist with keeping the pickles crisp.  I could not find any fresh grape leaves, but I could find them brined in a jar.  I decided to try that and see how it goes.  Plus I think it looks nice on the bottom of the jar :)

The last two ingredients are Whole Mustard Seed and Whole Garlic Cloves.  I threw all that in the jars and then packed in as many cucumbers as I could in each one.  I placed the lids on and then got my pot ready to process the jars.

Processing is the step that makes sure everything is clean, and bacteria free.  I let them sit in the boiling water for 15 minutes.

Now they are ready to soak up all that salty, vinegary goodness.  I'm going to try a little experiment.  I'm putting one jar in the fridge for a week and leaving the other jar out for 3-4 weeks.  I want to see if the fridge speeds things up to the same result or if its better to just let them sit in a cool dark place (most likely my bedroom closet).

so here we go!  can't wait to see how they taste, what we need to change to make them taste better and how crispy/not crispy they are!

ack!  I can't wait!!!