Homemade Spicy Pickles

 

 I don't really know a girl who doesn't love Pinterest, but we all know that often there are so many things we would like to try it's overwhelming. Too many options and ideas sometimes makes it challenging to just commit to one project and just go with it. So, I've decided to try and force myself to do at least one project per week. Try is the key word here, and I'm hoping that as long as school and work aren't too busy I can manage this summer. I've not explored a lot of things in the world of food and cooking, so I'm definitely going to explore that arena. My artistic area is mainly visual, so those projects and ideas come naturally to me, but food is just a foreign medium.  I've got several friends that are amazing cooks too, so I've always been a little intimidated, but here goes! For one of my first foodie projects I decided to try and make pickles. I LOVE spicy food so I went with a spicy pickle Pinterest recipe, but made a few small changes. Here's a link to the original recipe Homemade Spicy Dill Pickles. The only changes I made is I added some lemon and used a lot hotter spices!

First I added all of the spices and vinegar to a sauce pan and boiled for 2 minutes. Then I let it cool to room temp before adding to the pickles. This process was as easy as making spaghetti and I'm hoping to continue to play with the recipe.The pickle cucumbers I purchased had two large and two small sizes, so I decided to use the small ones for my first attempt. I also already had two small jars at home, so I was able to reuse them for the pickles. The larger pickles will require a bigger jar and hopefully my second attempt will turn out even better!

After letting them sit for a day I decided to test them out at a Kansas City Royal's game! Go KC! They lost to Boston, but our tailgate burgers, veggies, and pickles were a hit. Definitely making these again, they were crunchy and tasty!

There are so many different recipes and approaches to making pickles or even pickling fruit and other vegetables. Additionally I hope to try several different flavors including a family recipe that my mother will be providing! That recipe is for sweet pickles, so the flavoring will be very different.  Should be fun and easy to add homemade pickles to my summer BBQ's and picnics, or even as a housewarming gift. Cheers!