Refrigerator Pickles

My Dad is known all around town as “The Pickle Man”…  He makes a variety of pickles… Some sour, some sweet, some spicy.  Dill pickles, Open Jar Mustard Pickles, Refrigerator pickles…  It is not abnormal to find a little wandering child in my Dad’s garage searching for pickles.  Last weekend the little grand kids from next door were “missing” only to be found double fisting it with pickles… They are 20 months and 3 years old, it was a riot.  I wish I had snapped a photo… The three year old had her pickle for what seemed like hours, she was even swimming with it, so funny!

This week the boys and I went down for an afternoon and Sutton asked to make pickles… We thought it might be fun if they could be part of the entire process so we had them pick the cucumbers, dig up the  onions and carefully select the peppers (G and the boys selected yellow).

After all the picking and digging was done,  I cut up all three veggies…  I’ve had these pickles with the skin on and with the skin off, it really just depends on how much time and effort you want to put into them…  The peppers and onions taste great too, so we leave them a little bigger incase anyone wants a taste!

Then we layer the cucumbers, onions and peppers in a jar and repeat until the jar is full.  It’s pickle lasagna!  Once everything was layered in the jar we mixed up the liquid and spices.  We poured it over the top and popped it in the fridge for 14 days (boys are counting down).  These pickles do not have to be canned or anything… Just refrigerated!  They are yummy!

I really think that life is like a jar of pickles…. Sometimes it’s sweet, sometimes it’s sour and sometimes it’s a little bit SPICY…

LARRY’s Refrigerator Pickle Brine

4 cups sugar

1/4 cup salt

1 1/3 tsp. mustard seed

4 cups white vinegar

1 1/2 tsp celery seed

Cook until dissolved…  Pour over the top of your pickle lasagna……

P.S.  We used about 5 medium cucumbers and a one gallon jar.  If you do not have a gallon jug then just layer the pickles in a tupperware or even a couple tupperware dishes and pour enough brine over to cover the layers.   The brine was the perfect amount, you want it to cover all of your veggies!