Peppers and onions and cucumbers - oh my!

I'm still getting loads of peppers from the garden.  Besides the ones I've used for recipes, I've frozen more than 20 bell peppers.  A storm came through and knocked a couple of the plants over, so I put stakes in the garden to prop them up.  They don't seem any worse for the wear!

Pepper plant with over 10 peppers in various stages of growth!

In the last post I shared my method of freezing the peppers, so today I wanted to share my grandmother's pickle recipe.  It is a simple recipe that results in delicious sweet pickles!
Start by gathering green peppers, onions, and cucumbers.  It typically calls for white onions, but this summer I had red ones coming in so I tried it with them.

Peppers, onions, and cucumbers

Slice up the cucumbers in VERY thin slices (about 4-6 cups).  Also slice the peppers and onions in thin strips (about a cup each).  Put them all in a bowl and sprinkle with a tablespoon of salt.  Stir it up so that the salt gets spread throughout and then cover and place in the refrigerator for 2 hours.  The salt will pull the extra water out of the vegetables.

My sliced mixture

After 2 hours, pull it out of the fridge and drain all the water off.  Separate the vegetables into jars and leave a little space at the top.  In a separate bowl, mix 1 cup of white vinegar and 1 and 1/4 cups of white sugar.  Add 1/4 teaspoon of celery seed and stir until the sugar is dissolved.  Pour this mixture in the jars, covering the vegetables completely.  Add a bit more of the mixture if you need to so that the jars are full.  Screw the lids on tight and store in the refrigerator.  The recipe says that they will last up to 2 months in the fridge, but I have kept the jars of pickles much longer than that if I don't open them.  I found that the red onions dyed the cucumbers pinky/purple, but the flavor is still great.  Using this recipe, you can enjoy your vegetables throughout the winter!



Completed refrigerator pickles!