Pickle, pickle. Who's got the pickle?

I think I might be coming down with this whole canning bug. Ali and I recently went to a canning class hosted by one of our Instafriends. You know, where your friends with someone online but have yet to meet IRL. Infact, here is Valarie giving us the low down on the process of canning. She covered her personal history with canning, necessary adjustments for our altitude, and the danger of botulism.

 

 

We were really impressed with how prepared for this class Val was. I mean, just look at this spread. Whoosits and whatsits galore!

 

 

After lesson on the basics of canning we transitioned into the more exciting hands on part of the day, actually canning food! We broke into different groups to make the tasks go a little quicker like chopping veggies, cleaning jars, and mixing up pickling spices. These jars have pickling spices in them and are waiting for some cucumbers.

 

 

These green beans are waiting to be turned into delicious Dilly Beans! They're actually my first pickled item that I've eaten and enjoyed. In fact, I just finished my jar this weekend and now I need to make some more, ASAP!

 

 

When Matt heard that I was going to a pickling class he insisted that I pickle him some peppers. I asked Val what kind of peppers would be good and said she had a good recipie for pickled jalapeños. I was really glad that Val had some gloves, because I forgot to bring some and didn't want to burn my fingers off. Because, you know....hot!

 

 

Once you get your spices and veggies in their respective cans its time to ladle in the hot vinegar mixture.

 

 

Once the cans were filled and the tops lightly screwed on they go into a big old pot of boiling water to process for a very specific amount of time. The time is dictated by the recipie and we added 5 minutes to compensate for our elevation. This was the perfect opportunity to break out these adorable grapefruit mojitos that I had brought along. I got the recipe here and paired that with all the cocktails-in-mason-jars idea I see all over Pinterest! Adorbs.

 

 

Here's the results of our pickled adventure. I really wish I had taken an extra jar of dilly beans.

 

 

I think Ali and I are going to spend a day pickling in the near future and I'm pretty sure we'll be making those dilly beans. We also started a new Pinterest board for other recipies we want to try out soon, you can follow it here. Or if you have any interesting pickling recipies, tag me on your pin or leave a comment below so I can check it out!

 

Nikki Kelly