Pickles!

My husband decided we should try our hand at pickling this year and I immediately jumped on board.  I bought green beans, cucumbers, garlic, and onions from a farmers market and we got to work.  I looked up a bunch of recipes on Pinterest for inspiration and we kind of ended up just doing our own thing.

Green Beans
Ingredients:
apple cider vinegar
water
kosher salt
green beans
onion
garlic
mustard seed
red pepper flakes
dill sprigs

To make the brine, you boil water, vinegar, and salt and then let it cool off until it's just warm.  Cut all the ingredients and layer in a tupperware or jar.  When the brine has cooled off, pour over the ingredients and chill in the fridge for at least 5 days before eating.  The amounts of the ingredients isn't really a perfect science, but the water to vinegar ratio is 1:1.  Make sure the brine fully covers the ingredients.

Pickles
Ingredients:
white vinegar
water
kosher salt
cucumbers cut into chips or spears
onion
garlic
dill sprigs

Making pickles is basically the same as the green bean process described above.  Only difference is that the water to vinegar ratio is 4:1.

Alright, fast-forward 5 days.   Well, 3 days.  I snuck a pickle because I was so excited.  Good thing I did; they were waaaaaaaay too salty.  I decided to drain the brine and start over.  I used the same proportions of vinegar and water for both the green beans and pickles but just didn't add any salt this time.  So that brings us to today - day 5.  Can I just tell you that they are amazing.  And homemade.  And healthy.  And they'll be gone in less than 5 days :).

My husband paid me the compliment that my cooking has improved by leaps and bounds from when he met me 11 years ago.  Basically every time I make any kind of food and it turns out edible, I am happy.  But when it's legit delicious, my happy train can run on that steam for days.