Ten Minute Pickles

How is your garden doing this summer? Mine is doing okay, although I've figured out a few things I'll change next year. My new drip irrigation system is working well. I have a lot fewer weeds! I just need to put in a couple more tees at the beginning, because the plants at the end of the drip irrigation aren't getting enough water. Before I went on a long weekend trip and my cucumber plant sort of dried up (oops!), I harvested some cucumbers. I had specifically planted cucumbers because I wanted to make pickles.

I have to admit that when I moved out to the desert, I had never made pickles before. For some reason, I thought that when you made pickles, cucumbers shrunk into pickles. I didn't realize that pickles were just made out of small cucumbers. Ay, ay, ay. Live and learn!

Oh well, fast forward to today, when I actually understand that the cucumbers won't shrink when I pickle them. I picked three cucumbers about six inches long and found a recipe for quick pickles. I didn't want to bother with canning them, as that is a rather hot and long process. Fortunately, quite a few ten minute refrigerator pickle recipes exist. The basic process is to heat some vinegar, sugar, and spices in a saucepan, pour them over your cut cucumbers, and put them in the refrigerator. That's easy enough! Here's a great recipe from Rachel Ray. If you have another recipe you like to use, please leave a comment!