Bread and butter pickles

Yesterday: beautiful, tender organic cucumbers, the first of the season. The older gentleman with whom I cleared out most of the basket said that Anselmo’s are the best, sweetest cukes in the whole market.

This morning: cucumbers chopped with red bell peppers and onions, before going into a light brine for the day. I’d never had cucumbers for breakfast before, but these were too crisp and lovely to resist.

Tonight: my first adventure in pickling. (Making pickles is so much simpler and less time consuming than making preserves! Why didn’t I do this before?) The first pickles that I remember are my grandmother’s wonderful bread and butter pickles. I found a recipe for these in one of my favorite canning books, but I know they’re different from my grandmother’s as hers didn’t have red pepper. For the next batch, I’ll see about getting her recipe. Perhaps I’ll be able to make pickles that taste as good as hers.