Bread and Butter Pickles: Perfect for Patio Suppers

I had a revelation the other day – pickles (at least these particular Bread and Butter Pickles) are so easy to make. For very little cost and very little effort I can have fresh, homemade pickles in the fridge all the time. These little pickles are quite addictive; delicious for snacking all on their own or as a garnish for sandwiches or burgers. My kids are gobbling them up and we’ve just about gone through the quart jar I made yesterday. Wait what, just yesterday? Wow.

I used the RecipeGirl’s recipe for Bread and Butter Pickles and I followed it pretty much exactly except for using regular yellow onion instead of sweet onion (I like the deeper ‘oniony’ flavor of regular onions – unless they’re for eating raw the sweets taste sort of insipid to me). I also don’t happen to have a fluted cucumber slicer on hand, but I had a mini inspiration and used the fluted straight edge of a heart-shaped cookie cutter to cut the cucumbers into ridged slices. The recipe is quick to make – the active time was less than 20  minutes and otherwise it’s just marination time (RecipeGirl’s recipe says to let the pickles marinate for 24 hours before eating them, but I think they were done well before that).

Since the jar is almost done, I’m planning to make more tomorrow and to just keep them on hand throughout the spring and summer. I’d also like to get in the habit of keeping a jar of Salsa Criolla in the fridge too since it goes so well with all the grilled meats, burgers and fish we eat in the summertime.