Pickling Day

At long last, today was the day.  Pickle making day.  

I found the recipe I'd used year before last and got to work.  Quite frankly, I don't know why I was so nervous about it, but I was shaking the whole time.  I guess I have an unreasonable expectation that the jars will explode when I put the hot brine into them.  It's never happened before, but still...And yes, I do warm the jars in hot water before adding the stuff to them.  

The spices vary from recipe to recipe, so there is some wiggle room there, but I use celery seed, mustard seed, peppercorns, and turmeric.  There were three jars that I cut up some cayenne and put those in there, too, just for a little added kick.  There isn't much kick to sweet banana peppers anyway, especially since I let them ripen a little more than normal. 

The only hitch -- well one of the only hitches -- was that I didn't have quite enough brine for the eighth jar, so I put in what I could and just made refrigerator pickles out of that jar.  The other hitch was that like a dummy, I forgot to wipe the rims before I put the lids on.  I didn't remember until they were already out of the water bath and cooling on the counter.  

Only two of them didn't ping, so I'll just put them into the refrigerator and give them to Cody and Brennan when they come through at the end of the month.  They'll eat them up before they go bad.

The second batch went much more smoothly, and after 12 jars of pickled banana peppers,  

I still have this many peppers left. 

I might take some to work and see if anyone there wants some.  Now comes the hard part -- cleaning up the kitchen.  

And finally, Dear USPS, 

This is why you're broke.  My package should have come from Ohio straight to Jackson, but no...

you had to send it on a sightseeing trip all the way to North Carolina, then to Memphis, then finally to Jackson.  

Stamps are nearly a dollar apiece because you want to send packages on vacation.  

Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to go get that kitchen cleaned up so I can enjoy the rest of my day of rest. 

Oh!  I keep forgetting!  All of my snakes had a birthday this month.  Since Onyx is the only one I have an actual hatch date -- July 24, 2004 -- I've given them all a defacto July 1 birthday.  Onyx, Sunset, and Slider are 22, and Blaze is 21.  

Happy birthday, my slithery friends.