homemade pickles!

I bought a book about canning a few weeks back and have been excited to make something ever since. Since I really love pickles, I thought they would be the first place to start. As I was thinking about pickles, I realized I wanted to make my favorite kind, Claussen. They are the best. They are so crunchy and delicious and I decided that I wanted to try to make that type of pickle. I found this recipe and followed it. I adapted the dill amount slightly, because while I love dill pickles (which is the only good kind of pickle, don't even with that butter pickle shit) I am not a huge fan of dill itself.

Ingredients:
1 gallon Kirby cucumbers (they are shorter and a lighter green than most of the regular cucumbers)
1/3 cup instant minced onion
6 garlic cloves, minced
1/2 tablespoon mustard seeds
3 heads fresh dill
1.5 quarts water
2 cups apple cider vinegar
1/2 cup salt 

Directions:
1. Slice cucumbers lengthwise (or quarter, I went with a mixture of both); add to sterilized jars along with the dill
2. Boil liquids and seasonings to dissolve salt. Let cool
3. Pour into jar and let sit on counter for three days, shaking/turning occasionally.
4. Refrigerate and enjoy

All the ingredients. Except the larabars and bananas...

Dill + cucumbers

Boiling the ingredients

Pickles!

I brought in a pickle along with my lunch today because they were finally ready-I refrigerated them overnight. The pickle was delicious, but a little bit salty. Next time I make it I will cut out some of the salt (maybe a little over 1/4 cup) and they will be perfect. But they are definitely edible and delicious and I can't wait to put them on a sandwich!

Also, I realize that I didn't make a gallon of pickles as the recipe says. I just didn't want to try and cut ingredients into weird numbers, so I just made a batch and dumped out the rest of the liquid that I didn't use (I skimmed the good parts like garlic and onion off the top and put it into the jar). I was really surprised how well they turned out though. Since this was my first pickling experience I was kind of nervous, but they were crunchy and really good!