Pickled vegetables

It's quite possible I'm done canning for the season.   Now we just have to make room somewhere for all of those jars!  I'm going to check my records, but at last count we canned well over 100 jars this year.  That's a whole lot more than I've ever done, and I'm so thankful.

I may actually do some more green beans, but... so far we've just been trying to eat them fresh.  My favorite way to eat green beans is to saute them in butter and garlic with chopped pecans, with a slosh of balsamic vinegar.  Seriously YUMMY.

Now we've moved on to drying fruit.  Mark got some free apples and I was SO mightily done with canning applesauce that we decided to dry them instead.  So we've got lots of dried apples now.  Then someone gave him some prunes, so we're drying those, too- and bananas and blueberries and whatever else we find to throw in the dehydrator.  More prunes are coming from Mark's brother and my mom, so next we'll tackle some homemade fruit leather.  Free, healthy snacks for the kids, I figure! 

Last night I made this recipe for pickled vegetables.  We used carrots, green beans, and cucumbers from our garden, and threw in some peppers and red onions and garlic and the spices and vinegar.  It's in the fridge for snacking, but I have no idea how long that will last in the fridge, so if you know, do tell.  :)  They're very tasty, and it's a good way to eat fresh veggies-- and they look so pretty and colorful in the jar, don't they?   Even my non-veggie lover was eating them!

Pickled vegetables