Peter Piper Picked a Peck of. . .

You guessed it!  Pickled Peppers!  We have been loaded down with peppers this year.  Not only did Hubby plant a bunch in the back yard, as usual, but we have sweet friends and neighbors who have been sharing the bounty from their yards and gardens as well.  So many peppers we don't know what to do with them all.  Hubby has been making jars and jars of salsa from his hot peppers, and we've been freezing them for later batches too.  He eats salsa on just about everything but dessert!

When my sweet friend Susan brought me a whole box of banana peppers, I didn't know what in the world to do with them all.  She kept telling me some were sweet and some were hot, but I didn't know which was which.  I got a recipe for pickling them, and stood at the kitchen sink washing and slicing them for about two hours!  When I got done, my hands were on fire!  I never thought banana peppers could be that hot, but they sure were!  Next time I'll have to wear gloves.

Surprisingly, the recipe for pickling them was very easy.  You just take 2 cups of white vinegar, 2/3 cup of sugar, 1/2 teaspoon of mustard seeds and 1/2 teaspoon of celery seeds and put it all on the stove in a pot to boil.  You fill your sterilized jars with the pepper rings and fill the jars with the boiling vinegar mixture to within half an inch of the top of the jar, put the lids on tight and water bath them for about 15 minutes and Voila!  You're done!  I doubled the recipe and it made two pints, so altogether I made about six pint jars with a box of peppers.  After two weeks or so, they should be ready to enjoy.  We love them on hot dogs and sandwiches.  Yum!