Sweet & Spicy Pickles

Once upon a time, there was a dill pickle. The dill pickle was always comfortable being a dill, but had aspirations to be more than just a condiment on top of grilled burger.

It had dreams of topping egg salad.

And in a perfect world, just being eaten straight out of the jar.

A couple of years ago, my in-laws decided to pull us out of our dill pickle comfort zone. Initially, I declined to try one of their newly discovered pickles, but after hearing the "ooohs and ahhhs" of my Mister, I relented.

Since then, not a day has gone by that we've been without having these dill pickle converts in our fridge.

This is by far the easiest "canning" recipe I have ever used. It requires no canning and uses dill pickles that can be picked up at Walmart for just a couple of dollars. Within 3 days, what once was dill is now sweet & spicy.

It's magic.

~Sweet & Spicy Pickles~

I had these on hand, but prefer the Vlasic from Walmart.

~The Players~

1/2 gallon kosher dill pickles

1 cup apple cider vinegar

1/2-1 cup sliced, canned jalapenos

4 cups organic sugar

1/2 gallon jar with a tight-fitting lid

Drain the dill pickles in a colander for about 2 hours.

Cut pickles into 1/4" slices.  Put into a half-gallon jar.

Shake the jar to help settle the pickle chips. In order, add jalapenos, sugar, then the vinegar. You may need to add the sugar slowly and allow it time to fall down into the jar. I used a butter knife to create little "canals" for the sugar to drop into. Do not add the vinegar until all of the sugar is in the jar though.

After the vinegar is added, cover top of jar with plastic wrap before screwing the lid down tight.

Turn the jar upside down and set in a pie plate. (Just in case the jar leaks!)

Flip the jar 2-3 times a day for 3 days. The sugar will dissolve and you will be left with a sweet pickle that has a little "kick" to it.

Now if you'll excuse me, I've got some egg salad to make!

Enjoy!