Pickles

Well, this is definitely a first for me.

Tonight I made pickles!

This curiosity started a few weeks back when I met a friend at Foxy Falafel for lunch (a very good idea, by the way) and she ordered a pickle plate featuring several types of pickled vegetables to share. They were great, and she said that she makes pickles all the time and that the process is a simple one. I was intrigued and thought that that I, too, might like to try making pickles.

Then I saw a recipe for quick pickles in the lovely summer food extravaganza section of June's Martha Stewart Living. It's one of those nice recipes for which you likely already have nearly everything on hand (vinegar's the star for this one, besides the vegetables of your choice). And truly, it could not be easier. I think this will come as no surprise if you've made pickles before: you combine a handful of ingredients and then let everything sit for an hour.

I actually let the batch go a little longer than an hour because I went for a bike ride and forgot about it. I came home and wondered on earth these pickles would taste like.

And? It turned out I liked them quite a lot, more than I expected. I'll be trying this recipe again this summer, with different vegetables (and more cucumber batches, too). This was a fun little weeknight discovery.