Bread and butter pickles!

Todd is OBSESSED with condiments. That guy can go through a bottle of ketchup a meal! I swear! But bread and butter pickles are his one obsession that drives me nuts. Ketchup, okay fine, I just grab the bottle of Heinz in the grocery store and we're on our way. Mustard, better make it Plochmans. But pickles....on no, not just any store brand will do. Instead he HAS to have the $7 gourmet, small business canned pickles. Okay, fine, I'm all for supporting business, BUT, not when my husband goes through pickles like it's his job. $7 for pickles once a week is not economical. And guess where his new favorite pickles are from.....yeah Gatlinburg, TN....some 400+ miles from where we live! He'll seek out people going down there just so they can bring him back pickles! It's nuts!

SO, I set out to find him some I could make myself. I tried about 20 recipes before I came across this one. I tweaked it a bit based on the taste of the ones he gets, but who would have thought cooking them in the microwave was the key!

So first, chop up three large cucumbers.

Next chop up three large onions into thin slices about 1" in length. If you don't like these as well, you could probably cut it down to one, but he likes the onions on his sandwiches too!

Toss the cucumbers and onions in a bowl with 3 cups of sugar, 3 tsp salt, 1 tsp mustard seeds, 1 and a 1/2 cups distilled white vinegar, 1/2 tsp celery seed, and 1/2 tsp ground turmeric. I added just a dash of red chili peppers too, just for a little surprise kick!
Then give it a good stir and pop it in the microwave and cook until cucmbers are tender, sitrring every 2-3 minutes. For me this was about 15 minutes.

This is what the finished product will look ike. They will take a while to cool down, but they are delicious from the start, but the taste will get better with each day as well. I'm sure these would be great for canning I just personally haven't tried. We are keeping in the fridge until they are gone.....maybe a week or two.