Pickled Green Beans

After moving from "town" about a year and a half ago, we had a nice garden that season. My pole beans were producing very well, so I had an abundance of them. I started looking around for different things to do with green beans, and I came across a recipe for pickled green beans. I can't take the credit for the recipe's origin, but I did change it a little to make it my own.

The basic recipe is:

2 1/2 cups vinegar

2 1/2 cups water

4 tsp salt

4 garlic cloves

2 pounds of clean green beans whole

4 clean pint size canning jars, seals and rings

Add the vinegar and water to saucepan and bring to a boil. Set it aside. Stem and clean the green beans and pack them into the sterilized jars. Add the 1 tsp of salt and 1 garlic clove to each jar, then fill the jar with the hot liquid ( to withing 1/2 in from the top). This is the basic recipe.

But to make the flavors different I experimented with different spices.

For example add to the jar before the hot liquid:

- one jalepeno pepper (scored)

or

- 1 tsp Bloody Mary spice mix

or

- 1 tsp 21 Seasoning Salute from Trader Joe's

or

- 2 more garlic cloves

You can use any combinations. Everything that I have tried so far has been really good. I put these in my cocktails, adds a little zing as a salad topper, or just plain right out of the jar.......mmmmm mmmmmm good!!

Use the canning method you prefer. I have tried pressure, water bath, and hot method, and they have all been fine. My favorite for this though was the water bath. The beans stayed a little crispier than the pressure method.