Veggie pickles with a chance of Strawberry drizzle

My day began with me having some great ideals and  trying to do to much (as usual). I had 4 lbs total of strawberries I needed to prepare for a small jam batch. I am going about my business of jam making AND  multi-tasking because I am also in the process of making a HUGE batch of  Spicy Sweet Garden vegetable pickles.It turns out the batch is so large I don't have enough containers OR room in my fridge so I am brining all the veggies in one of the coolers (DOH!). The Ziploc bags of frozen ice seem doing a pretty good job of submersing the veggies.

I brined  the vegetables over night in  the cooler--which worked great!  And my cooler has a little drain plug so it was easy to drain the brine.  I had to divide the veggies into 2 batches because I don't have a stockpot big enough to do them all at once.

I used the recipe from the 2012 Ball Blue Book (page 50)--with a few modifications

1 1/4 lbs cucumbers (1 inch slices)

2 cups carrots (1 1/2 inch slices)

2 cups celery (1 1/2 inch slices)

2 cups pearl onions I used 2 vidalias (1 inch chunks)

2 sweet red peppers I used orange peppers (1/2 inch strips)

3 cups cauliflower

2 hot red peppers, seeded (1/2 inch sliced rings)

Add brine  to vegetables  (4quarts of  water + 1 cup canning salt, dissolved) . Brine 12 hours

Drain and rinse well.

Make the syrup

6 1/2 cups vinegar (I used cider vinegar)

2 cups sugar (I used 1 c white + 1 c brown)

1/4 cup Mustard seed

2 tablespoons celery seed
I added 2 tablespoons garlic powder, 1/2 teaspoon turmeric and 1 teaspoon cayenne powder.

Add to non-reactive pot (no aluminum, Teflon or cast iron) Use stainless steel or enamel coated cookware. Bring to a boil for 3 minutes. Add vegetables and bring to a simmer for 5 minutes.

Look a the color developing...mmmm

Hot pack into jars (1/2 inch head space)

add 1/8 teaspoon Ball pickle crisp to each pint jar

Remove air bubbles

Wipe rims, add seal/ ring and water bath process for 15 minutes in water bath canner.

  

I ran out of counter space and had to improvise by using the cooler top as additional work space

Proofing the jars in the oven

 Looks good!

The recipe said it would make 6 pints. I ended up with 8 from the first batch. I water bathed 7 and stuck the partial in the fridge without processing. It is my "taste" jar, haha

Now for the strawberry drizzle. It was actually supposed to be pectin free jam. But I apparently didn't meet the gelling point. So it  then became known as Strawberry Drizzle (Thicker than a syrup but not jam consistency). I could have reprocessed and added pectin but I chose to accept it as is.

 The lesson being not everything  is perfect. And just because something is imperfect doesn't mean it  should be discarded. The drizzle will be great for pancakes, shortcakes and ice cream.  Maybe it can be used to make a strawberry vinaigrette dressing. 

Or used in a Strawberry Cassatta. 

Whatever  it is still delicious! And it better be because I have 8 half pints of it. That's a lot of ice cream, haha