Pickling!

 I've always wanted to learn how to pickle. I'm particularly fond of Dill Pickles, but have been shying away from buying them at the grocery store lately, because simply, they can be expensive, and I don't know what I'm eating. I've not taken the initiative until now to learn how to pickle, because I thought the process was arduous and lengthy. But boy oh boy was I wrong! It's dead easy! And now that I know that the ingredients going into my pickles are organic, and free of harsh preservatives (not to mention I'm saving some moola too), I can go back to good ol' pickle heaven.
Now that I know how to do it, I'm going to be trying all sorts of pickle combinations. But until then, here is how you make good ol' fashioned dill pickles. Also, below you will find an excellent recipe for pickled beets as well :) Happy Pickling!

Yummy Pickled Beets!

Scrub your beets well, and cook whole, in salted boiling water until a fork easily penetrates them.
Plunge cooked beets into ice water; slip skins off of beets and cut away any rough parts. Slice your beets :)

In a large saucepan combine and bring to a boil, the following:
2 cups beet cooking water
2 cups vinegar 
4 cups organic cane sugar 
1 whole lemon, thinly sliced
4 tsp pumpkin pie spice
2 cinnamon sticks (optional)

Fill your sanitized jars with your beet slices. Ladle the canning liquid into the jars. Pop the tops onto your jars and submerge into your canner for a couple of min. Remove jars from the canner, do a quick release of the air (as seen in the above video) and place your finished jars on a rack to cool! :)