New Kinds of Pickles

Brian counted the other day, and we have about 90 quarts of homemade dill pickles or relish.  Seeing as how that is a TON of dill pickles, with more than one quart per week for a whole years I decided to branch out and see if there was anything else we might be able to make.

We're not huge fans of sweet pickles, but I decided to give a couple "sweetish" recipes a shot.  They turned out totally awesome!  The kids kept coming back to the kitchen for more and more samples.

The first recipe was the Watermelon Rind Pickles.  I remember having these as a kid, and they remind me so much of my mom, who was always telling us to save our watermelon rinds after eating them.  I used the watermelon rind from the first melon from the garden.  I made enough brine that I should be able to make several more pints.

The second recipe was a brand new one I found all on my own.  It was for Sweet and Spicy Zucchini Pickles, and let me tell you....they're going to be a hit this winter.  The girls couldn't get enough of the samples.  Hopefully, we'll get a couple more good zucchinis, since I have plenty of brine for more.  Our zucchini plants aren't doing that well lately, so who knows.  It seems the freezing cool summer we've had this year lends itself to vines developing some sort of mildew.