A Peck of Pickled Peppers

I've done it!  I've canned my first thing ever!

I've had peach butter in a crock pot all day, but while I was making dinner tonight, I realized that it might be a good idea to pickle some of the bushel of anaheim peppers I picked up yesterday at the Sunset Valley Farmer's Market (specifically, from the Johnson's Backyard Gardens booth).

So, I chopped them up into rings and dropped them into jars I had just scrubbed super clean in hot, soapy water, along with a roughly chopped garlic clove.

I wound up chopping about ten good-sized anaheims, which filled three 12 oz jars.  Meanwhile, in a super-clean stainless steel pan, I brought two cups of white vinegar, two cups of water, a tablespoon of sea salt (I didn't have canning salt), a tablespoon of black peppercorns, a tablespoon of coriander, and a teaspoon of sugar.

I let the smelly vinegar mixture get to a nice rolling boil, and let it chill there for a few minutes while I made sure to wipe down the tops of the jars, lids and rings.  I filled the jars with the brine/vinegar fluid, popped the lids on, and put on the rings, then put them into a big stock pot with water halfway up the sides of the jars, which (for some reason) I was remembering was the way to do it.  I've just double-checked a few instructional sites and determined that I'll probably need to re-process them with the water OVER the jars, but I'll let them cool the rest of the way to see if any of them actually seal.

A couple of things with the process:  A lot of places were instructing to get some special tongs to get the cans out.  I used regular tongs and grabbed the cans as they were coming out with a folded up dish towel.

My hubby has already gotten nostalgic a couple of times; first mentioning that his grandmother always used a pressure canner, and that they'd be shooed out of the house from the overwhelming smell of vinegar and the fear that the pressure canner might explode at any moment.

At any rate, I figure the peach butter will be done later tonight and I'll process those properly.  Meanwhile, I'll keep my ears pealed for the ping of the pickled pepper seal.