Friday Faves – White Room Colorful Life makes Pickled Banana Peppers
Happy Friday everybody! For today’s Friday Favs, I bring you one of my favorite people in the whole world. Steph and I knew each other long before either one of us had blogs, college degrees, or husbands. We met in freshmen year in college and became great friends. She was the matron of honor in my wedding and even though we live almost a thousand miles apart now, we always make a point to visit each other every year (we’re vacationing to Niagara Falls together this fall). Steph is one of the most creative people I’ve ever met. She’s the kind of person who just oozes creativity. She blogs about some food, crafts, and photography over at White House Colorful Life.
Hey there! I may be a little out of my blogging league here, but Jen is one of my closest friends, and that may have had something to do with being honored as a Friday Fav. I’m flattered either way!
My blog is pretty random… it started as a place to share photography stuff with friends. These days, it’s a place where I keep all the different photography and other projects I’ve been working on. I do bake from time to time, but it’s nothing I’d want to display next to all the beautiful sweets here. So, I’m just going to talk about what I’ve been doing of late…pickling.
About two years ago, my husband and I bought a house with a yard big enough for the garden of his dreams. Our yearly abundance of produce pushed me into the world of canning. I bought a canner, was given a book and got busy. I canned tomato sauce, green beans, corn, salsa, and pickles last year.
One of the biggest things learned in this process is you don’t need a canner, or even canning jars for that matter, to make “Refrigerator Pickles”. AND refrigerator pickles turn out much crisper than pickles done the long way with a canner.
That brings me to this year. Due to the incredibly dry hot summer here in the midwest, the cucumbers were far from a bumper crop this year. Banana and jalapeno peppers on the other hand didn’t seem to mind the heat. So pickled peppers it is!
Now, I should preface this recipe with a few things:
1. This recipe is modified from the Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving. I highly recommend this book!
2. All you need is a saucepan and some clean jars, like all those old store bought salsa jars that your husband just can’t get rid of because you may need them someday…
3. Many vegetables other than the usual cucumbers can be pickled. The book lists carrots, green beans, and even onions.
4. These peppers are really tasty on tortilla chips with melted cheddar cheese, if you are so inclined.
Pickled Banana Peppers
Ingredients:
Fresh Vegetables, cleaned, trimmed and sliced (I used about 8 cups of sliced banana peppers and left the seeds mixed in with the slices.)
4 cups White Vinegar
1 1/3 cups Granulated Sugar
2 Tbsp Mustard Seeds
1 Tbsp Celery Seeds
1 Tbsp Pickle Crisp (You can find this in the canning sections at the grocery.)
Directions:
Clean Jars (For reference, the 8 cups of peppers I used filled two applesauce jars with some left over.)
Place cleaned and sliced vegetables in a large mixing bowl.
In a saucepan, combine vinegar, sugar, spices and pickle crisp. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat.
Reduce heat and boil gently for 3 minutes.
Pour pickling liquid over vegetables. Cover with wax paper and let stand until cooled to room temperature, about 30 minutes.
Pack vegetables into jars leaving 1/2" of space at the top. Ladle pickling liquid into jars until vegetables are covered. Apply lids and place in the refrigerator for at least 2 weeks and use within 3 months.
I am Jen the Beantown Baker. Engineer by day and baking maven by night. Hubby serves as my #1 fan and official taste tester. We got hitched back in 2006. Barefoot. In the sand. With the waves crashing behind us. It was one of the best decisions we’ve ever made. 
I’m not a huge mushroom fan, but the cranberry risotto sounds absolutely fantastic! Thanks for the idea, Katie :).
What a great recipe Katie!
I am in awe of your description of mushrooms. that recipe is awesome and so is the idea to cook them in butter and red wine! if non mushroom lovers are not converted after this post, there is no help for them!!
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I am a huge mushroom lover. This recipe sounds wonderful!
I am a HUGE fan of mushrooms, I put them in everything! This will probably be dinner tonight!
I’m definitely with you in the first camp, though I will tell you – I’ve converted the boyfriend into a semi-mushroom lover, so maybe there is a person who lies a bit in between after all! This looks heavenly.
I am definitely not a mushroom lover but this recipe looks amazing!
Katie can make these for me anytime! Great recipe and great guest post!
OMG this combines so many of my favorite things into one dish! I’ve already added it to next week’s menu. Thanks so much for introducing me to a fun new blog!
I’m on the verge of being a mushroom lover – when raw the texture creeps me out but I’ve discovered I love the flavor and like them when cooked. I would love to eat this dish!
It is bad that I thought the sneak peak picture looked like mashed potatoes? That can only mean the risotto must be extra creamy!
It is bad that I thought the sneak peak picture looked like mashed potatoes? I think that just means this risotto must be extra creamy!
Thanks Jen for including me in your Friday Faves and for saying such nice things about my writing! This dish was fun to make and was really good on a cold winter night. Thanks all for the comments! Even those from the mushroom haters 🙂
Aren’t portobello mushrooms the best? So many different things you can do with them!
What more Can I say, a combination of my favorite ingredients… Mushroom and risotto! It’s nice to see a lot of mushroom recipe’s this past few days.
What a creative recipe, I love it! Definitely the perfect way to kick off your cool Friday Favs feature 🙂