Giardiniera

I quite like giardiniera as a side dish. It's vegetables, but without the trouble of worrying about them going bad. Also it's got that nice vinegar tang to it. It goes particularly well atop rice alongside a bowl of ramen.

And it makes a lovely accompaniment to a home made pot pie.

But I've been growing dissatisfied with the store-bought stuff. The cauliflower comes in chunks that are way too huge, and they're surprisingly stingy on things like carrots, celery, and literally any herbs and spices whatsoever.

Thus, the only obvious solution. First up, the celery.

Carrots.

Bell Peppers.

Serrano chiles.

Cauliflower, properly chopped.

And sweet yellow onion. I would have preferred pearl onions, but those are hard to come by fresh.

Fill it up with water.

Add the appropriate minerals.

And we leave it overnight to do its thing.

The next day, we add some herbs and spices to the 12 pint jars.

You might be concerned to see that I have 8 quarts of veggies and only 12 pint jars to fill.

But apparently the imperial measure system is a bit peculiar, and it does in fact work out just fine.

Ok, sure. Next up we slice some garlic.

Simmer up some apple cider vinegar, water, and salt. (The recipe calls for white wine vinegar, but that's not readily available in bulk quantities)

And fill the jars with the pickling brine, the garlic, and a tablespoon each of olive oil.

Finally they go for a little swim.

In the hot tub.

The very, very hot tub.

Incidentally this is the first time I've owned a pot large enough to use on this burner.

Anyway, first batch comes out and chills.

And the second batch.

I did have a little bit of trouble with boil-over on the second batch, so we'll see how it turns out in the end. The lids seem to have sealed, so I'm hopeful that it'll be fine, though if one pops I can just toss it in the fridge and eat it before it spoils. I probably won't die of botulism.

Probably.