Refrigerator Pickled Banana Peppers

Some of our friends recently moved into a house with a small garden.  It's currently overflowing with tomatoes, jalapenos, banana peppers, basil, cantaloupe, and some really randomly huge cucumbers (we're still not sure if they're SUPPOSED to be that big or if they just sat on the vine too long without being picked).  

We GENEROUSLY volunteered to help them get rid of some of the peppers (because we're good friends like that).  First, I used a modified version of my Garlic Dill Pickle recipe to make a small jar of pickled jalapenos (left out the dill, but the rest of the recipe is the same).  I also made some pepper jelly (we'll discuss that next time--it's a whole adventure worthy of it's own post), and then diced & froze the rest of the jalapenos for future cooking.

The banana peppers we decided to pickle as well--but The Hubs requested a "no frills, just basic" pickling recipe for those.  So we kept it super simple.  Also, I LOVE that the peppers started to turn colors a bit before I had a chance to slice & pickle them---these colors are so beautiful & just SCREAM early fall!!!

We had about half a pound of peppers and it made about one quart-size jar.

INGREDIENTS: (makes 1 quart jar)
1/2 lb of sweet banana peppers, sliced
1.5 cups white vinegar
1 cup water
1 Tbsp salt (kosher if you have it--if not the pickling liquid can get a little cloudy)
1/2 Tbsp sugar
1 clove garlic, minced (if you have pre-minced jarred garlic, rinse the oil off first)
1/4 tsp citric acid (helps keep the pickles crisp)

DIRECTIONS:
Sterilize your jar(s) and lid(s)--we use EasyClean just because we have it & it's quicker than doing hot sterilization.
Once clean & dried, add the sliced peppers, garlic & citric acid to the jar.
In a small pot, heat the vinegar, water, salt and sugar just until the solids are fully dissolved--you don't need to boil it.  Then let the liquid cool to room temp.
Pour the pickling liquid over the pickles--it should come up to about 1/4-1/2 inch from the rim of the jar.  Add the lid and shake to distribute the garlic & citric acid.  Then place in your fridge!  

Let them brine for at least 24 hours before eating, but the longer they sit in the fridge, the better they'll taste!