pickles, peppers, pickled peppers?

Yesterday we did our first canning projects. I made bread & butter pickles (yum) and Corey made pickled hot peppers (yuck). We are very proud of ourselves. :-) We had decided to start canning and preserving so that we could make the most of our CSA shares. Some weeks we get a ton of one thing. Our options are to eat it all in one week (can make you sick of something), can or preserve it for later, share it with others, or let it go to waste. We have shared with others and really wanted to do some canning and preserving. Here are pictures of my bread & butter pickles at the start & then after canning.

I got 4 pints of bread & butter pickles and Corey got 2 pints of pickled peppers. We are happy with the results so far. Next we will buy a pressure canner so we can do low-acid foods. You can only do high-acid stuff in the hot water bath method.

If you have a favorite recipe for canning or preserving we'd love to hear it.