Gentle reader, it’s amazing how much better I’ve felt this past week without a giant kidney stone or a long drain tube stuck inside of me.

I have a whole new lease on life.  I even made dinner every single night this week.  (I haven’t managed that feat since early December.)

It’s amazing to me how satisfying slicing vegetables or simmering soup can be.

Maybe that’s why I had to be out of commission for so long- so I can better appreciate the ordinary chores that felt so drudge-like a few weeks ago.

Or maybe the kidney stone god just hates me.

This week I tried a new side dish that I’ve had my eye on:  Pickled Pepper Salad.  It is a slightly tangy, mildly tart combination of bell peppers, cucumbers, and onions.  Pretty much it’s heaven in vinegar form.

This salad can live in your fridge for up to a month.  So I made a large 4 quart batch (because if I’m going to chop of a million vegetables, I’m just going to do it once.)

Ingredients

1 long hothouse/English cucumber, seeded and julienned into thin strips

1 large red onion, peeled and cut into thin slices

5-6 yellow, orange, and red bell peppers.  Again julienned into thin strips.

10 cloves of thinly sliced garlic

3 cups of white vinegar

1 1/4 cup sugar

4 tablespoons salt

2 cups of water

3 cups of ice

1/2 cup of whole mustard seeds

First, combine the sliced vegetables in a large bowl.  Next, pour the vinegar, sugar, salt, water, and mustard seeds into a pot.  Bring to a boil and then stir to dissolve the sugar (it takes about one minute.)  Remove the pot from the stove and add the 3 cups of ice to quickly cool the vinegar mixture.  After the ice has melted, pour the whole shebang over the sliced veggies.  Cover and chill in the fridge.

The original recipe calls for waiting three days before eating, but we didn’t quite make it that long (burp.)  But it was delicious, even before the three days had passed.

Best of all, because I made a huge batch I now have enough to use again as a dinner side next week or I can just munch on it during lunch for the next five days.

I’m a winner either way.

Happy pickling gentle reader.