"Homemade" Pickles

I really like pickles. Especially garlic pickles...you know the refrigerated kind? They're a great snack when you need something salty. Instead of grabbing some crackers or chips, eating a pickle is a tasty way to eat a vegetable instead.

I think I was reading a Martha Stewart magazine when I found a recipe in there for homemade pickles. I was so excited because I had a bunch of cucumbers in my garden I didn't know what to do with. So I harvested some cucumbers and made them. They were OK. Here's a link to the recipe:

http://www.marthastewart.com/recipe/fast-homemade-pickles

Then I had an idea for a faster and better way to make pickles.

Step 1: Buy a jar of refrigerated garlic pickles like this one:

Step 2: Eat all of them. Save the jar with the leftover brine in the fridge.

Step 3: Buy some cucumbers, cut them into spears.

Step 4: Put them in a bowl and sprinkle them with rock salt. Let sit for about 20 minutes (the salt draws out a lot of the water in the pickles).

Step 5: Rinse all the saltiness off with water, let the spears drain on a paper towel.

Step 6: Put cucumber spears in your jar of brine you had from before. Marinate in fridge for 24 hours.

Voila! Pickles. And you just cut your cost by more than half.