More pickles

Today we decided to do some canning of pickles, instead of refrigerator pickles like we did earlier this week.  We got the recipe from a friend, only altering it slightly.  Our kids love eating pickle spears so we decided to do this batch in spears instead of slices.  We learned some lessons along the way:

1. Pack the spears in tightly, leaning the jar on its side at first, adding more spears to the top horizontally if needed to fill void. (Did this after 1-2 jars.)
2. Check adjustable measuring spoon to make sure it stays at the correct measurement.  Each jar was to get 1/2 tsp garlic.  At least one, but not more than two, got a full teaspoon.  (That's ok, I love garlic.  Too bad I didn't mark that jar!)

One thing we learned last year that I'm so glad we remembered was to heat up an extra pot of boiling water in case the hot water bath doesn't have enough to top the jars.  There was no scrambling to get more water this year. 

I can't wait until these pickles are ready!  They don't have all the sugar that the refrigerator pickles have.  Actually they have none, so these should be great for my glucose levels.  I still probably shouldn't hog the whole jar though, right?