**WARNING BE SURE TO FOLLOW SAFETY GUIDELINES FOR HANDLING JALAPENOS**
**FAILURE TO DO SO CAN REALLY HURT YOU**

Jalapeno juice is harmful to most of your face. It can cause severe damage to your eyes and nose. When handling be sure to use gloves or extreme hand washing techniques to avoid the risk of the juices soaking into your skin and then say you rub your eyes, pick your nose ... or use the bathroom and get that burn in sensitive places. It seems gross and stupid to say this, but someone had to do these things in order for us to learn what *NOT* to do.

I love these on burgers and sandwiches! They add a nice heat to the food. This batch here was for a friend of mine who wanted XXXXXXXXXX Spicy, but I want to share my original recipe with a few additional notes on this. I love my slicer!! It makes such pretty cuts! I decided to play around with the vinegars in these pickles and use a three-way combination of white, rice, and apple cider. One is mild, one is sweet, and the other astringent.

Ingredients:
4 cloves garlic
4-6 fresh jalapeno peppers, sliced into rings (see notes)
1 vidalia or sweet onion, sliced
1 tsp celery seed
1 tsp mustard seed
1/2 cup cider vinegar
1/2 cup rice vinegar
1/2 cup white vinegar
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 t salt
1 lemon
6 pickling cucumbers, sliced
**Optional: 1/2 tsp red pepper flakes or 1/4 tsp cayanne pepper

Directions:
Place the garlic, jalapeno rings, celery seed, mustard seed, onion, and any optional spices in a jar. Give them a shake to combine.

In a small pot, bring the vinegars, sugar, salt and lemon up to a boil. Remove from heat and slowly pour over the jalapenos. In the event the jar/bowl is cold, you don't want to pour it in all at once and risk it cracking - starting slow will give the glass a chance to warm as you pour.

Allow the heat from the vinegar mixture to heat the jalapenos and take the raw crunch off of them as it cools, then add the cucumbers when the mixture if at or slightly above room temp to maintain the crisp of the cucumbers. I don't know about you, but I can't stand a soggy pickle!

Processing:
For longer storage: Place the jars in a boiling pot of water. When the water comes back to a boil, set the timer for 5 minutes and remove the jars immediately. Make sure the lids pop down; if they do not, refrigerate those pickles and eat them first.

Cool and refrigerate: Let the jars cool to room temperature. If you processed the jars, they can be stored on the shelf. If unprocessed, store the pickles in the fridge. The pickles will improve with flavor as they age!! Try to wait at least 48-72 hours before cracking them open. Canned pickles will keep for at least a year on the shelf and for several weeks in the refrigerator once opened; refrigerator pickles will keep for several weeks.

Spicy notes: If you like the thought of a spicy pickle but don't have a high threshold for heat, be sure to either knock most of the seeds out of the jalapenos, or trim off the ends and swish them in water to rinse out the seeds. I generally cut off both ends and run my knife around the inside to remove the seeds and the membrane that holds them. Obviously I didn't for this one since they wanted deadly spicy.