Pickles for the Lazy

I think there are two kinds of people in this world: people who eat the pickle that comes with a deli sandwich, and people who give that pickle to someone else. I am DEFINITELY the first kind of person. In fact, I eat my pickle, and then I will eat yours too. So, today I decided to learn how to make my own pickles! Vinegar, cucumbers, how hard could it be?

Turns out there is a lot of complicated pickling methodology out there. The first obstacle I encountered was the question of putting the pickles in jars, or, as it is confusingly named, "canning". I don't have canning jars. I did not feel like buying them. So instead I washed out an old mustard jar and a salsa jar and decided they would have to do.

The second obstacle I encountered was that I could not find cucumbers small enough to fit in my wee jars. This was easily solved -- I decided to pickle green beans and red onions instead, for a twist. I also decided that this "soak for months" thing was not really my style -- I want pickles, and I want them NOW! So I found recipes that claim to deliver pickles overnight, and got to work.

Here is what I started with:

I decided to tinker with the various pickle recipes I found online -- everyone suggested vinegar, water, garlic, a little sugar, red chilies (I want spicy pickles obviously), and various spices, so I decided to just open up my spice cabinet and see what might be tasty. I ended up using peppercorns, coriander seeds, bay leaf, cumin seeds, mustard seeds, and a small amount of a mystery mix of spices that my mom gave me that has fennel in it, among other things. Look at how pretty they look!

The final step of this process is simply to boil this all together, and then pour the hot mixture over the to-be-pickled items into the jars. Allegedly, they will be ready to eat tomorrow! I'm concerned that they will be too sweet.... I'll find out soon. Here is the final product (pictured with a pepper shaker so you can see how small these cute little jars are!).
UPDATE, 11/13: They are not too sweet! They taste awesome!