Tom's Life Bits

Here is a Fire and Ice Pickle recipe.

• 2 quarts dill pickle chips
• 4 cups sugar
• 2 tablespoons Tabasco sauce
• 1/2 to 1 teaspoon red pepper flakes
• 4 cloves of garlic.

Drain pickles and pour into a large bowl. Add sugar, Tabasco sauce and red pepper flakes and let soak for two hours. Put the garlic cloves in your jars and add pickles and juice and refrigerate overnight.

Here's a version from scratch:

• Famous Dave's Pickles

No-Cook Sweet-and-Spicy Pickles

• 1 (46-ounce) jar hamburger dill chips or sweetened cucumber chips

• 1/2 cup sugar

• 2 large garlic cloves, thinly sliced

• 2 tablespoons hot sauce

Drain liquid from jar; remove pickles from jar. Rinse pickles with water and drain.

Layer half each of pickles, sugar, garlic, and hot sauce in jar. Press down gently. Repeat layers, reserving some of the pickles for the top layer. Twist on lid to seal; invert jar, and shake 2 to 3 times to combine ingredients. Chill.

Keep refrigerated for up to four weeks.

Yield: About 4 cups