Bread and butter follow up

I finally got around to trying the last batch of pickles that I made. Honestly, the skin on that cucumber variety is too tough for pickles. I didn't like the stringy onion pieces. The flavor of the brine wasn't quite right either. Maybe I really did need all of that sugar... or I brought out too much flavor of the spices by toasting them a little before adding the vinegar.  Need to work on this recipe.