You asked for it...

I have had a few inquiries as to what I do with all these peppers I grow!  I really do use them all, and I don't see myself as being a pepper freak, but maybe I am - you be the judge...

Got Hot?

or sweet?

There's lots to see here, so don your mask and gloves and let's get started!

Sweet Bell Peppers are easy, no blanching, just chop and freeze.  They go into everything, all winter long - stir fry, soups, stews, sausage casseroles, anything goes here.

Even the frozen bell peppers will keep pasta salad lively long after the tomatoes are gone...

The old standard, salsa...

Nachos!

Jalapeno Cheddar Cornbread Muffins

Garden Convenience Food - stuffed peppers, frozen and bagged... dump a few out and bake in oven with a bit of tomato sauce and cheese makes a quick meal...

Of course there are days when there are more than I can use at dinner...

ya think?

Canning keeps us in nachos (Garden Junk Food) and chili all winter long -

Hubby likes jalapenos on his pizza sometimes :)

I use diced jalapenos or green chiles to jazz up the chicken filling inside enchiladas -

But wait, there's more!

Jalapenos can be frozen whole for more Garden Junk Food in winter...

One of my favorites is Stuffed Baked Jalapenos -

I halve them, seed them, stuff with a mixture of cooked sausage and cream cheese, sprinkle cheddar cheddar and french fried onions over the top and bake, the ultimate!  I never said this was healthy :) (*you can also make ahead a few hundred and freeze on sheets then dump into bags, ready to go party food!)

Excess small hot peppers are dried for grinding later or making fermented hot sauce.  Larger chiles such as Poblanos can be dried and soaked later in the year to turn into stuffed Anchos.  (Fun fact - Poblano peppers are called Ancho Chiles after they are dried).  Anchos ground and mixed with other spices such as oregano, savory, salt, pepper, dried garlic, etc make a great steak rub, too!  Drying is the quickest way to preserve for sure!

If I have a little extra time on my hands, I'll roast and peel the Poblanos and pressure can so they are ready to go all winter for Chiles Rellenos.

Peppers are always welcome in tacos here -

Canned sweet or mild peppers or peppers packed in oil are always good on sandwiches or panini, stuff them right into jars with your pickles, don't discriminate!  It'll give those pickles some kick, too :)

Apparently I've made quite a name for myself as the pepper-chick, hence this gift that arrived a ways back from the lovely Apple Pie Gal....  :)

Now even my beverages are decorated in pepper style!

Party Fun:  host a dinner party, then stuff peppers of random heat into homemade sushi and watch people's expressions, this is good times!  Kind of like loading a bunch of .38's along with a randomly placed .357 in your gun just to keep you on your toes.  Come on, I know a few girls out there that have done that, usually courtesy of your laughing husband, right?

So there you have it, the most common pepper dishes at our home - 

Embrace the pepper!

I'm really not trying to be anti-social...

...but I can't help it, I'm drowning in peppers and haven't had time to blog!  The temps are now down to the mid-upper 80's which is divine compared to the past 6 weeks.  I had dreams of tackling the garden head-on yesterday and getting a whole lot of neglected chores done, but as I walked out into the pepper beds I realized I was going to be stuck in the kitchen all day despite the relatively cool temps outside.

Despite the horrifying state the tomato plants are in, they continue to ripen.  I think the saucing days are over now, but still getting enough to make stewed tomatoes or salsa.

Upon seeing how many peppers were on these plants, I decided to pick them all and get rid of the plants for the year.  Below are the Sigaretta di bergamo peppers, I will not be growing these again since they are sweet peppers and are pretty to look at, but small and thin and really a pain to process for long term keeping, just too labor intensive for seeding and freezing.

Below are the Sigaretta di bergamo and Pepperoncini plants that got tossed.  There were only a few new blooms and quite frankly, I have enough of them!

The end result - madness!  Several pounds of pepperoncini and sweet peppers came out of that little planter box - I had 2 of the Pepperoncini plants on the left side, and 3 of the sweet Sigaretta di bergamo plants on the right side.  You definitely don't need much space for peppers.

I still have other pepper plants that I will continue to let go until they decide to stop.  The center garden contains Poblanos that are just starting to ripen, my regular size Quadrato di Asti bell peppers, and jalapeno and fish hot peppers.  Actually, I'll probably rip out the fish hot peppers soon, as I already have several strings of them drying in the kitchen.

Below, clockwise from the top position:  Sigaretta di bergamo sweet, Poblano (Ancho), Quadrato di Asti Rosso bells, Jimmy Nardello Sweet Frying Pepper, Pepperoncini, Fish Hot pepper, Mini Stuffing bells.

After a long days' work...

Pickled Pepperoncini Rings and Sweet Pepper & Onion Relish, bring on the Panini Sandwiches this winter!

Still haven't started in on the tomatoes on the counter, I'm a little upset that it appears that we have another day today of nice temps and I'll be stuck inside doing those as well as squeezing blood out of turnips - that is - paying bills :)  At least hubby is off today and he is outside right now getting started on some of the chores that have been neglected in the past 6 weeks of torture chamber temps.  I'm actually getting a bit excited to rip out the summer garden, but I need to keep on preserving what is still coming in.  I know I'll be glad I did come winter!  

What's that pounding in my head???

...and the #1 reason I want a WhisperMill....

because this clearly isn't working LOL!

Of course Loch had to chime in today with all the technical mumbo jumbo... Finn didn't care about any of that...

Anyone seen a tomato around here?  Look really hard...

I have 2 tomatoes that may be ready tomorrow!  This is the Fourth of July tomato, and true to its name, they will be here by then.  They are about plum sized, and always the first to ripen here.

Peppers!

Jimmy Nardello Sweet Italian Frying Pepper

Jalapeno Gigante

Italian Pepperoncini (hot/sweet)

Sigaretta de Bergamo (sweet/hot)

Speaking of a mill purchase, some of you may remember I mentioned that the mill was not in the budget right now, but a pressure canner was next on my list of homesteading supplies.  The steam canner isn't cutting it since I have a ceramic glass cooktop and it can't be used there.  I end up having to use the water bath canner in the backyard, far from the kitchen, not ideal.  The pressure canner CAN be used on my cooktop, and can be used to can everything from meat to high acid foods.  I was planning to post a question to all you canners out there who use them, but Mama Pea beat me to it!  So head over to Mama Pea's blog A Homegrown Journal and chime into the discussion about your experiences with a pressure canner, lots of inquiring minds want to know!

Today!

I am hot, tired, and cranky. That's the best post title I could come up with!

We really need to get on a better schedule again. I have been letting the kids stay up late, not even letting them out to ride bikes and such until after 7 pm, gardening up until it gets too dark to see at about 8:30 or 9 pm, and then watching tv, reading, etc until well after midnight! I am an early riser usually so being tired in the morning or the alternative, sleeping later and then feeling lazy for it, well, it's just not working! Today was the hottest so far, actual temp of 103 at 5 pm, heat index of 117. I knew it was going to be bad when I woke up and could barely see through the haze in the backyard, so I forced myself to do inside chores, but ended up really happy that I used the time wisely instead of just laying around all day!

Today's chore: Onion Day!

Because of the humidity, I have had my onions hanging and curing in the house for several weeks. I was able to ignore them for quite awhile since they were so pretty, but lately every time I walk by them or look at them sideways, the browned skins and tops would crumble and fall all over the floor! I took today as an opportunity to clean it all up finally. The few that were perfect were hung in mesh bags, but many were already bolting with wide necks when I harvested them, so all of those got chopped for the freezer.

I'm only cooking for myself and 2 little kids, so this will do nicely for stir fry and salsas into fall.

On to my pathetic garlic harvest. I "forgot" to order my garlic last year and on my way out the door headed to Minnesota for Thanksgiving I hurriedly planted a few of the previous year's harvest, thinking I would do more when I got back, but never did!

That's all I've got for this year, yikes! Good thing hubby the pizza chef isn't here, because I can hear him now, "oh, this won't do at all"!

The shallots, however, completely rocked out this year and I have no shortage of!

On the right is the remaining 1/2 garlic bulb and 3 shallots leftover from last year, I planted exactly enough!

Tonight, it's supposed to thunderstorm again so I didn't do anything in the garden except walk around with the camera wondering how the heck that stuff is living out there...

(sorry for hazy photos, humidity got inside my camera!)

The 1st Brandywine of the year

Sorry, I am obsessed with these Polish UFO's... they are getting so big!

"We're gonna need a bigger boat"

What am I going to do with all these peppers?

I just love the variegated leaves, even if the peppers look like yucky Okra, LOL

I didn't even know these were out there!

All those peppers are in this one bed!

Yuk, the Japanese Beetles are here... luckily they prefer my grapes and I noticed them over there tonight. These are my first apples, ever, so I really want them to live!

heehee, anyone have a bed that looks like this? pretty bad....! I kind of forgot about it back behind a shed and now it's full of weeds and Sassafras tree seedlings. I just dug it a month ago, but it's already been taken back by the yard.

Bells of Ireland - won't grow again, they fall over and look horrible!

My favorite right now!

I heard a rumor about the weather breaking tomorrow - I hope so because from the looks of things, I have some harvesting and spraying to do!