Tuesday, September 13, 2011

What Do I Do With These Peppers!


Went down to the garden and I had peppers everywhere!  Green peppers, red peppers, yellow peppers, and orange peppers.  Peppers, peppers, and more peppers, lol.  Oh what to do?  I decided to get to work on the pickled vegetable mix and make salsa.   



I decided to pull out the crinkle cutter, which I use mostly to make crinkle cut potatoes for my grandson and cucumbers for my veggie trays to cut my carrots for the pickled veggie mix.  I almost forgot that I had this piece of equipment.  Shows how much I've used it lately.  It worked like a charm. 



I modified the recipe in the Ball Blue Book, and added cauliflower, red peppers, banana peppers, carrots, pearl onions and green peppers.  I love the color.  I think food should be fun as well as appetizing.  The recipe actually called for pickling cucumbers, but I didn't grow any and none of the grocery stores had any so they were left out of the batch. 



I added 8 1/2 cups of white vinegar, a few garlic cloves, a few dashes of pickling spice and boiled for 15 minutes.  The mix turned out quite favourable.  I used 1 chili pepper and 2 jalapeno slices per jar and this was the end result:  10 1/2 pints of hot, pickled veggie mix. 



I didn't put a dent in the chili, jalapeno and banana peppers, so I decided to whip up a batch of hot salsa.  Did I mention that love hot, spicy foods.  I was able to harvest a few Amish Paste tomatoes over the week-end, so I chopped those along with the yellow and orange peppers and added lots of hot peppers, seeds and all.  I had few red onions left, and tossed those in.  I love using Amish Paste and the Roma tomatoes in my salsa.  They're meatier, and make great chunky salsaThe yellow and orange peppers made the batch festive and the chili peppers quite hot.  It was perfect!  I plan to make another batch and can pint jars to use in my holiday baskets.  My family has cast iron stomachs, even the kids love hot, spicy foods.  I have a 5 year old niece that loves Texas Pete hot sauce and fried chicken, lol.  I plan to make gift baskets for Christmas, which I will add a pint of salsa, the veggie mix, gourmet chips, home made cookies and some sort of jam/jelly. 




I decided years ago, to give homemade Christmas gifts instead of spending a fortune at the stores.  I refuse to contribute to the commercialization of Christmas.  I was able to can a quart and a 1/2 pint from this batch.  I didn't bother to seal the jars.  This batch of salsa will be gone by the week-end.   




15 comments:

  1. That is a lot of peppers! The canning looks great!

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  2. Your salsa looks fantastic. I went visiting teaching to a lady I go to church with. When I walked in the door I asked if they were having enchiladas that night for dinner. No - but her husband was making fresh salsa. Yum! He throws the roma tomatoes on the grill first and then slips the skins off. Oh the taste was amazing. I'm going to give it a try soon.

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  3. For a beginner at canning you have an amazing job of preserving your garden harvest. You will enjoy all of your hard work come winter.

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  4. Wow - what an amzing bunch of pepper you have grown this year. WIth our cool, wet weather this Summer my eppers are a dud. Enjoy the fruits of your canning labor. Your family is lucky to have you :)

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  5. You're awesome canning so much. I just chop my peppers and put them in the freezer. Great to add to recipes all year.

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  6. @Gardener on Sherlock - I will be chopping what's left on the vines this week-end for chili, spaghetti etc.

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  7. YUM! I wish I had more light in my garden for veggies. We tried some container gardening this year but only had a small crop. Thanks for stopping by!

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  8. AMAZING! I may have to venture out and try growing peppers - it's been too intimidating so far (for all veggies).

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    1. Hi Shyrlene. If I can do it so can you. I talked about it for years. I just decided to jump in last year and so glad I did. I loved it. It was so relaxing tending to it and the benefits that I reaped were more than expected. I had no idea what I was doing and I'm still learning. I garden by trial and error.

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  9. Everything looks so yummy! I want you be my gramma.

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    1. LOL! My daughter is loving the salsa and home made soup right now. Planning for the 2012, stay tuned.

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  10. Hi! I'm a new follower. Nice to meet you. What a lucky family you have this Christmas! :) Those veggies and salsa look and sound very tasty. I'm hoping to expand the amount of peppers I grow next year. I hope mine are as fruitful as yours.

    ~Lynn

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    1. Hi Lynn, it's nice to meet you too. I loved the peppers. I'm hoping that I will have the same luck this year. I'm going to add another chili pepper plant and orange bell peppers. I chopped most of them for the freezer. Great in salsa and chili during the winter months.

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  11. Please post your salsa recipe. Your salsa and hot vegetable look absolutely delicious. Wow! you live in zone 6 and were able to harvest so much in December? I live in zone 6 but no such luck :-(.

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    1. Hi KL, I actually harvested the last of the pepper crop in October. They did great! Wish me luck for 2012.

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