Pioneer Woman at Heart

I had a mess of hot peppers to take care of, so I made one last batch of hot pepper jelly.  I'll be freezing the rest, or using them in recipes such as salsa etc. I froze a bunch of mad hatter peppers.  I'll use these in recipes that call for red bell pepper and in many recipes.  I have a ton more to freeze today or I lose them. Army worms have invaded our state.  I have yet to see any at our property, but some friends are dealing with their entire yards gone. I brewed up a batch of homemade ginger ale for Mom.  She has had no appetite and loves my ginger ale.  I wanted to make her favorite snack, but decided it was best to not right now.  She says the only thing she can eat right now are tomatoes and popcorn.  My tomato plant has new tomatoes on, but nothing ready to pick, so we'll check the produce down the road. Speaking of Mom, she has had two more falls since I last posted.  We went into town last night and helped do some things and feed...

Yesterday I had to get some hot peppers taken care of.  I canned 5 1/2 pints hot pepper mustard sauce and 7 jars of hot pepper jelly.  I also got a few more bell peppers frozen.  All that, including washing some dishes and taking dogs in and out several times, and I called it quits by 2:30pm.  I put turkey/zucchini meatballs in the crocky and picked turnips for dinner. I gotta get cracking on my to-do list today again.  There was a lot I didn't even get started on.  I am motivated by another weekend off from the kitchen and garden.  I only brought in another 7.5# of tomatoes, so some can sit and wait on me.  

The rain went right off the radar on Tuesday.  Not a drop.  Rain on the radar on Wed. went right off the radar as well.  Sigh.  I had to pick and choose what would be watered, considering the well isn't getting filled up. I finally got some feverfew put into the dehydrator for winter tea if needed.  I'm hoping if we get rain, I can dehydrate more (it's in a pot vs. the ground). Once that was dried I loaded it up with catnip.  I make catnip tincture as an ingredient for my bug off spray.  I will also make some catnip pillows for our cats and Mom's cats if I have enough for both.  I want to make my tincture with fresh catnip. We love hot pepper jelly (now that I know how to really make it hot).  We love it as a go-to snack for gatherings or snacking.  It's great with cream cheese on a cracker.  I couldn't find hot cherry peppers, and did not grow them this year.  I used habanero, serrano, hot banana, hungar...