Gifted ~ Homemade Crushed Red Pepper Flakes ~ Hot Banana Pepper Relish ~ Dehydrated Tabasco Peppers

It was a day to label all those jars and find a place to store them for winter.  In doing so, I found a pint of last years green tomato salsa.  I cooked a small amount of corn off the cob, and black beans, mixed those in with a bit of our hot salsa and the green tomato salsa and boom - a cold meal was made.  If you call it a meal.  It was a back up for the two coming home from a very hot day.

Latest berry picking.  Looks like a snack vs. freezing it.  Or into a smoothie.

Hubby brought home a loot of peppers, given to him from a co-worker.

I was tickled pink to get them too.  I was so, so happy to receive the generous gifts - hot banana, chili, jalapeno, and tabasco peppers.  And one single habanero.

Here's what I made:

Fire powder.

Fire powder is a mix of hot peppers that we simply use to flavor just about anything.  The habanero went into the fire powder, along with a few of every hot pepper.

To make them, simply slice hot peppers, place them with seeds on parchment paper lined dehydrator trays.  Dehydrate per your unit's instructions.

Allow to cool.  I like to grind the peppers first, then toss in the loose seeds (or grind up everything) to have whole seeds in the mix.  Store in an air tight container.  Your dehydrator instruction book may also instructions for this, as well as many dehydrator books available today.

I use the same process of dehydrating and grinding, to make crushed red pepper flakes with the chili peppers.


Dehydrated the tabasco peppers, and ground them into a powder.  I can add water to make tabasco "sauce" or simply use it as is.  No canning or freezing required.

I canned hot banana pepper relish, using the hot banana peppers, some of the jalapenos, and our home grown green bell peppers.

Weekend Updates

An Uncle of mine passed away and we had yet another family funeral to attend over the weekend.  He was 89, and a Korean veteran.  He was such a jokester and had a good full life, but pancreatic cancer took him suddenly and quickly.  It was a beautiful service, and we rode the Harley.  Uncle G. loved our Harley and I'm sure he was smiling in Heaven as we rode to his final resting place.  Such a beautiful day and my cousin's tribute at the church was downright emotional.  There were US Army soldiers there to do the flag folding, and a gun salute.  Just a very nice service.

Sunday morning we found out that a woman we rode with last year (in a group), was killed in a motorcycle accident.  She took a curve badly, tried to correct herself and hit a car.  No helmet.  

Remember that tall stack of library books?  I found recipes for dehydrator cookies and gave them a try.  We love these!  No eggs, no butter, and delicious.  Next time I'll put mini chips in them, but I'll soon try the peanut butter cookie recipe too.  These were oatmeal.

Here is the book the recipe is in.  I'm not an "idiot" when it comes to using my dehydrator, but there are hidden gems in many library books, so I always take a look.

Sunday morning I dug up the potatoes.  I'll have another post for that.

I also went out to do the first official tomato picking, expecting more than I got - 2 lbs.  Literally.  I need 45 lbs. to make sauce, or at least 25 for a half batch.  I am so disappointed this year.  It's definitely not going to be another 500+ lb tomato year.  They are small too. Too small.

The baby birds are born now, and they have left the nest.

Turnips were a failure.  They are small, and not very many survived.

Surprise in the Chicken Coop ~ Chocolate Pie ~ Dehydrator Jerky ~ Skipping Thanksgiving ~ Tornado

I didn't write this ditty yesterday, as my blog was so very long already for the day. 

I've been free ranging the ladies and stud muffin Sparta all day after about noon lately.  One, they get their grit and dirt baths, two they help me reduce the bug numbers, and three it cuts the organic feed cost down. Oh, and four, they help "till" up the garden too.

I went to put them all in, and I had left the coop door open.  The barn was shut, but once I opened the barn door, the hens followed me in. 

I had a container of goodies in one hand, and a bucket of water in the other hand.  I started to fill the water when all h-e-double hockey sticks  broke loose.  

At first I thought a raccoon was in the coop with me.  It was that dang stray gray tabby that's been hanging around.  It took forever to find the door out, and was literally climbing the chicken wire at high rates of speed.  Once I realized it was just a cat, I stepped back until it found the door.  

Oh my land.  The ladies and I had a scare.  Oh, and one hennie looks iffy.  Not sure she'll be around much.  I'm worming, but hmm.  She's not looking so perky.  Doesn't want to hop up to get in the coop. 

If you read yesterday's post, you saw I made homemade chocolate grahams.  I used 3 cups of them finely ground to make a pie crust.

I tried the new recipe.  Actually two.  The first? 

Chocolate Mousse Pie.  I have wanted to make a chocolate pie for a long time.  Hubby raved about his mother's cake, and I didn't want to pie using chocolate pudding (processed) in it.  

The recipe is in this book (right), "Christmas Made Easy" and you can also find it free online with Mr. Food, although it requires you to register to see recipes for free.

It's worth the look.  My family devoured the pie, and one was moaning as she ate it.  I've pretty much stuck to fruit pies lately and this was a sweet treat to try (for taking to holiday gatherings).  
 
I also made my first teriyaki beef jerky.  I used the oven first, then transferred it to the dehydrator.  Then I realized my dehydrator goes up to 165°F.  Duh!  

I didn't do too bad for the first time.  It tastes great too.  It is a teeny tiny bit over-dried, but still good.  I'll be making more when meat is on sale.  Or Hubby gets a deer this year. Hubby loves it!  Much easier to eat than organic (hard as a rock) jerky from the store.  I'm seeing a meat cow out here one of these days.  I really am.

The recipe for the marinade is from this book.  

I borrowed it from the library several times, and finally gave one recipe a whirl.  I had the meat guy cut the meat for me too.  I will be checking out more jerky books to see which one will land on my "wish" list next.  This one has a lot of recipes, but the author spends a lot of time on "cleanliness."

For now, I can't really try new holiday recipes, although one remains to be tried (sigh).  It's getting too close to the big day(s) and I need to save up for the supplies.  

We had plans to skip Thanksgiving.  Yes.  Skip it.  Hubby's suggestion.  We were to call and get reservations at a restaurant known for their very delicious holiday meal.  I forgot to call.  I'm sure it's too late now.  Sigh....I may be cooking it this year.  Double sigh.  I was sort of looking forward to skipping it (shhh, don't tell the kids). 

As for Sunday's entertainment?  We all went to the movies.  Hubby had 4 free admission tickets and we headed south to the other "big" city.  It was storming, and just as we had left, a (what they believe to have been) tornado hit a trailer park not far from where we had left, taking back roads.  It was very dark, raining so hard you couldn't see where the road was, and as we passed through another smaller town, several trucks from a fire station were sent out.  We were darn lucky.

That's a lot to take in for our Sunday here, and I may still join up with Monday's Happy Homemaker. I kind of need to get back on track after a day off.  Sort of a day off.  I still had a few minutes on the porch.

...until the bugs attacked me.  And before the really bad storms rolled through.  See the wet porch floor?  Rain was blowing up under the roof.

Oh.  We got more rain last night.  Like we need it.  Flooding everywhere here. 

Random-ness ~ Garden

I've noticed, that now that we are down to just 4 people living here, my costs have reduced greatly.  I have reduced my purchases of organic milk, sugar, peanut butter, coffee, and more.  I'll admit, even toilet paper costs reduced.  Our electric bill should be much lower now too.  

Handmade thank you notes went out to a few people.  Hubby said if I thanked everyone at my party, it was not necessary to send another thank you out.  Anyway, I made these by adhering scrap fabric to cardstock, then used a marker to make dashes around it, and on the back I have a stamp that says " Inspired by Life, Created by Hand, One-of-a-kind art created by......."  It's a circle stamp and I sign it.

I'm having trouble with my lavender seedlings.  They came up, but are dying off.  I have tried different amounts of rain water, and put them in a sunny window.  Even so, they drooped over and only few remain.  So delicate to work with.  Not sure I want to order more organic seeds yet.  I want the real plant, but sheesh.

Seeded Crackers with Dried Tomatoes ~ Library Loot ~ Random Tidbits

Last year we had a 500# plus tomato year.  It was pretty exciting.  I dehydrated grape tomatoes for cracker (or bread) purposes.

I finally, finally got around to making them.  I had a hard time finding buckwheat (organic).  The herbs, all but the basil in these came from the herb garden.

Leek Confit ~ With Thyme

My "date night" plans went "ka-poot."  Right out the window on Friday night.  Our date was planned for Saturday, but Hubby was called to work a 12 hour shift.

By the time he would be home, it would be way too late for this gal to go out, and way too cold, so I took to the kitchen.

We needed some extra heat in the house anyway.  The warmest hour was about feeling like 0°F.

Homemade Shallot Powder ~ Dehydrating Shallots

I love shallots.  They have such a good flavor for sauces and such.  They kind of have an onion flavor with hints of garlic in it.


Some days I want to flavor my greens (other other dishes) with shallots and I don't have them on hand.

Homemade Croutons ~ Homemade Dry Italian Seasoning ~ Tidbits

It seemed as soon as we stocked some firewood by the house, the weather turned dreary, cold and then rain arrived.

 We woke up to this.  The sun is shining and the there is no wind.  It's actually a beautiful Sunday.  Warning....feeling talkative this morning.  Grab a cup of your favorite beverage.

Our grocery store is now selling an organic whole wheat (labeled non-gmo) bread.  I was lucky to get a loaf at a good price, which I made homemade croutons with.  Next batch I will try using homemade bread of some sort.

Dehydrator Dog Treats

I shared this recipe once before, and since I was dehydrating more of our home grown kale, I'm sharing again.

First, you will need to cook the rice, and dehydrate kale and Parmesan cheese (see note) to make them.  Once you have these dried, you will then have them on hand to make the treats.

A day in photographs. . .a barter

 Well, some of my day anyway.....morning starts with coffee.

Folded Saturday's towels I forgot about.  My "linen" closet is a vintage laundry basket.

Dehydrating Garlic

It's that time of year again, when I dehydrate my home grown garlic.

Homemade Flour Tortillas with Lard ~ From Pile to File ~ Fire Powder

I mentioned a while back that I would try another tortilla recipe, but this time I used lard.  I forgot I even had the recipe until I was looking for my whole wheat pancake recipe one day.  Tip:  Tortilla presses are more for corn tortillas (or masa), so you'll need a rolling pin for this recipe.

This recipe got all thumbs up from the family.  The tortillas are softer and we all like these better than the tortillas I have been making with organic canola oil.

Raisin Bread and other tidbits

I decided to bake my first cinnamon-raisin bread. Yes, that is today's big news story.  

This "pioneer" woman has not baked this tasty treat until yesterday.

More "Feel Good" Moments

I have been busy in the kitchen again, dehydrating heirloom cherry tomatoes.

Raw Vegetable Crackers ~ Using a Dehydrator ~ Other Farmstead News

The new recipe I made, is a raw vegetable cracker.  You soak chia seeds, raisins and sun dried tomatoes, and add other blended vegetables. 

(spread out on parchment paper before drying in the dehydrator)

The interesting part, is that they are dried in the dehydrator.  Now, I imagine you can bake these in the oven, but when it's 82° out, I preferred not to.  Although yesterday it was 60°F.

Goats in the Kitchen ~ Thinking Ahead and Other Tidbits

Everything is normal here today.  

The sunrise is a beautiful pink.

PB and J and a Porch

I wasn't kidding when I said the porch was calling.  It just wasn't the front porch this time.  I made myself a peanut butter and jelly sandwich and had lunch on the back porch - best 15 minutes of my day!  I had one small patch of patio that was not snow covered.  Even so, I would have put that chair and table right on the snow, if I had to.  It was 40°F and the sun felt so good.  It was peacefully quiet, and the birds were singing.

Warning:  It's a grab-a-cup-of-coffee kind of post. 

Random Tidbits ~ Cooking from Storage (Dehydrated Potatoes)

I'm late in posting today, but for a good reason.

I got no sleep last night.  No big news, right?

I tried to sleep in, but that did not happen.  Youngest missed the bus and next oldest is sick.  

Anyway....

I was on the phone with Oldest Daughter.

The good news?  She did not have the flu last week. 

The bad news?

Dehydrating Orange Peel ~ Orange Peel Powder

Our grocer is finally carrying organic oranges, so I have been saving the peels and dehydrating them.

This is a first for me.  I've never dehydrated the peels due to not having access to organic oranges.  My plan is to use them for recipes for now.  We use orange peel in our hot cranberry punch, and now that I am making more teas, I think it would be nice to have some on hand for tea making.

I plan. . .

Our Onion Soup Mix Experiment ~ Tidbits

Why onion soup?  Because I have nothing else to write about today (yet).   

Believe it or not, I am still deep cleaning here and there (three boxes went to the thrift store), and finally got Hubby to replace the old (very old) light fixture in the kitchen.  We've had replacement for it for a long time, but have not had the time to get it up.

Back to the soup.