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.

Heat Wave

The heat wave continued through the first of the week, bringing us more uncomfortable weather, but I needed it for more ripe tomatoes so I tried not to complain.  Today, it's supposed to be the last of hot day.  I guess we'll see.  It was so hot some schools without AC let out again early and will again today. 

Hubby has to work in rooms with hot machines, and yesterday, he almost got sick twice.  I told him to request an ice jacket (vest filled with ice) today.  Some machines can be from 130° up to 700-800°F.  He is requesting those jobs be delayed by a day today.  He was so sick when he got home, all he could eat was the blueberry bread I made.  So glad I made it.

Our daughter's school has AC, but the school buses do not.  We are not used to having heat waves in fall, and she has a black school uniform (pants).  No time to change to shorts on the way home either.  She came home miserable too and went straight to the couch.

Update on our Moroccan Creole garlic - horrible harvest.  The cloves are the smallest of all small.  Too small to plant, so it won't be continued here unless I purchase some for fall planting.

On a "happy" note, the heirloom green bell peppers are starting to produce a few.  We got more rain with the heat, so I am anticipating some going in the freezer.

This weeks breakfast was created with garden bell peppers, garden potatoes, a few hot peppers, onion, sausage and eggs.

I pickled some hot banana peppers.  Per Hubby's request, they were cut in larger pieces and with seeds.

I was low on certain baking ingredients, so I went fishing online for a blueberry cake/bread that didn't have butter.  I made AllRecipes blueberry bread I recipe, adding a bit more blueberries and added cinnamon and nutmeg. 

Your probably wondering how all this cooking and baking can be done when the heat index is 101°F?  I would have felt horrible if I didn't have a treat for my husband and daughter to come home to, or a meal.

I finished another Harley Davidson inspired lapghan.  It's up for sale.   

Tiger stole my chair.  

Dinner last night - baked lemon pepper/garlic flounder (homemade lemon pepper), with pearl couscous (zucchini, onion, basil and tomatoes from the garden).  It was very good, but not something for Hubby. It's packed in his lunch today, but he may not be able to eat it with the heat.  These were perfect to cook together.  Other than cooking the veggies before, the fish and couscous only took 10 minutes to make.