Name This Concoction

I make a hot sauce every year that can peel the hide off of your tongue. It contains chili pequino peppers, habanero peppers, Serrano peppers, good cider vinegar and sea salt. It comes with a laundry list of disclaimers so that no one blames me when they have a horrible out come the day after eating too much of it. With that in mind, Nancy of Nancy's Garden Spot named my sauce After Burner.

This spring I bought my pepper plants like always. The tags that said Serrano pepper lied. Those peppers were Tabasco peppers and I can’t use them to make hot sauce. I hate it when the nurseries mislabel the plants. I spend all that time nurturing the plant only to discover that you have been taking care of an imposter.

Not to let this mistake get me down, I needed to find a use for these thin skinned peppers. I dried them and then crushed them into a powder with my mortar and pestle. Then I got a wild hare and added dehydrated garlic, coriander seeds and sea salt. This stuff smells great. I’ve never had anything quite like it. I added a couple of tablespoons to my last batch of jambalaya. Manly said it was my best ever.

So here is what I need from you. This spicy mixture needs a name. So far there are no disclaimers because there is no reason to use enough of it to do bodily harm. It smells wonderful. The coriander adds a lemony scent.

Anyway, leave me a comment with your ideas for a name.

Chimichurri Sauce

 

As I mentioned yesterday,we have a lot of parsley. There are four large plants and several smaller sets. If it were geographically possible, I would share some with all of you. At this point I am running the risk of spoiling several relationships because of excess parsley offerings. So I needed a recipe that uses lots of parsley. I found chimichurri.

Chimichurri is an Argentinian recipe for a sauce that is a condiment or marinade. There are many different recipes but the basics are parsley, olive oil, garlic, onion, salt, pepper and something acidic.

Here is my version #1
1 cup parsley loosely packed
1/4 cup dried cilantro
1/2 cup olive oil
2 cloves garlic
I left out the onion
Pinch of salt
Dash of my After Burner sauce (you can use Tabasco)
Juice of one lemon
1 teaspoon paprika

Process everything in a food processor until smooth.

This stuff had the prettiest color and tasted fresh and smokey at the same time. Manly Man had smoked some ribs for dinner. I like a little acidic flavor with beef and pork, but most steak sauces are really salty. This was a nice compliment to the rib meat in place of a vinegary barbecue or steak sauce. I also think it would be good on grilled veggies and as a marinade for grilled fish. If you have too much parsley this is a good option.

Beef Noodle Soup

 

It was cold and drizzly here today. It was a perfect day for soup and crusty bread. I busted out my brand new, bright shiny crock pot and made a batch of beef noodle soup. The crock pot was a Christmas present from Mamala. Thanks Mamala. To go with the soup, I made sour dough wheat bread. Mmmmm...comfort food.

 

Here is a picture of Tisha watching me sew on my hand cranked sewing machine. This was taken just before she attacked the thread feed.

Beef Noodle Soup
1 pound beef tips
1/2 medium onion chopped
1 stalk celery chopped
1/4 cup chopped parsley
1/4 cup chopped thyme
1/4 cup chopped rosemary
6 cups of water
3 Beef bouillon cubes (The good stuff is in the Mexican food section)
Ground black pepper to taste
6 ounces wide egg noodles

This is an all day recipe so start early. The house is going to smell wonderful. Set the crock pot on low. Place the beef tips in the crock pot with water simmer day. About two hours before dinner time, put all the other ingredients but the noodles in with the beef tips. Add more water if needed. Twenty minutes before serving, raise the temperature of the crock pot to high. Ten minutes before serving add the noodles.

The bread was made with whole wheat, essential wheat glutton, one egg, a pinch of salt, 1 tablespoon melted butter and enough natural sour dough starter to make a soft dough. I only kneaded this batch one time. The top split, but it looked like I did it on purpose. Sorry, I don't measure anymore.

Fresh Homemade Yogurt

I have made bread since my grandfather taught me as a youngster. A little over a year ago I started using a sour dough starter gifted to us from a lovely neighbor. Back about three months ago, I put out whole wheat flour mixed with filtered water to created my own "Aunt Debbi's Kitchen Sour Dough Starter" This was colonized completely by the yeast that was already hanging around my kitchen. Several loaves of whole wheat bread have been made with this starter and have been well received.

Last winter, my kitchen was turned into an incubator to allow cabbage to become sauerkraut. The results were yuummy.

About a week ago, I decided to try to make homemade yogurt. This is the easiest kitchen creation ever. Much like sauerkraut, I can't call this cooking. All I did was put about two tablespoons of a higher quality yogurt into about a pint of skim milk, placed it in a warm spot (over the food dehydrator, but any warm place will work) and wait. Eight hours later, I had yogurt. It was not as thick as store bought yogurt, but it tasted amazing.

Most people do not eat plain yogurt. I love it. I have been making dressings for salads and just eating it. Tonight, I bought some frozen fruit (we don't have much fresh fruit around these parts right now) and made the Monkey's some smoothies with the homemade yogurt. Yogurt smoothies turned out to be a big hit around here. I am out of yogurt, but there is a new batch brewing on the food dehydrator.

The Domestication of Debbi

Tuesday is one of my days off. It is cold and wet. We should begin getting freezing rain and sleet in the next few hours. Needless to say, I stayed in the house and off the roads today.

I have five quilting projects to complete during the next few months. My sewing corner was a disorganized mess. I spent most of the day straightening it up and creating a quilt project storage system. A couple of years ago, I straightened out my craft closet. I sorted my larger scrap fabrics by color, ironed and folded them and used four plastic baskets to hold the fabrics. They are stacked two deep on one of the shelves in the crafts closet. This has stayed organized for two years. For me, this is a minor miracle. I am housekeeping challenged.

 

I have several boxes that were holding random sewing ingredients sort of like my seed basket. I separated everything out and put each project in its own box and then made a special box for templates an stamps. The fabric that was left over from other projects was ironed, folded and stored in the crafts closet. Hopefully, this new system will keep me organized. Now I just need to find my thimble.

 

Here is the quilt I need to finish first. It is for baby Clare who is due to arrive in this world on February 7. I better get on with it. We believe these nine patch quilt squares were pieced by a paternal great grandmother. I am going to finish the top and quilt it for the baby.

 

We had homemade chicken noodle soup and wheat bread for dinner tonight.

Chicken Noodle Soup
4 Chicken thighs
6 Cups water (to begin with)
1/2 Large onion chopped
1 Stalk celery chopped
1/4 Fresh, finely chopped herbs including parsley, thyme and rosemary
3 Chicken bouillon cubes
8 Ounces wide egg noodles
Ground pepper to taste

Boil the chicken thighs until completely done. Stop before the meat falls off the bone. Remove the chicken from the pot and set aside to cool. Add all of the other ingredients to the chicken stock and simmer all day if you like. Remove the skin and bones from the chicken and discard. Chop the chicken meat and return to the pot. Ten minutes before serving, bring the stock to a rolling boil and add noodles. Serve with homemade wheat bread if you've got it.

Stay warm and cozy.

Cold Weather Comfort

 

The high here today was 37. The low tonight should be in the low 20's. In this cold weather, I went on a shopping trip with Mamala and Baby Sister. This trip was to be to one, and only one, book store. Guess how well that worked out-NOT. Baby Sister and I were talked into a furniture store. Not too bad. Then Mamala did it, she said we had to pick up her pictures at WallyWorld. Now, I've got nothing against the big box giant, but on the Sunday before Christmas- RUN-RUNAWAY.

We lived, but I am bone cold. I know, I know... Aunt Debbi is a big fat whimp. You probably have weather in the 10's with hoar frost or permafrost or some other sort of horrible frost. I don't live here in Texas for this kind of weather. I live here to avoid this kind of weather. I appreciate your pictures of snow drifts and icecicles, but I know how freaking cold it has to get for you to enjoy that kind of beauty. I will stay right here in Texas, thank you very much.

So I am cold, chapped, and my hair looks like it has been through a blender. There is only one cure for cold like this - Homemade soup.

Today's soup was acorn squash and lentil.

Cut an acorn squash in half, scoop out the seeds, and bake it for 15 minutes at 350.
In the meantime, saute 1/2 an onion and 1 stalk of celery (well chop them up first). When the onions are translucent add one cup of lentils, 3 cloves of chopped garlic, and five cups of water. Bring this to a boil and add two chicken bouillon cubs and the following herbs to taste: Cumin, coriander, thyme, and black pepper. Simmer the lentils until tender and then add the mashed, roasted squash. If the soup is too thick, add more water. If it is too thin, cook it down a little.

I had mine with a little After Burner sauce. After Burner is like Tabasco, but with habanero, Serrano, chili pequino peppers and good cider vinegar. Middle Monkey ate his soup plain. We didn't have any, but it would be excellent with some shredded sharp cheddar.

A couple of notes.

I only used half the squash because Middle Monkey ate the other half before I could get to it.

The chicken bouillon in the Mexican food section of our local grocery stores is far superior to the chicken bouillon in the soup section.

Is black pepper an herb or a spice?

Where I Make the Same Mistake Twice

Six days ago, I set out to prove that sour dough starter just happens. Never mind that bread has been made this way forever. Somehow, it just seems odd that this will grow yeast. I wanted to this to be a pure from scratch sour dough made from whole wheat flour, water, maybe a little sugar,and naturally occurring yeasts in my kitchen. No I didn't add the yeast, apparently they are airborne.

On day three, the flour/water mixture did a bubbling thingy, but still didn't smell or taste of sour dough starter. Two days ago, it had the distinctive sour dough taste. At that time, I put it in a plastic freezer baggie, gave it some more water and flour as well as a little bit of sugar to get it going. Then it was placed back on the counter. Today, it looked like my other starter - all bubbly and frothy, just light brown instead of white. The baggy was doing the balloon trick. My other starter has been known to walk off of the counter.

I decided to take a smell of the new batch and see if it was right. YOWWWW, this sour dough starter has a wicked aroma. Definitely sour dough, but man it made my nose burn. I didn't remember the other sour dough starter ever smelling like that, so I got it out and repeated the experiment. Note to self, do not stick your face into any baggie of sour dough starter and take a big whiff. Nose burning, eyes watering, lesson learned, I just haaaad to do it twice.

Sour Dough Bread

This time of year when there are many parties and family gatherings I receive a lot of requests for my sour dough bread.

The starter was a gift from a neighbor. It came with that friendship bread recipe. I don't like sweets, so I just make my sour dough bread like I used to make my regular yeast bread.

Sour dough starter is alive. Mine lives in the refrigerator in a one gallon plastic freezer bag. Once every week or two, I feed it. Usually there is a little hooch on top of the starter. This is alcohol and I just poor it off. Then I add 1/3 cup of sugar, 1 cup of flower, and 3 cups of water. This is pretty runny stuff, but remember, I just pored off some of the liquid and may need to do that again before I bake.

Many recipes tell you to make a sponge. Not me.

Here are few measurements that I don't use.

2 cups starter

3 cups bread flour

1 egg

3 tablespoons olive oil or butter

3 tablespoons honey

Pinch of salt.

Mix it all together. It should be a very soft loose dough. If it is too stiff, add more starter.

Next comes the kneading. Turn out the dough on a floured cutting board. Use lots and lots of flour. Knead by pushing the dough away from you and then folding it back toward you in a rocking motion. Don't be rough and don't kneed too long. As soon as the dough is elastic, holds a ball shape, and is relatively smooth STOP.

Place the dough in an oiled glass bowl and let rise for a long long time. If it cold in the house, I set it on top of my food dehydrator with a plate over the bowl to keep the dough from drying out.

After the dough has doubled or no longer springs back when you pressed it with your thumb, turn it back out onto the cutting board. Divide the dough in half. Knead just like before. Let the dough balls sit for a few minutes and then shape into loaves. Place in a oiled glass baking pan and let rise again for a long long time.

When the dough has doubled in size again, or when you simply run out of time and patience, bake the bread at 350 for 20 minutes or until golden brown. Brush the loaves with melted butter and let cool.

Then get out of the way. People get a little aggressive when cutting and serving this bread.

There are only a few more hours to vote on radishes. Let me know how you feel.

Yummy Goodness

I am not a fan of radishes. They are just the wrong kind of spicy. They taste like a cold sort of hot to me. Not going to go out of my way to eat a radish. The good thing about radishes is how easy they are to grow. Throw the seeds on the ground, add a little bit of water, and in a couple of weeks I have a bunch of radishes I don't really want to eat.

If radishes tasted better, they would be the perfect vegetable to get kids into gardening. They are fast and easy to grow. Unfortunatly, I don't know of any child that will willingly eat a radish.

Manly Man eats radishes with lots of salt and pepper. However, he only eats them about once or twice a year. This does not really work out too well with home grown radishes as all of them are ready to eat at the same time. One packet of radish seeds makes about a bazillion radishes. I know, I know succession planting, but what is the fun in doing it right.

Somewhere on the interweb, I read about people in some other country eating radishes for breakfast on bread and butter. So last spring I picked a couple of radishes sliced them and put them in a bread and butter sandwich. Now this was real butter and good wheat bread. Mmmmm yummy. They don't even taste like radishes. You really have to try this. Now I can't wait until the radishes are ready to pull. Today I picked three and had my first radish/butter sandwich. Manly Man may never get another radish.

Just now, I found someone else on the Internet who eats radishes with dab of butter and some sea salt. Going to give that a try tomorrow.

Any veggies that just don't do it for you?

I can see by the first couple of comments that we are going to need to vote on radishes. Now you can go to the poll right over there on the side bar. I will not vote as I have already made my opinion clear as mud.

Jam

I may never make jelly again and it is all Curmudgeon's fault. I have made jelly all my cooking life. We have plums that make a very pretty ruby red jelly and black berries that make the best jelly for biscuits ever. Last night I made jam.

I am pretty sure everyone is pretty sick of me yammering on and on about the green tomatoes. Well, the situation is pretty much handled with the green tomato jam and green tomato pickles. There are a couple of bowls of large green tomatoes that will get ripe over time. The little ones are all used up.

Jelly is complicated to make. Cut up the fruit, cook it, then figure out the messiest way possible to remove the fruit from the juice. Then add tons of sugar and some sort of pectin. My kitchen looks like a fruit and sugar bomb has gone off in it every time I make jelly. A T-shirt is ruined by juice stains during each and every jelly making session. I often get half done jelly in my hair - Don't ask.

Jam was so easy. Cut up the fruit, add sugar, and any other ingredients that sound good. Let that sit for a while as the sugar draws out the fruits juices. Then cook it down until it thickens. All the fruit stays in the jam. No fruit goes to the compost pile. Jam is yummy and has a nice texture.

All that jam making reminded me of a song from a long time ago. I have not heard it in years. Thanks to the interweb I was able to find the words.
Saturday morning found me itching
To get on over to my grandma's kitchen
[And what you gonna do, honey]
The sweetest little berries was cooking up right
And then we'd put them in a canning jar and seal them up tight
We were making jam
[What kind?]
Strawberry jam, that's what kind
[Aw, the good kind]
Yeah, if you want the best jam
You gotta make your own
We have Smucker's, Welches, Knotts Berry Farm
But a little homemade jam never did a body no harm
A little local motion is all we need
To close down these corporate jam factories
We'll be making jamStrawberry jam, mmmm-mm
If you want the best jamYou gotta make your own
(Make that jam Doc, show 'em how it's done)
Yeah, we have a little revolution sweeping the land
Now once more everybody's making homemade jam
So won't you call your friends up on the telephone
You invite 'em on over, you make some jam of your own
You'll be making jamStrawberry jam
If you want the best jam
You gotta make your own

Anybody else like to make jam?

Green Tomato Madness

A couple of days ago, I had to pick all of my green tomatoes. Nola and Brenda, as true Texans, suggested frying them. I cannot imagine trying to eat 10 lbs of fried green tomatoes. I love them, but 10 lbs - Yuck. Even I would get sick of that. Thankfully, some other Internet friends came to the rescue.

Several of you suggested letting them ripen on the window sill. Foxymoron suggest putting them in a paper bag with a ripe banana. She wasn't sure how it worked, but she read it somewhere. Kate arrived with the science behind this. Apparently, ripe fruit off gasses ethylene, which will help green fruit ripen. Go Kate, you are our genius.

Gardengirl shared this recipe for dill pickled tomatoes. I remember these from my childhood. She also suggested slicing them and sauteing them in a little olive oil and serving them with basil and Parmesan cheese. Yum.

Curmudgeon, one of our wonderful Weed Wackin Wenches, shared this recipe for tomato jam.

Cinj, suggested freezer spaghetti sauce. I have not found the recipe for that yet, but I am looking.

For the next couple of days I will be making pickles and jam.

Thanks to everyone who helped me out. Without you I would be drowning in green tomatoes. If anyone else would like to add to the tomato madness, chime in now.

Silence at Poor Richard's Almanac out did herself with six recipes. Thanks Silence

cinj posted her freezer spagetti sauce recipe today.

I made the green tomato jam and it is Monkey approved.

Legacy

You know you might be in Texas if you have cheese burgers with fried okra and fried green tomatoes instead of french fries. That was dinner for us tonight. We are still getting okra, squash, and tomatoes from the garden and will until it freezes.

Fried green tomatoes and fried okra

Green tomatoes sliced thin and/or okra cut to 1/2 inch pieces
1 egg white + 2 tablespoons water
1 cup corn meal and 4 tablespoons season salt or Cajun spice

Dip tomatoes and/or okra in egg wash. Dredge okra and/or tomato slices in corn meal/season salt. Fry until golden brown.

I was taught to cook southern fried foods as soon as I was tall enough to see over the stove top. The dishes include chicken fried steak, chicken fried chicken, okra, tomatoes, and fish. I was also taught to make pickles from cucumbers, okra, green tomatoes, and watermelon rind. Later I decided that almost anything can be a pickle so we have pickled carrots and green beans. Later I learned to make homemade bread. All of this cooking and baking was taught at the elbow of one of my grandparents. Margaret taught the frying and pickling, Bill taught the bread baking, and Rhodella taught me never to be afraid of trying new things (thus the weird pickles). They have been gone for a number of years, but every time I cook these old favorites, I feel close to them again.

There Can Never Be Too Much Zucchini

Have you ever heard someone complain about an over abundance of zucchini? You won't hear that complaint around here. We fry zucchini, make zucchini chips, cut up zucchini and eat it with dip. Last night, we had zucchini lasagna for dinner. It was so good, I got up and has some as a predawn snack.

Here is how it was done

Layer
Zucchini sliced thin
Mushrooms sliced thin
Marinara sauce - tomato sauce, garlic, oregano, basil.
Mozzarella cheese
Parmesan cheese
Repeat

Bake at 350 for 45 minutes or until family members start asking, "What smells so good?" and "When do we eat?"

Sorry, I don't measure anything.

The Monkeys ate this up and did not notice the mushrooms, which they claim to hate. This is a first. They have superior mushroom locating abilities.

Zucchini Chips

I made zucchini chips this morning. They are all gone now. I ate two medium zucchini all by myself. These chips were good.

Slice zucchini into 1/4 inch chips.
Place on a food dehydrator and sprinkle with seasoning
I used Cajun spice seasoning
Dehydrate until crunchy

I am going to be eating a lot of zucchini.

Cool Down

Manly Man and I went out for an early lunch at the Cotton Gin before noon this morning. The Cotton Gin is a restaurant inside an actual old cotton gin. The food is home cooking with things like chicken fried steak, squash, mashed potatoes, red beans and rice, and an awesome breakfast.

Outside, it was still hot with blazing sunshine. This made me pine away for fall even more. The mosquitoes are loving this weather and eating on me. When we came out of the restaurant, it was still blazing and burning and making me sad.

We had been home about fifteen minutes and I wandered out into the garden to check on my fall tomatoes. Things felt very different. There was some cloud cover and the wind was blowing nice and cool. I pulled the thermometer out of the compost pile (the one that works, thank you) and it dropped down to 79. Yipee, cool weather outside at noon. We may even get a little rain.

So on a totally different topic, last night I made hardtack. Why would I make hardtack? I made hardtack because Middle Monkey gets extra credit in social studies if we do the occasional odd thing like making hardtack. So I tasted the hardtack and it tastes just like a cracker. I have tried to make crackers before with icky results. Apparently, I was over thinking it.

Hardtack
1 cup flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup water

Mix dry ingredients together. Slowly add water to the dry ingredients until it makes a soft but firm dough. Roll the dough out to 1/2 inch and use a fork to prick holes in it. Cut dough into 2' squares and bake at 450 degrees for 20 minutes. Turn them over halfway through baking.

So I figure if I add a little shortening and say rosemary then roll it out to a quarter of an inch then brush it with olive oil and sprinkle on some salt I might come out with some good crackers. Stay tuned, I am going to try it tonight.

Basil Harvest

Wow that is some bad picture. The lemon basil harvest is in full swing. The dehydrator is totally full and I still have a lot left. There is even more in the garden. I smell like lemon basil, nice. I need to find a way to use all of this basil. Manly Man's favorite meal is Italian fried chicken and spaghetti with pesto. I put basil in our regular spaghetti sauce. Other than that, I don't have any other ideas about what to do with all this basil. I tried making a pesto based salad dressing adding more lemon juice and olive oil to make it more runny. That was good, but it needed salt. Any suggestions on what else to do with all this basil?

Squash Soup for Silence

Silence over at Poor Richard's Almanac asked for recipes using butternut squash that do not use sweeteners. I picked up a butternut squash at the store earlier today and decided to make soup out of it. I am planning the same thing for Mr. Carver up there come Thanksgiving (my favorite holiday).

So here goes

1 Butternut squash

2 Carrots

2 Celery stalks

1 Clove of garlic

2 1/2 Cups chicken broth

1/2 Teaspoon onion powder

1/2 Teaspoon cumin

1/2 Teaspoon curry powder

1/2 Teaspoon ground ginger

1/2 Teaspoon nutmeg

1/2 Teaspoon ground thyme (I will use fresh next time)

1/2 Teaspoon paprika

Black pepper to taste

Cut the squash in half, remove the seeds, brush with olive oil and bake at 350 for about 20 minutes or until the squash can be easily scraped away from the skin. Saute garlic, carrots, and celery until tender. Put everything together in a blender and puree.

Make sure the lid of the blender is on tight. Trust me, I learned the hard way. Soup on the ceiling, not good.

Mine had a few carrot chunks, but I liked it that way. Milk or vegetable broth can be substituted for the chicken broth to make this a more vegetarian friendly dish. The soup was a little to spicy for the Monkeys. That's okay, more for me. I did a little research, and this soup is loaded with Vitamin A and beta carotene.

Is it wrong to tease a pumpkin?

Pink Pickles

Richard Saunders and the crew over at Poor Richard’s Almanac took a trip to the 13th Chili Pepper Festival in Bowers, PA yesterday. I like to think my “After Burner” sauce would fit right in with the hot sauces he described.

Richard’s blog report on the trip got me to thinking, I need to cook. I also need to do a little canning as red noodle beans, cucumbers, and such are coming in slowly. As I do not have enough produce for a large batch of pickles, the canning method will have to be refrigerator pickling. This is basically the same as regular pickle making except there is no water bath, the jars are not sealed, and the pickles need to be consumed in a couple of weeks instead of lasting for months.

The brine for the pickles I made today is equal parts vinegar to water, 2 tablespoons sea salt to each cup of brine, one tablespoon of dill seed to each cup or brine, and a couple of chili pequino chilies and garlic cloves per jar of pickles. Heat up the brine for a few minutes in the microwave and poor over sliced cucumbers and/or green beans (I use the red noodle or yard long beans). If you want to have a little more fun with this, add the sliced up stalk of a red Swiss chard to the brine. This will tint the brine pink making pink pickles.

For dinner we are having dirty rice. This is simply browned ground beef and rice with peppers, onion, garlic, celery, rice, and Cajun spice. I don’t measure anything. Everything is to taste.

I had to brown one of those giant batches of ground beef. Somebody, who will remain nameless, forgot to cut it up into meal sized portions before freezing it. So I will also make sloppy Joes and spaghetti sauce and put them in the fridge for meals for the next two days. Yippee, I don’t have to cook dinner on Sunday or Monday. What ever will I do with my time?

Another Way to Cook Zucchini

I know a lot of vegetable gardeners end up with too much zucchini or have family members who won't eat it. My boys will eat it stir fried with carrots and sprinkled with season salt. The whole family will eat coated in spicy cornmeal and fried. That is about the extent of their zucchini love.

Tonight I baked some pork chops with mushrooms, onions, olive oil, a little beef broth, and pepper. I had one good sized rhonde de nice zucchini. I sliced it really thin and added it to the pork chop bake for the last ten minutes in the oven. It was wonderful. I could make a meal of just the mushrooms and zucchini.

You Think The Weather is Hot Wait til You Taste This

James at Double Danger wanted to know how to make my hot sauce and Lisa at Miller Time had a good idea for an addition to my pickled peppers.

First gather the ingredients. Serrano peppers, chili pequeno peppers, one lonely red noodle been, sea salt, and vinegar.

Chop up the serrano peppers. Put the red serranos and chili piquenos in the food processor or blender. Put the green ones in a Mason jar. Cover the green chilis with vinegar and a little salt and store in the refrigerator. Lisa suggested putting some green beans in with the pickled peppers for a hot and tasty snack.

Add vinegar and salt to the red peppers (2 tablespoons salt per every 1/4 cup of vinegar) and process until the peppers are pureed. A blender works better, but I burned mine up this spring, so I had to use the food processor. Add additional vinegar to the peppers if needed. The sauce should be thin enough to poor easily. You DO NOT want this stuff thick. I know that is a lot of salt, but this is a condiment, not a dip. This sauce can also be made with habaneros and scotch bonnets or a mix of all these peppers. I use whatever is ripe. If you use habaneros the sauce will be orange instead of red.

Poor the hot sauce in a glass jar and refrigerate. Now for the disclaimers

1. Aunt Debbi is not responsible if you hurt yourself.

2. Do not put the hot sauce in a container with a metal lid. It will corrode the metal. I AM NOT KIDDING.

3. Make this in a well ventilated area. If you have ever smelled pepper spray, that is approximately what this will smell like in your kitchen.

4. Wear gloves, this will burn your skin and even worse things will happen if you do it barehanded and then rub your eyes.

5. This will turn into a "Hey y'all watch this" food as bubbas try to outdo each other seeing who can eat the most.

6. Eat only in small quantities. If you eat too much you will pay for it in a horrible way the next day.

7. I am the only person in our household who can eat this stuff.

My hot sauce does not have a name. Would y'all like to name it for me?