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I've been growing a habanero bush since February, and I've been blessed with a truly amazing crop this season. I've given away about a dozen since the start and still had almost twenty left on the bush after the really big growth spurt. I picked up a dehydrator and a canner so I could preserve some pepper chow chow and dry up the leftovers. It was a pretty fun weekend, that one... I didn't take off the latex glove cuz of the crap-your-pants fear. Handling a few dozen of the orange devils will do that. 
I'm going to have just enough peppers left over to make some habanero honey. It'll take six months to sit, but I hear it's amazing as a glaze on meats. I'll let you guys know in '11.
The chow chow came out pretty good. I had enough to can three pint mason jars and just enough left over to fill half of another (got to enjoy that one on all my sammiches and salsa snacks that week)! It's simultaneously really sweet and really spicy. You get both sensations pretty quickly.
So now, I have two toys to play with: a really nice Nesco 700W dehydrator, and a canner with about two dozen pint jars left over. I'm having way more fun than I should with both of those. I'm getting the hang of cleaning off the fat and cartilage from round steak, and now my marinated jerky batches are coming out excellent. I marinate my meat in two batches: half my meat in a teriaki and sesame seed sauce, the other in italian dressing, and all of it coated with red curry powder. Though I haven't quite gotten the hang of storage...they seem to get moist when I keep them in an air tight container. Good thing they don't last long enough for that to be a problem.
The canner is a beast of a different color. I find myself making lots of salsa with some of the dried peppers, though the longer the salsa sits the more the heat from the capsaicin dissipates. I wonder if the acid from the tomatoes is counteracting the base of the capsaicinoids. I'm experimenting with spices for now, so I'm going to be having a lot of fun with this. I'll get to can some preserves next spring if my strawberries come through. Now I just gotta figure out what else I can make and can up.
I may be just a wannabe foodie, but I think I did good.
I'm going to have just enough peppers left over to make some habanero honey. It'll take six months to sit, but I hear it's amazing as a glaze on meats. I'll let you guys know in '11.
The chow chow came out pretty good. I had enough to can three pint mason jars and just enough left over to fill half of another (got to enjoy that one on all my sammiches and salsa snacks that week)! It's simultaneously really sweet and really spicy. You get both sensations pretty quickly.
So now, I have two toys to play with: a really nice Nesco 700W dehydrator, and a canner with about two dozen pint jars left over. I'm having way more fun than I should with both of those. I'm getting the hang of cleaning off the fat and cartilage from round steak, and now my marinated jerky batches are coming out excellent. I marinate my meat in two batches: half my meat in a teriaki and sesame seed sauce, the other in italian dressing, and all of it coated with red curry powder. Though I haven't quite gotten the hang of storage...they seem to get moist when I keep them in an air tight container. Good thing they don't last long enough for that to be a problem.
The canner is a beast of a different color. I find myself making lots of salsa with some of the dried peppers, though the longer the salsa sits the more the heat from the capsaicin dissipates. I wonder if the acid from the tomatoes is counteracting the base of the capsaicinoids. I'm experimenting with spices for now, so I'm going to be having a lot of fun with this. I'll get to can some preserves next spring if my strawberries come through. Now I just gotta figure out what else I can make and can up.
I may be just a wannabe foodie, but I think I did good.
farts... 
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