Jellin'
I did a double set of hot pepper jelly in red and another in green. Neither are as hot as I would like. The red pepper is hot enough to offer to my Nawlin's kin, but they will think it is mild and interesting, but not hot. Most midwesterners would not be interested in the second bite and will think it's too hot. That was made with cayenne and standard red peppers according to the recipe. In the future, it will have more cayenne.
The green is very tasty, but I think everyone will consider it mild. It's more of a standard pickle. I used yellow/green salad peppers, sweet green peppers, and some pablamo and a very few jalapena. It has a really good, complex taste almost with lemon after taste. I would like to play with this over the years and come up with my own mix. I would like a really hot pepper jelly with a complex taste and maybe the best way is to take a mix of greens. Well, not Thai hot or Hungarian hot, but real Tex Mex hot.
The jelly part worked better this time than with the apple, cause I used liquid Pectin. If I continue my study of jelly, I want to know how to get natural pectin. It seems sort of cross purposes to buy good, organic vegetables and fruits and then add this chemical brew to them. Granted, the only thing bad in them is some preservatives, but still, isn't that why someone does canning anyway, for quality? I dunno. Maybe the green movement will eventually get around to Pectin and we will have an additive free pectin product that is just fruit gel goo in a vacuum tube and nothing else.
In harvesting my mint, I made a mojito syrup. It came out really yummy, but I have not yet used it for it's intended purpose. Screw that macerating stuff. I'm down with this lime/mint syrup thing! Bring the battery blender to Pennsic! I'm ready!
I would also like to make mint jelly. I have one more box of pectin and more mint, and still plenty of jars and lids in jelly sizes. I need sugar and apple cider for this. I am not sure I will get to it before the frost takes the mint, but we shall see.
Next. Pesto in small plastic freezer containers, including Purple Thai with sunflower seeds, walnut and standard.
My surgeon appointment is today at 3:30.
Generally, all the planting that we did is hanging in pretty well. The plants put under the large trees along the drive are suffering and some may be dead. I have not decided and will probably not decide until spring comes. Plants can fool you, go dormant and then come back fat and sassy in the Spring, so I'm not ripping anything up. This may be because they cannot compete with the trees and need extra help to get started, or maybe it is not a good placement choice and I need to rethink it. Otherwise, all is well and the deer don't like anything I planted! WOOT!
The green is very tasty, but I think everyone will consider it mild. It's more of a standard pickle. I used yellow/green salad peppers, sweet green peppers, and some pablamo and a very few jalapena. It has a really good, complex taste almost with lemon after taste. I would like to play with this over the years and come up with my own mix. I would like a really hot pepper jelly with a complex taste and maybe the best way is to take a mix of greens. Well, not Thai hot or Hungarian hot, but real Tex Mex hot.
The jelly part worked better this time than with the apple, cause I used liquid Pectin. If I continue my study of jelly, I want to know how to get natural pectin. It seems sort of cross purposes to buy good, organic vegetables and fruits and then add this chemical brew to them. Granted, the only thing bad in them is some preservatives, but still, isn't that why someone does canning anyway, for quality? I dunno. Maybe the green movement will eventually get around to Pectin and we will have an additive free pectin product that is just fruit gel goo in a vacuum tube and nothing else.
In harvesting my mint, I made a mojito syrup. It came out really yummy, but I have not yet used it for it's intended purpose. Screw that macerating stuff. I'm down with this lime/mint syrup thing! Bring the battery blender to Pennsic! I'm ready!
I would also like to make mint jelly. I have one more box of pectin and more mint, and still plenty of jars and lids in jelly sizes. I need sugar and apple cider for this. I am not sure I will get to it before the frost takes the mint, but we shall see.
Next. Pesto in small plastic freezer containers, including Purple Thai with sunflower seeds, walnut and standard.
My surgeon appointment is today at 3:30.
Generally, all the planting that we did is hanging in pretty well. The plants put under the large trees along the drive are suffering and some may be dead. I have not decided and will probably not decide until spring comes. Plants can fool you, go dormant and then come back fat and sassy in the Spring, so I'm not ripping anything up. This may be because they cannot compete with the trees and need extra help to get started, or maybe it is not a good placement choice and I need to rethink it. Otherwise, all is well and the deer don't like anything I planted! WOOT!