Hot peppers

We have found that peppers are something that we grow really well in our garden.  With the added help of the silver mulch, they did even better this year.  We got loads of green and red bell peppers, and the little sweet orange peppers called "Yummy" (no kidding, that's their name!).  We also got a lot of the hot chili peppers called "Red Rocket."  They're really hot, but they have a good flavor.  Last year we dried them and hung them in the pantry. We used whatever we needed by just pulling them off the strand and either clipping them or grinding them in the mortar and pestle.

This year we had so much, that even with strands hung up over the kitchen window, and the chandelier in the dining room, we still had leftovers.

So Pat decided to try drying them in the oven and then blenderize them with a little salt to help grind them up, to make crushed red pepper.  It worked great!  Now we have two whole containers of crushed red pepper flakes just waiting to be used in chili, soups, and refried beans!  The funniest thing is that a while back, we helped my mom clean out her old spices from her spice cabinet and we kept some of the old containers.  One was a glass crushed red pepper jar from circa 1970!  Too funny!