Hot Pepper Jelly

I had never tried hot pepper jelly until my mother-in-law Judie served it at a party. She put out a block of cream cheese and poured the hot pepper jelly over it. I spread the combination on a cracker, took a bite and I was hooked. After that I made sure to buy hot pepper jelly whenever we visited. Until one day I found a source closer to home. But now I don't even need to leave the house (if you don't count shopping for the peppers). And the great thing about making it myself is that I can control the heat and leave out the food coloring. Sweet. (And spicy.)

HOT PEPPER JELLY

Yield: 3 pints

2/3 cup* roughly chopped hot peppers (such as habanero, jalapeño or serrano)

1 red or green bell pepper

1 cup apple cider vinegar
1/2 cup white wine vinegar (or white vinegar)

6 cups sugar

1 (6 oz.) box Sure-Jell Certo liquid fruit pectin (2 packets)

*Keep in mind that not all hot peppers are created equal. In fact, the small habaneros are much hotter than the larger jalapenos. So please adjust the amount to taste.

1.      Roughly chop all the peppers (you can leave in the seeds from the hot peppers if you like your jelly extra hot). Use gloves and keep your fingers away from your eyes when you chop hot peppers.

2.      Place the hot peppers and bell pepper in a blender with both the vinegars. Blend well and pour into a medium pot.

3.      Add sugar and mix well. Bring to a rolling boil and boil for 1 minute.

4.      Remove from heat, strain through sieve and return to a boil. Boil for 5 minutes.

5.      Remove from heat; add the liquid fruit pectin and quickly stir.

6.      Immediately pour into 6 half-pint jars (or 3 pint jars) and seal.

adapted from food.com, submitted by Jellyqueen 

I didn't measure, I just used 2 habaneros and 2 jalapeños.
I wanted to use only habaneros, so the color would be a more
vibrant orange/red, but there were only 2 left at the store.
Oh well. In the end, the green didn't take away from the
color all that much. I think it still came out looking decent.
If you want your jelly to come out green, obviously you
should use only green peppers.

I'm a little wimpy, so I removed the ribs and seeds.
This was just the right amount of heat for me. I'm
sure plenty of you out there can handle it much hotter.

hot peppers with red bell pepper and vinegars

after blending well in food processor

mixing in evaporated cane sugar

boiling for 1 minute

straining

You can skip this step if you like the bits of pepper in your jam.

strained mixture back in pot

boiling for 5 minutes

adding the liquid fruit pectin

You can add some red or green food coloring along with
the pectin if you want the color more vibrant. I didn't add
any (I don't really need my jelly to be visible from space).

mixed and ready to jar

ladling into a jar

I used 4 half-pint jars and 1 full-pint jar.

I don't know anything about real canning, so I used the hot
water bath method: Place jars in a large pot with a rack on
the bottom. Cover jars with 1-2 inches of water and boil for
5 minutes. Remove to rack to cool.

I didn't have a rack that fit my pan, so I put little
metal cups under my jars to keep them off the bottom.
It worked. I didn't need to seal the large jar (that's
already open and in play in our refrigerator).

hot pepper jelly close up

on a cracker with cream cheese (do this)

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Carrot-Ginger Quinoa Pepperjacks

I was definitely in the Halloween spirit this week, but not feeling terribly original I guess. First I made a snakewich (concept stolen from Better Homes and Gardens) and now I've gone and robbed pepperjacks from a blogger named spabettie. But can you blame me? Really, they're just so cute. I couldn't help myself. And the quinoa cooked in the carrot-ginger juice tastes really fresh and delicious. Plus it's good for you (that was just a happy accident).

CARROT-GINGER QUINOA PEPPER JACKS

Yield: 2

1/2 cup dry black quinoa

1 cup carrot-ginger juice (5 carrots + 1-inch piece ginger, juiced)

1 cup cooked black beans

2 orange bell peppers

sea salt

spinach salad for serving (optional)

1.      Combine quinoa and carrot-ginger juice in a medium saucepan; bring to a boil. Reduce to a simmer, cover and cook for 20 minutes.

2.      Preheat oven to 350º F.

3.      Hollow out and carve the peppers to resemble jack-o-lanterns.

4.      Combine cooked quinoa with black beans and salt to taste.

5.      Fill peppers and bake for 30 minutes.

6.      Serve over spinach salad if desired.

from spabettie

carrots and ginger

juicing carrots and ginger

If you don't have a juicer, see if you can find carrot or
carrot-ginger juice in the refrigerated section at your
store. If you can find plain carrot juice, you can always
grate some ginger and squeeze the juice in yourself.

carrot-ginger juice

black quinoa

I think this would also taste/look good with black forbidden rice.

quinoa and carrot-ginger juice in pan

cooked quinoa with black beans mixed in

cutting my pepper jack

I went a little overboard with my cutouts.
They should be much more dainty, especially the
mouth (unless you're actually trying to make it look
like your pepper jack is throwing up quinoa).

filling a pepper

filled pepper jacks, before baking

baked

See what I mean, the one on the left looks like
he just ate expired clams from a gas station.

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Stuffed Jalapeño Poppers

My husband really likes jalapeños and bacon, so I thought this would be a fun surprise for his birthday. But I didn't think my daughter would go for it, so I made half with baby sweet peppers instead. Turns out she didn't much care for those either, except for the bacon (which she proceeded to peel off four poppers before I gave her a cease & desist order). Looking on the bright side, now I know I can make her a big ol' pile of bacon for her next birthday and she'll be happy as a clam.

I'm not sure if these can really be considered "poppers" because you can't exactly pop one into your mouth. You need to take a few bites. I'm flirting with renaming them (I like the sound of jalapeño nibblers, but I have a feeling it won't catch on).

These are really delicious by the way. I can imagine them being very successful at a party. I'm wimpy (as many of you already know), so I only had the sweet peppers. Chuck really liked the hot jalapeños and I was very entertained watching him get up several times for drink refills while his eyes watered. (I'll never understand how anyone can think that's enjoyable.)

STUFFED JALAPEÑO POPPERS

Yield: 15 to 25

3 cloves garlic, peeled

1/2 cup sundried tomatoes, drained

3 large (or 6 small) basil leaves

1 (8 oz.) package cream cheese, room temperature

pinch of salt

15 to 25 jalapeño peppers, depending on size (larger ones are easier to stuff)

1/2 to 1 lb. pound thinly sliced bacon (smoked is great)

__________________________________________________________________________

1.      Preheat the grill (or preheat your oven to 375º F.).

2.      Place the garlic and sundried tomatoes in the food processor and process until finely chopped. Add the basil and process until finely chopped.  Add cream cheese and a pinch of salt. Mix until mixture is smooth enough for stuffing (it’s okay if there are still some small chunks of sundried tomato).

3.      Slice the top off each jalapeno, then slice lengthwise on one side, being careful not to cut the jalapeño in 1/2. Leave the seeds if you want them really hot (remove them with a small paring knife if you don't think you can handle the heat).

4.      Fill either a pastry bag or ziploc bag with the filling. Squeeze a liberal amount of filling into each pepper. Be careful not to overfill as the filling may spurt out during cooking.

5.      Wrap each pepper with 1 to 2 strips of bacon, securing the opening in the pepper. Secure the bacon with a toothpick (best to soak the toothpicks first, to prevent burning).

6.      Grill peppers until lightly roasted or bacon is fully cooked. Cook on foil if your peppers are cooking too fast or starting to burn. [If using your oven, cook until the peppers are lightly roasted, then increase the heat to broil and continue cooking until bacon is fully cooked.]

adapted from Joe Rao

garlic and sundried tomatoes

adding fresh basil

basil chopped

adding cream cheese

filling mixed

jalapeños

baby sweet peppers

hollowed out pepper

filling the pepper

I couldn't fill a jalapeño and take a photo at the
same time because I needed to use both hands for those.

stuffed pepper (remember to stop short of the
edge so the filling won't ooze out too much)

If you want to maximize their cuteness, you can leave the
tops on the peppers and fill them through the side slit only.

wrapped in bacon

I was in such a rush when I made these that I bypassed
cooking them at 375º F. and went straight to broiling.
They were good, but if you have the time, do bake them for a
little while first (my bacon was cooked a bit unevenly).

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