Hot Pepper Sauce

Back in October, when I had that big pile of peppers to use up, I didn’t put them all into Harvest Chili—I used some to make hot pepper sauce.  Why, you might wonder, would anyone go to the trouble of making hot pepper sauce from scratch when there are so many on the market to choose from?  Well, for one thing, it’s not really all that much trouble, so long as you don’t put the blender together wrong. And, if you did, by some chance, maybe get the gasket on the wrong side of the blade insert, and now you notice that hot pepper juice is leaking out over the base of the blender and counter, don’t panic. (Also: don’t try to pour the contents right out into the saucepan you have sitting ready on the stove—you would not believe how much more pepper juice will leak out of a not-properly-put-together blender if you upend the sucker.) Just calmly get your biggest mixing bowl, empty the contents into it, and put the blender back together the right way.  At least, that’s what I’ve heard…

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Harvest Chili: A fitting end for end-of-season bounty.

When the weather begins to turn cold again, I get a hankering for all those cold-weather dishes that I haven’t had in a while.  Today, with great, wet snowflakes falling outside between freezing raindrops, is certainly crying out for chili.  Fortunately for once, I was ahead of this particular weather trend.

While we were still enjoying warm sunny days during the past week, I was plotting ways to use up a whole mess of end-of-season peppers. And one of my favorite things to do with a big, unruly pile of assorted use-it-or-lose-it produce is to throw it all into my largest pot, with a bunch of spices, and let it simmer for about a half a day.  (See where the cold-weather bit comes into the picture again?)

Start with a Big Mess o' Peppers

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