Hurricane Hot Peppers

When the first bands of rain passed overhead around mid-day, the cool drops felt good.

Before the rain arrived, I went out in the heat and humidity to pick peppers. They are jalapenos and cherry hots.

I washed, cored and sliced them.

And I felt like my left hand was on fire from the pepper juice getting on it while I held the peppers for cutting!!!

Jeff came home from work and we pickled them in a mixture of cider vinegar, pickling spice and honey from a book called Small Batch Preserving. We had to triple the recipe...twice! They really do mean "small batch". We ended up with 10 half pints of jalapenos and 2 half pints of cherry hots. There are a couple of halves of garlic cloves in each jar. Here are the hot jars cooling on racks.

I think they are going to be "wicked" hot. We'll let them cure a bit and then try them on some quesadillas, fajitas or nachos.

Saffy, 100% lab, is perfectly content to lounge in the rain for a picture. Silas, with his bit of shepherd parentage, is not so sure it's such a great idea.

We expect Hurricane Earl to pass by out at sea tonight, bringing us rain and wind, but we are hoping it won't be too bad. I don't expect to get much sleep, but I am working on knitting Jeff's sleeves, so I will have plenty to do.