Peppers!

The garden in my back yard has been giving me jalapenos pretty steadily for the last week or so. Which means I have about 15 of the little green peppers of awesome in my fridge waiting to become something. Then today I went out to Fwigf and discovered that my Bird's Eye had peppers on it, not just flowers. I'd never had birds eye peppers, I had no idea what they tasted like. So I handed one of the small, green, thin and long peppers to my husband to taste. 

Darlings? Bird's eye peppers are Hot. Angry hot. I've had hobs that were more restrained and polite. I now have 5 or 6 of these devil peppers in my fridge waiting to become something. 

The thing with peppers is you can't can them. Botulism is a thing. A thing you'd rather avoid, trust me. Ergo home canning peppers is not something I want to risk. I'll leave that to professionals in sterilized kitchens. So what CAN you do with a windfall of hot peppers?

Chili. 

And so my dears I give you:

Mia's Crockpot Cheater Chili

You need:

Roughly 1 pound of sweet sausage

1 medium sweet onion

1 large can of crushed tomatoes

1 large can of diced tomatoes

2 table spoons of minced garlic

1 ounce of tequila

Jalapenos

Bird's Eye Peppers (or any unreasonably hot pepper will do)

3 stalks of celery

about 2 carrots

either 1 can of kidney beans or 1/2 a cup of dried beans

2 medium sized potatoes, diced

If using dried beans: Soak over night and rinse well (multiple times) before adding to the chili. 

Cut the sausage up if you have it in links. Brown it in a pan with the garlic and onions (roughly chopped). Put the browned sausage, onions, garlic, and pan drippings into the crock pot. Seed and dice your peppers. Dice your celery and carrots. Add everything to the crockpot set on low (do not drain the tomatoes). Proceed to ignore it for about 6-8 hours. 

Serve over rice with cheese and sour cream. Keep a glass of milk handy, just in case. 

I am going back to Fwigf tomorrow since there is a lot of work that has to get done. Life has eaten me so I haven't been out there as frequently as I should, and I want everything back to organized chaos before life eats me again.The plan for tomorrow entails:

Weeding. The weeds are taking over. I do not approve.

Picking lettuce. It came back. I do not approve.

Planting Turnips where the lettuce was. Turnips are much better.

Tying up my tomatoes

Reigning in my pumpkins

Harvesting some spinach

Not getting heatstroke and dying. 

Picking through the dead potato buckets for potatoes and mounding the living ones with the dirt. 

We will see how much I get done.