It's been a great weekend. I love the heat. Seriously, I do. The only reason I have an air conditioner in my room is for the pups, otherwise I love the summer heat - especially all the goodness that summer heat brings. Inspired by summer heat and a recipe I found in bon appetit magazine, I am making my own hot sauce - just for fun. One does not visit the country of India five times without developing an appreciation for hotness in their food. I am definitely not one that prefers spicy hot, but I have many family and friends who love it, so this is mostly for them. The recipe is very easy - no cooking on the stove since the habanero peppers provide all the heat necessary. I am going to label it 'Hawesome Hawbanero Hawt Sauce'! Pretty catchy, huh? :) Yesterday I bought two pounds of habanero hot peppers at Whole Foods. Meg and I had a blast there. It's the first time I've ever been. Their produce is amazing. The store was quite overwhelming with all the specialty items they have. It will take a few visits for me to not be mentally exhausted taking in all the details of green, organic lifestyle - perhaps a topic of a future post. So today when I came home from church, I did the first step in making the sauce: de-stemming the peppers and processing them with kosher salt. I am making a double batch (I always make double batches of most everything I make.) The peppers are now happily beginning a little ferment cycle. Then I add vinegar and finish the fermenting in a day or two. Here are pictures of this first part of the process. The above pic shows the habanero's all prepared for processing...
Processing to a chunky pulp:
Put into jars for a little fermenting until step number two can be completed.
So... stay tuned for the completion of the Hawesome Hawbenero Hawt Sauce recipe!
Of course, a blog post would not be complete without the latest antics of the menagerie... so we had given the kittens their own ball of yarn to play with because they kept tearing apart the one I was using. After having a wonderful dip in the pool and soaking up some rays, this is what I came in the house to find:
Oh, yes. Caught red-handed. And true to form when I asked them WHAT they were DOING! Lucy, all wiggly and always eager to please, immediately dropped the yarn ball and came over to sit in obedience before me... as you can see, Aslan didn't find it that big a deal...
Unfortunately, I am not very good at holding my facial expressions. I have never been able to display any other facial expression other than what I feel - and in this case, it was laughter. Hence, the next picture - okay I guess it was not that big a deal. Aslan is true to his name. Very wise. :)
He just continued on with his yarn ball fun. Hey, it kept them busy for an hour!
While I was busy with my hot sauce (and vat of spaghetti sauce) making, Meg was busy with her inspiration which we got to enjoy: Blackberry Nectarine Galette. Yes, it was as delish as it looks!
I don't have the 'baked' picture yet, but will post it next time.
Until then, enjoy the heat!