The Easiest Pickled Peppers

There is never a shortage of peppers in the summer garden. Peppers LOVE the Texas heat and my plants usually produce well into late October.  My boys love pickled jalapeños and pepperochini on just about everything, so I’m sharing the easiest quick pickled peppers recipe. It’s my favorite way to preserve peppers. 

PICKLED PEPPERS 

1 cup of vinegar (either white or apple cider)

1 cup of water

Three cloves of garlic smashed

1 Tbs salt

1 Tbs honey (optional)

Combine all the ingredients into a saucepan and heat until boiling.  Remove pan from heat and add sliced jalapeños.  Give it a quick stir and allow to cool slightly before packing into clean jars.  Seal jar with lid and cool on your counter until room temperature. You can enjoy them then or put them in the fridge for a couple of days to let the flavors develop. 

These peppers will keep up to three months in the fridge...

IF they last that long!

Saving Summer, Saving Seeds

For the most part, the summer garden is done with.  The only thing that loves this Texas heat are my peppers.  Since getting my cast off, I've really wanted to get out in the garden (because who wants to garden with a heavy, hot, sweaty cast!).  So earlier this week, the boys helped me weed some beds and I gathered the last few bits of summer from the garden.

Beautiful and fragrant Holy Basil for winter teas.

Besides the peppers, my herbs are the only plants still going strong.

Due to the pandemic, many seed companies are sold out due to panic buying.  But if you already have a garden, it's as simple as letting a bit of your harvest dry on the vine.  With a handful of our favorite pole beans, we'll have way more seed than we need for next year.

Same with the cucumbers.  Just let them over ripen on the vine and harvest hundreds of seeds.  And although I wish I could say this was all an experienced gardener's calculated move...

in honest, I simply let my garden go to hell because it was to hot to tend to it!

I even harvested the sunflower seeds that the birds didn't take!

I love that the garden is so forgiving.

Even if you neglect it, you still can reap it's bounty.

One fun project I did was stringing chili peppers for drying.  It's the first time I've dried peppers this way and I can't believe I haven't done it sooner.  When these beauties are dried, it'll be just in time to make the mole sauce for our Christmas tamales!

And you better believe I'm going to be saving those seeds!

I might even just leave it hanging in my kitchen so I can save the remnants of summer just a little longer.

Ten Weeks Post-Op

I had my 10 week post op check on Friday and things are going GREAT!  I got my cast removed, x-rays taken, and I was deemed well enough to begin life in a boot with partial weight bearing.

In typical "me" fashion, I was sure that as soon as that *$#@ cast came off that I'd be able to walk in a boot without any aides.  

I was wrong.

My leg muscles are extremely weak, my foot is still half numb and just imagine with every step you take you have the WORST case of pins-and-needles known to man.  

Trust me, it's not as fun as it sounds!

Don't let him fool you, he's just after my coffee!

So I hobble with crutches and sometimes my walker.  

I do my exercises and foot massage religiously.  

I will see the doc in three weeks and begin Physical Therapy.

I'm ready.

I have a lot to do!

Thank you for your prayers and company during this journey.

Cucumber Salad

Our #4 son, Daniel, played in a summer baseball league. It is a little over an hour from our home, right in the heart of Houston.  We usually had time to kill before the games and we soon discovered a wonderful Mediterranean market and deli nearby.  The shopping was so fun and the food was amazing!  We started a habit of taking a picnic dinner to the ball field every week. 

Since I don’t eat carbs, my favorite thing to get was a cold cucumber salad with warm chicken shawarma sliced on top. 

Let me tell you, it is DIVINE!

 

Our season is now over and we don’t have an excuse to travel to Houston at the moment, but I still find myself craving this salad.  I set out to try to recreate it (thank you, Pinterest!), and I think I’m pretty close.  Thank goodness for a late season bumper crop of cucumbers in the garden!

MEDITERRANEAN CUCUMBER SALAD 

3 Roma tomatoes diced very small

2 English or 4 Persian cucumbers diced small

1/2 cup diced red onion

1 green bell pepper

2-3 TBS each of dill, parsley, and cilantro

1 TBS dried mint OR 1/2 cup fresh

Juice of 2 limes OR 4 TBS red wine vinegar

3 TBS EVOO

Chop all the vegetables finely and then dress with the herbs, oil, and acid.  I am not a great lover of mint, but trust me, you do not want to omit it in this salad!  Dried mint brings so much flavor to this and it makes it different from any other cucumber salad you’ve had.   

It is the perfect summer salad. 

Now If I could just figure out how to make shawarma without the giant spit oven!