Bacon Hot Sauce

I like making hot sauce.  Last year I made a mean Jalapeno and Habanero hot sauce.  It is quite hot.  Two weeks or so ago, I made bacon hot sauce.  I saw some for sale online and figured, instead of buying it, I could just make some.  So I went out in the garden and picked jalapenos and a few habaneros, enough to make two pounds.

I took a few slices of bacon and fried  it with onion and some carrot.

Carrot because I wanted the taste of the habanero but not so much the heat.  They say that putting carrot in hot sauce, especially habanero hot sauces, brings out the fruity flavor of the habaneros while cutting the heat.

I cut the tops off the peppers and and put them into the blender, along with the bacon mixture and tomato juice.  Blended it good until it was pretty smooth.

When it was all pureed I put it in a pot on the stove and brought it to a boil for a few minutes.

When it was good and hot I quickly poured it into jars and screwed lids on them.  They soon started sealing.

After a week of sitting in the jars, I tried some.  It's not very hot.  Doesn't really taste like bacon either.  But it's still good.  Has an excellent flavor and color.  Not bad for a first time making bacon hot sauce.  Next time I will use more bacon, more habaneros, and no carrot.  The next hot sauce I'm going to make is a straight up habanero hot sauce.  That aforementioned Jalapeno and Habanero Hot Sauce that I think is pretty hot doesn't faze my dad at all.  He eats it like ketchup.  So I'm going to make a pure habanero hot sauce and if that doesn't make him sweat bullets I'm going to get some ghost chilies.

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Untouchable
by Before Their Eyes

Sausage, Sweet Potato, and Apple Bake with Corn and Black Bean Salad

It is just about fall, so that means fall themed foods.  I love fall.  I love the foods of fall.  Tonight's dinner was fall themed

First of all, I made a corn and black bean salad because it had to sit several hours.  I used canned corn and black beans, fresh bell peppers from the garden, onion, parsley, veggie oil, lemon juice, salt, and pepper.

Chopped the onion and bell pepper, then mixed everything together.  I tasted it and it was good, but needed something else.  So I added a bit of cayenne pepper.  Then it was excellent.

I put it in the fridge to sit while I made the sausage, sweet potato, and apple bake.  I used two nice sweet potatoes, fresh from the garden, and three apples.

Peeled the sweet potatoes and sliced them and the apples.  The recipe I was following said to peel the apples.  I did not.  I do what I want.  I'm a chef, not a cook.  I'm not bound to recipes.  I'm above them.

I made sausage.  Yes, I made sausage.  In this house, we make sausage.  We take ground turkey and mix it with a secret spice blend.  It's good.  It's cheaper than regular sausage and just as good, if not better.

I mixed the sausage with flour, sugar, cinnamon, salt, and water.  Then I layered the sweet potato and apple in a baking dish

and topped it with the sausage mixture.

Then I put it in the oven for an hour or so, until everything was hot and the apples and potatoes were soft.

Fresh from the oven.

Served, with a slice of Italian bread with bread butter and jam.

Not much to look at.  It doesn't make for good pictures, but it was delicious.  Good fall food.

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All That Is Not Music Is Silence
by The Sleep Design

Curried Bow-Tie Past and Vegetables

The other day I made Curried Past and Veg.  The veg I used was onion, elephant garlic, bell pepper, jalapeno, carrot, peas, and raisins.

I cut all the veg then sauteed it until soft.

Added some curry powder and cooked it a minute.

Then added chopped tomato, raisins, and some of the water from the pot of cooking pasta.  (They say using fresh pasta water like that in the sauce is the key to awesome pasta dishes.)  When it was close to being done, I added a few tablespoons of honey.

I also made garlic bread with French bread

and butter mixed with what we call  Johnny's Fine Food.  It's a garlic spread and seasoning.

I also made a simple salad of lettuce, shredded carrot, and sliced bell pepper.

The plate of goodness.

I'm not a big fan of curry, or at least some curries.  I liked this curry.  Something about the sweetness of the honey with they curry...it was much good.

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Pan Fried Porterhouse Steaks with a Baked Potato and Harvard Beets

The other night I made steaks for dinner.  It was raining pretty much all day, so it was soggy outside.  Didn't really feel like dragging the grill outside, so I pan fried them.  First of all, I made baked potatoes.  Wrapped them in foil with a bit of oil, salt, and pepper.  Then put them in the oven for an hour or so.

I was thinking about just heating up some green beans or something, then I remember the red beets that Todd is famous for at work.  Honey Ginger Beets I think it is.  I was going to make those, then Mom suggested Harvard Beets.  So that's what I made.  Got some beets from the garden and scrubbed them good.

Put them in a pot, covered them with water, and cooked them until soft.

Then I made the sauce.  It's like a sweet and sour sauce made from sugar, cornstarch, vinegar, and water.

Then I got the steaks cooking.  Fried them in iron skillets, sprinkled with salt and pepper.

Mom sliced the beets, because I was cooking the steaks, and put them in the sauce.  The beets made the sauce a nice red, almost pink.

The finished product.

 

It was good.  The beets were okay, I guess.  I don't really like beets.  Made this way they were pretty good.  Didn't have so much of an earthy taste.

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Spinach Lasagna

The other day, I made spinach lasagna for dinner.  I love lasagna.  Wanted to try something different though from the regular Five Cheese Lasagna that I make.  I've been wanting to try Spinach Lasagna, so that's what I did.

Thawed some frozen spinach.

Squeezed the liquid out of it by putting it in a towel and twisting the ends.  It works quite well.

Mixed together cottage cheese, freshly grated Mozzarella, eggs, the spinach, salt, pepper, and oregano.

Then I assembled the lasagna.  Some pizza sauce followed by noodles and the cheese mixture.

Repeated the layers twice and topped it with the last of the noodles, last bit of pizza sauce, and some reserved Mozzarella.

Then it was in the oven for an hour and 15 minutes.  I also made a salad

and baked some good old garlic bread from Target.  $2.04 for a big piece of garlic French bread, so I say that's a pretty good deal.

The yummy food.

It could have almost used a bit less spinach.  I should have chopped it too, I guess.  Oh, well.  Not bad for the first time making Spinach Lasagna.  I want to try making it with fresh, not frozen spinach.  See how that compares to this.

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Oldies. I'm blogging from my place of work, and the oldies are playing over the speakers. :(