Hot & Spicy

A few summers ago, I discovered jalapeno jelly. It was delicious! I had it as a glaze on porkchops, on a hot deli sandwich in lieu of mustard/mayo, and even slathered some on some cornbread. It was fabulous...that is until it ran out and I had no more!

I searched high and low looking for jalapeno jelly. Farmer's markets had hot pepper jelly but usually it was red (not green like I had previously) and had chunks of peppers where the other stuff had been smooth. I asked a few friends that canned different things and none of them had ever made it. I finally found some at a farmer's market in Virginia when visited my parents. It was great but mailing something as fragile as a jar of jelly comes with risks and FDA guidelines ban liquids more than 3 oz. I had a dilemma!

The dilemma was resolved last week when I met my friend C. C is the Martha Stewart type. When I told her I loved jalapeno jelly, she offered to teach me how to make my very own. Oh my - I was in heaven! And to make matters better, the jalapenos came from her garden!!!

We left all the ribs and seeds in from the jalapenos make it extra hot and spicy. Here are all the lovely jars we made.

Here are the porkchops I made the next night.

Here's a crafty jar, where I added a swatch of fabric and took it to a friend's house who invited us over for dinner.

While I don't have all the equipment for canning (did I mention C's kitchen is to die for?), I do think I could can veggies/jellies/jams but on a much smaller scale than C and I did the other day. It was definitely delicious and worth all the time and effort to make it!

Mary, Mary, quite contrary, How does your garden grow?

Last spring, I planted a garden and had little success. This spring, I wanted to try again so I asked for a Lowe's gift card for my birthday so I could purchase all my supplies. First, let me define my garden. I live in an apartment on the second story. I have no plot of land so my garden must be contained in pots on my patio. Last spring, I tried the upside down tomato plant contraption. I wasn't sure it would work but I wanted to find out for myself. It produced four tomatoes. I may have produced more, had I remembered to water it. I also planted some flowers which were nice to enjoy but only temporary and a fern which the birds took over and planted a nest in. This spring, I decided to do something different. I saved my tomato plant contraption so I bought another tomato plant.

Here is the second harvesting of tomatoes: 

Clearly they are not ready to be picked yet, but they're turn red eventually and in the top left you can see another flower that hopefully will produce more tomatoes.

This spring, I have been much more diligent in watering and checking on my plants. But even with the attention to that very important detail, the cilantro I planted didn't make it.

 

Here is our jalapeno pepper plant, but it has yet to produce anything. It has flowers and the flowers stick around for awhile but eventually die or blow away. I'm hoping to see something soon. 

Now with the other pots, I have to confess, I am unsure of what all is growing in each pot. From the beginning, I didn't buy a different pot for every seed I had. I wasn't sure how successful I would be so I planted two things in each pot, hoping it would work but not willing to invest any more money than I already had. Here is the first pot, which I know has red peppers in it (hence the red pot), and perhaps some squash and/or zucchini. 

And here is the other pot that has beans and either the squash or the zucchini (whichever one isn't in the red pot). 

And yes I have 2 of those aqua globes that I found last year in Target's $1 aisle. They semi-work but I still water every day just in case that's not enough. I even asked my friend Amy to water my plants while I was away in Nashville at a work conference a few weeks ago. I'm trying to be very diligent in caring for them in hopes that they will produce a small harvest of food! My only regret is that when Jeremy and I owned a house with a large yard, I never bothered planting anything, not even a shrub.