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Tag Archives: Chile Peppers

A Garden Story

12 Sunday Jul 2015

Posted by SaraS in Backyard, Memories

≈ 3 Comments

Tags

Chile Peppers, Gardening, Plants, wildlife

Many years ago, when I still lived in Illinois and owned a house in Aurora, Cricket found a nest of baby bunnies in the back yard. They were in a little hole, under a small picnic table. Cricket was much younger then (probably around 4 or 5 or so) and very much wanted to chase and eat the rabbits.

Newly Born Bunnies

Newly Born Bunnies

Laura (my partner at the time) and I had to go to a bit of effort to supervise Cricket and keep her from tearing up the nest. Later, as they became more mobile, I remember her chasing one across the yard. The bunny made it across the yard and hid behind the fence post. It squeaked while it ran, which for some reason surprised me.

Baby bunny hiding behind a fence post

Baby bunny hiding behind a fence post

Recently, I have been thinking about those baby rabbits. Back in May, we planted some pepper seedlings in several big pots (I’m a big fan of container gardening). Anaheim, banana peppers, and one variety of bell peppers. The pots all congregated in a sunny corner by the deck stairs.

Freshly-planted peppers!

Freshly-planted peppers!

A few days later, I was in the kitchen when Renee went down the deck steps and I heard her gasp. I followed her down the steps and discovered that some of the new plants were chopped down to just stems! All the leaves and most of the stem, completely gone!

This is one of the pots that was especially hard hit:

Pepper plants have been decimated!

Pepper plants have been decimated!

After some research, we decided that the pepper plant eating fiend was most likely a rabbit. Which made me think of those baby bunnies whose lives I saved back in 2005.

You’d think I earned some good bunny karma. But apparently not.

Anyway, we moved the pots up onto a table and out of reach of marauding rabbits. The untouched peppers continued to thrive, and, much to my surprise, the stubby stems of the eaten peppers began to grow back. After a few weeks, they looked like seedlings again, full of new leaves. By today, they had tiny buds just waiting to open up. They are pretty far behind the plants that were spared (we already harvested a couple small anaheims), but hopefully the growing season is long enough that we might get a few peppers out of them.

Today, Renee built a nice new garden bed, replacing some shaggy bushes that used to live along the garage. We used cool decorative brackets for the ends, and Renee stained the wood a nice red color. We had a minor glitch when the boards holding up the upper level bowed a bit; had to fix that with an emergency cross-brace. But otherwise it turned out great.

We went ahead and transplanted the recovered plants. Hopefully, having more room to spread their roots will help them catch up! Supposedly bunnies are less interested in more mature pepper plants, but we will be keeping an eye on these…if the thieving rabbit returns, we’ll put up some sort of fencing around the new bed.

Some of the peppers, nearly two months after being a meal for rabbits:

These peppers grew back from bare little stems

These peppers grew back from bare little stems

The new planting bed

The new planting bed

I love our new planting bed – and I love the fact that this garden story may have a happy ending after all.

Good Things in 2013

05 Sunday Jan 2014

Posted by SaraS in Dogs, Outdoors, Trips

≈ 3 Comments

Tags

camping, Chile Peppers, Gardening, hiking, rivers, snowboarding

So I already mentioned a couple reasons why I won’t miss 2013. The start and the end of the year were tough, to say the least.

But, to be fair to 2013, it wasn’t all bad. We had some good times in the last year…some really fun events and trips. I flipped through all the pages of my journal over the last few days just to remind myself of this…

Winter

Last winter was the year I learned how to snowboard! I remember feeling a bit ridiculous as I signed up for lessons at Lost Trail Powder Mountain. Who learns how to snowboard for the first time when 42 years old? Especially when you never even learned how to downhill ski, either?

I remember seeing little tiny toddlers scooting about on their adorably tiny skis and feeling somewhat jealous. Their parents had the right idea! Those kids probably wouldn’t even remember the painful falls (not to mention that they didn’t have nearly as far to fall!)

One of my first runs when I was off the bunny hill

One of my first runs when I was off the bunny hill

Spring

Renee spent much of the springtime helping Carolyn and Ally get their Potomac house ready to sell. I came out there a few times on the weekends to help as well. I think the day I remember the most was when Ally and I ripped out old, icky carpeting.

This all paid off in the fall when the house sold, and Carolyn and Ally treated us to a terrific weekend in Big Fork as a thank-you for the help!

Cricket and Tango hanging out at the Poto house while we did renovations…

Cricket and Tango hanging out at the Poto house while we did renovations…

Later in the spring, we took a trip back to my hometown, Batavia, Illinois. Renee got to meet my sister and see where I grew up. It was the longest trip we have ever taken in our trailer. It was also the first time we ever did the real “RV” thing, staying in RV parks with hookups rather than dry camping. I have to say, I can see the appeal of traveling this way instead of staying in motels!

Batavia windmill, down by the Fox River…

Batavia windmill, down by the Fox River…

Of course, we also did quite a bit of planting and garden prep in the springtime…which led to our best vegetable garden ever!

One of our pepper plant seedings in March

One of our pepper plant seedings in March

Summer

The summer was very busy and just flew by in a blink. Some highlights…

In June, we went white-water rafting on the Lochsa river in Idaho.

On the Lochsa!

On the Lochsa!

We also spent an afternoon at the shooting range, where I got to fire a few different guns and discover just how bad my aim was…although I did manage to hit a few! The holes marked with “S” were mine.

The holes marked with "S" were mine!

The holes marked with “S” were mine!

In July we took a terrific trip to Glacier National Park. I think this status I posted on my Facebook sums it up:

It was a fabulous trip. 12 days, nearly 70 miles of hiking, 11,000 feet of elevation gain, about 10 or so bear sightings, a few ptarmigans, some deer, three moose, a couple marmots, and too many waterfalls, mountain sheep, and mountain goats to count

As part of that trip, we trekked the long uphill to Ptarmigan Tunnel, which was incredible. Who came up with the idea of blasting a tunnel right through a high cliff face?

Carolyn at the tunnel!

Carolyn at the tunnel!

Otokomi Lake

Otokomi Lake

The people who rented my house on the other side of town decided to relocate to Portland, which caused me a few day panic. Much to my surprise, just a simple “For Rent” sign brought in the calls and we had new renters so quickly that we really only had time for a few quick repairs and touch-ups. This was a pleasant surprise, as I expected it to take much more time.

Finally, the summer ended with Renee’s 50th birthday celebration. We camped for the weekend up at Tally Lake near Whitefish. The camping trip was great, Tally Lake is a really nice lake (it actually made us want a boat), but the highlight of the weekend was zip lining at Whitefish Moutnain.

Renee and I zipping through the trees

Renee and I zipping through the trees

Did I mention our gardening success this year? We harvested about 17 pounds of peppers (anaheim, ancho, and bell peppers) and 19 pounds of tomatoes. Our freezer is still packed with roasted peppers, just waiting to be used on our favorite pepperoni, green chili, and mushroom pizza.

One of our pepper harvests weighing in at about 3 pounds

One of our pepper harvests weighing in at about 3 pounds

Fall

Fall has always been one of my favorite seasons. It came quick in 2013 since the summer flew by so fast.

In late August / early September, we decided to trade in our 22-foot Jayco trailer for a new Lance truck camper. It was an adjustment to lose storage space, but we are hoping we can now be more mobile on our camping trips and get into more remote areas than we could with the trailer. The Lance may be smaller, but it is a definite upgrade in quality.

We only had time for a few short weekend trips with the new camper, but we’re looking forward to some longer trips in 2014.

The new Lance camper!

The new Lance camper!

Later, in September, we decided it was time for a second vehicle. We bought a 2011 Nissan Juke. We want to use the smaller car for most of our around-town driving and even for driving to the ski resorts in the winter to save on gas. So far, the all wheel drive has performed great on the snowy and icy roads.

The new Nissan Juke!

The new Nissan Juke!

Later, in November, Carolyn and Ally took us, Martha, and Nancy on a trip to Big Fork as a thank-you for our help with the Potomac house. We had a great weekend exploring little shops and staying at the Mountain Lake Lodge.

So, I guess I have to admit that 2013 wasn’t all bad. I’m still hoping that 2014 will be better, though!

DIY Chile Roasting!

29 Saturday Oct 2011

Posted by SaraS in Cooking, Food Blogging

≈ 3 Comments

Tags

Chile Peppers, Pizza

Back in early September, we bought a bag of roasted green chiles at the Clark Fork Market. This was Renee’s idea, as she used to get roasted chiles all the time when she lived in New Mexico. I remember the peppers smelled great in my backpack on the bike ride home. We peeled and froze them. Then over the next month or so we thawed them out in small batches and used them on pizza. Pepperoni, mushroom, and green chile pizza is delicious! Green chiles are also great on hamburgers.

Once I saw how quickly we flew through that one-pound bag, we realized we needed to stock up on more. But every time we went to the market, the pepper-roasting people weren’t there.

Last weekend was the last market of the year, and again we didn’t see the people with the roasted peppers. So we decided this called for a do-it-yourself project. We bought a huge pile of fresh green chiles and then came home, determined to learn how to roast them ourselves.

Getting Ready

Drawer Stuffed full of peppers!

Drawer Stuffed full of peppers!

We didn’t have time to work on this at all the weekend we bought them, so the peppers sat in the crisper drawer in the fridge all week. They pretty much took up the entire drawer! So today I knew I had to get this task done. Renee had to work on a different house project (I’ll probably write a post about that too), so it was all on me this time.

I did a few quick Google searches and found a few useful pages with detailed instructions:

  • New Mexico Chile-Roasting Green Chile Peppers
  • How to Roast & Peel Chiles – Guide to Roasting & Peeling Chiles
My roasting station - the grill

My roasting station - the grill, a pot for the finished peppers, and my colander full of washed peppers ready to go

After reading up, I fired up our big gas grill, gathered up a few supplies and got started.

The first step was to wash the chiles. I did them in batches, so I loaded up the sink with peppers, washed them well, then filled up my colander.

Washing the first batch

Washing the first batch

On the Grill

Next I put the first batch on the hot grill. The peppers were big enough that there was no danger of them falling through the grate, so I just placed them right on the grate. I started with just a few the first time so that I could get the hang of it. It was also good to have plenty of room to turn and move them around.

First few peppers on the grill!

First few peppers on the grill!

I used tongs to turn the chiles several times to roast them evenly. The goal is to get them nicely charred on all sides. This picture shows just the very early stages of this — these peppers still have quite a ways to go.

Just starting to char

The chiles are just starting to char - they have a ways to go yet

As I went through the batches of peppers, I figured out that it worked best to initially place all the peppers with their stems pointing in the same direction. Then, as I turned them sideways, I also flipped them end-to-end so both ends cooked evenly.

Off the Grill / Steaming

Once a batch of peppers was nicely charred, I took them off and put them in a large pot with a lid. The purpose of this is to let them steam a bit, which is supposed to further soften the peppers and make them easier to peel. Since I roasted the peppers in batches, but only wanted to use one pot, I decided to wrap each batch in foil. They are supposed to steam for at least 15 minutes, although my later batches were probably in much longer than that.

First few peppers are ready to steam

First few peppers are ready to steam

According to the articles I found, you could also use paper bags to steam the peppers.

The peppers smelled especially great every time I opened the pot to add another batch.

Peeling

Once the first batch had steamed for a good 15 minutes, I started working on peeling off the charred skins. At this point I was doing three things at once: peeling peppers, watching the peppers still on the grill, and running back into the house to gather and wash the next batch to get it ready for the grill.

Getting started on the peeling

Getting started on the peeling

Peeling was probably the most time-consuming part of this process. It seemed that the larger peppers were the easiest to peel.

My peeling station

My outdoor peeling station. We should probably take that umbrella in before it snows

I had intended to take all the peppers into the house to peel when I was done with the grill, but it was such a beautiful fall day out today that I decided to just do the peeling outside.

Once I finished roasting the last batch, all that was left was peeling…and peeling…and peeling.

Packaging Up for Freezer

When we bought that one-pound bag at the market, I just froze the whole bag. This was a little inconvenient when I wanted to actually use some of the peppers since I had to hack chunks of frozen pepper off each time. So this time I decided to make individual packets to freeze, each one about the size I would need for a recipe.

So I separated the chiles into 10 little snack bags, then put the whole set into one large freezer bag.

Peppers all bagged up

Peppers all bagged up

Ready for the freezer!

Ready for the freezer!

Pizza for Dinner!

After smelling all these wonderful chiles all day, we had test them out with a pepperoni, mushroom, and chile pizza!

Dinner time!!

Dinner time! The roasting was a success!

Overall I was really happy with the way this “DIY” project turned out. It was definitely a fun way to spend a fall afternoon, and the results tasted great!

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