1.__________________________________________________________ Asparagus and Leek Soup Posted by: san_ (My Page) on Wed, Nov 20, 02 at 18:21 Asparagus and Leek Soup over low heat, saute: 2 finely chopped leeks in a little butter or olive oil then add: 2# chopped asparagus, 2 cloves chopped garlic, 2 C chicken broth, 1 C water when the veggies are very tender, puree them in a blender. return this to the stock pot and if you like it, stir in 1/2 C of sour cream. slowly reheat and add a little salt and pepper to taste. 2._________________________________________________________ Chilled Soup of Mixed Peas Posted by: san_ (My Page) on Wed, Nov 20, 02 at 18:21 Chilled Soup of Mixed Peas # snap peas, blanched and julienned, ¼ C butter, 2 minced shallots, 2# shelled peas, 2 C chicken stock, 2 C half and half, ½ C sour cream, lemon juice, salt & pepper, basil Melt butter in a saucepanadd shallots and sauté for a minute or two. Add peas. Reduce heat to low and cook about 5 minutes. Raise heat to high and add the chicken stock. Bring to a simmer, reduce the heat and cook 2 minutes. Blend in a blender until smooth and chill thoroughly. Whisk together the half and half and sour cream and pour this into the soup. Season with a squirt or two of lemon juice, salt and pepper and add a little shredded or dried basil. Garnish with the pea pods and serve. Notes: the above is fairly thick and creamy. You can substitute no fat half and half (which is pretty high in sugars) and no-fat sour cream. The flavor is still quite good but it is a little thinner, both in consistency, as well as flavor 3.__________________________________________________________ Mom's Parsley Soup Posted by: san_ (My Page) on Wed, Nov 20, 02 at 18:21 Mom's Parsley Soup Combine and simmer for about 30 minutes: 4 C diced potatoes (3 chefs or 5 or 6 regular ones), 1 C diced onions, 1/4 C butter, 1/4 tsp curry powder, 1 T worcestershire sauce, 1 ½ C water, After cooling the above mixture a little, pour it into an osterizer, adding about 1/2 C of milk and blend until it's VERY smooth. heat in a small saucepan: 2 ½ C chopped parsley, 3 C chicken stock, (the parsely and stock can be put through an osterizer or blended with a "power stick" but i prefer to leave it with a little texture) stir the parsley/stock into the potato/stock, and season with salt and pepper. check to see if it needs thinning with a little more milk. at this point, you can chill it or reheat just to the boiling point for serving. this will serve 8 easily. 4._________________________________________________________ Wild Mushroom Soup Posted by: MQmoi (My Page) on Tue, Nov 26, 02 at 18:15 As promised, here's the Wild Mushroom Soup recipe that got raves at the Autumnfest meal. It is from The Trellis Cookbook. I made it using Chanterelle mushrooms. If you read the Chef's notes, you will get other ideas, e.g., I made part of the soup ahead of time. Wild Mushroom Soup Serves 8 1 pound shiitake mushrooms or other available fresh wild mushrooms, 6 cups chicken stock, 1 tablespoon vegetable oil, 1 tablespoon water, 2 stalks celery, chopped, 1 medium onion, chopped, 1 medium carrot, chopped, 1 medium leek, white part only, chopped, 1 clove garlic, peeled and crushed, Salt and pepper to season, 6 tablespoons unsalted butter, ½ cup all-purpose flour, 1 tablespoon clarified butter, 2 medium tomatoes, peeled, seeded and chopped, 1 cup heavy cream Remove the stems from the mushrooms. Slice enough mushroom caps to make 3 cups. Reserve. Place the remaining caps and stems in a 2 1/2-quart saucepan with the chicken stock. Bring to a boil then lower the heat and simmer for 30 minutes. While the stock is simmering, heat the vegetable oil and water in a 5-quart saucepan over medium heat. When hot, add the chopped celery, onion, carrot, and leek, along with the garlic. Season with salt and pepper and saute until the onions are translucent, 5 to 8 minutes. Add the chicken and mushroom stock to the sauteed vegetables. Bring to a simmer. In a 2 1/2-quart saucepan, melt the butter on low heat. Add the flour, to make a roux, and cook until the roux bubbles, 6 to 8 minutes. Stir constantly to prevent browning and scorching. Strain 4 cups simmering stock into the roux. Whisk vigorously until smooth, then add to the large pot with the remaining stock and vegetables. Whisk until well combined. Simmer over low heat for 20 minutes. Remove from the heat and puree in a food processor fitted with a metal blade. (Pass the soup through a strainer if a smoother texture is desired.) Heat the clarified butter in a large non-stick saute pan over medium heat. When hot, add the reserved 3 cups sliced mushrooms and saute for 4 minutes. Add the tomatoes and cook for an additional 4 minutes. Season with salt and pepper. Add the cream. As soon as this mixture is hot (do not boil), add to the pureed soup. Adjust the seasoning with salt and pepper. Serve immediately. (This soup may be held hot in a double boiler for up to two hours.) The Chef's Touch Because of their wide availability on a year-round basis, shiitake mushrooms have become the fresh wild mushroom of choice at The Trellis. Many other varieties of fresh wild mushrooms are also available seasonally. Some of our favorites include: oyster tree, black trumpet, white trumpet, chicken-of-the-woods, morel, porcini, and chanterelle. When fresh varieties are not available, do not hesitate to use the dried variety, especially for a soup or stew. For this recipe, rehydrate 4 ounces dried wild mushrooms in 2 quarts warm water for one hour; drain well before using. If for some reason wild mushrooms, fresh or dried, are not available, an acceptable soup can be prepared by using 1 pound cultivated white mushrooms. If the soup is not to be served within two hours, omit adding the sliced mushrooms, tomatoes, and cream. Cool the soup properly (see page 315), then cover and refrigerate for up to three days. When reheating the soup, bring to a simmer before adding the separately heated garnish of mushrooms, tomatoes, and cream. 5.__________________________________________________________ No Peek Stew Posted by: Ann_T (My Page) on Thu, Nov 28, 02 at 19:26 Joanne, I have never made this nor do I know who posted it first. It has been posted numerous times though. This particular version of it I copied from another website. See link below. If someone would like to take credit for it, please be my guest. LOL. Ann. No Peek Stew 2 lbs. stew meat, 1 (2.5 oz.) can sliced mushrooms, drained, 1 pkg. dry onion soup mix, 1 (10 3/4 oz.) can cream of mushroom soup, 1 cup ginger ale, Throw all ingredients into a pot with a tight-fitting lid and bake at 350 degrees F. for 2-1/2 to 3 hours. Do not peek. Yield: 6 servings. 6._________________________________________________________ OLd Fashioned cream of tomato soup Posted by: Linda_inTennessee (My Page) on Thu, Apr 3, 03 at 21:42 OLd Fashioned cream of tomato soup serves 10 1 stick of butter, 1/2 cup flour, 4 cups milk, 2 1/2 lbs canned diced tomatoes, 1 1/2 cups tomato juice, 1 1/2 cups prepared bloody mary mix, 1 1/2 tsp salt, 2 tsp pepper, 1/2 cup sugar, 2 cups heavy cream make a roux in a large pot using butter and flour, careful not to brown. add remaining ingredients , simmer 15 minutes. garnish each serving with a dollop of sour cream and a touch of dill 7.__________________________________________________________ WINTER VEGETABLE STEW Posted by: Teri2 on Thu, Aug 28, 03 at 15:55 This is always a hit and it's just about my favorite winter dish. It never fails to amaze people who think they don't like brussel sprouts, including me! Use the tender, young sprouts of fall and they'll just soak up the yummy liquid and taste soooo good. WINTER VEGETABLE STEW 5 T. butter, 2 med leeks, sliced thinly, 1/2 lb. boiling onions, 2 cloves garlic, minced, 1/2 t. thyme, 1 bay leaf, rosemary to taste, 1/2 lb. mushrooms, whole or halved to bite size, 1 med. turnip, 1/2 in. dice (this is essential for flavor), 1 1/4 c. dry white wine, 1 1/2 T. soy sauce, 1/2 lb. Russet potatoes, 1/2 in. dice, 1/4 lb. small brussel sprouts, 1 c. hot vegetable stock (Knorr cubes work well), 1 T. wine vinegar, 1 1/2 T. molasses, 1 1/2 t. paprika, dash of Tabasco, salt and pepper to taste Use a large, heavy pot. Saute leeks, onion, garlic and herbs in 3 T butter until leeks turn golden. Add mushrooms, turnips, wine and soy sauce. Stir and lower heat. Prepare potatoes and sprouts. Add to stew. Stir again and cover. In a small saucepan, melt 2 T butter and stir in flour. Cook the roux for a few minutes. Add hot vegetable stock and whisk to thicken. Add vinegar,molasses, paprika and Tabasco. Add to stew. Simmer stew about 1 hour. Season to taste (if at all). Serves 4-5. Teri

Bon, I am glad you found the article helpful. The amount of pepper varieties available is mind-boggling and you can have fun growing new ones every year for the rest of your life if you want. There's so many that you'll never run out of new ones to try. In fact, there are 5 new hybrid pepper varieties among the 2015 All-American Selections national winners. I've never seen 5 different varieties of any one vegetable win in the same year. With almost all peppers, I prefer to let them stay on the plants until they reach their mature color, but I'll harvest bell peppers in the green stage and use them in Annie's Salsa if the tomatoes, garlic, onions, cilantro and jalapenos are ready to use.....I'm not going to hold up the whole canning process waiting for the bell peppers to go from green to red, orange or yellow. I just like the richer, fuller flavor of colored peppers. I suspect it is the commercial growers/grocery industry that has convinced us all to eat our bell (and other) peppers green---because green peppers have a longer shelf life. If growers wait and harvest the peppers at their mature color, the shelf life is much shorter. Carol, We've had that happen before, even when we've warned someone "don't take a bite of that one, it is really hot". They always think "how hot can it be" and then they find out exactly how hot. Some years I have grown the regular orange Habanero pepper as well as NuMex Suave Orange Habanero, which was bred to eliminate almost all the heat. (I think it is around 300-500 Scoville Heat Units.) To someone who doesn't raise these peppers, these two can be hard to tell apart, although the Suave Orange is more of a yellowish-orange than the regular orange Habanero. I always harvest them separately, placing them in plastic containers in the garden that are clearly labeled at the moment of harvest, and I store them in clearly-labeled zip lock bags, and still there will be some point at which a person mistakes the hot one for the low-heat one and lives to regret it Carol, Talking about peppers made me crave poppers too. I've made three batches since this thread began. Every year I am getting better yields than before with poblanos, which is interesting because for so very long they just would not produce much here. They have produced well since either 2011 or 2012. I'm growing a new one this year called Mosquetero. They are supposed to grow to 6" long x 3" wide and the plants are supposed to be heavy producers. I guess I'll find out if those things are true. Amy, I love finding varieties that I remember my dad, grandfather or one of my uncles growing. My dad told me once that "you can't find Amish Moon and Stars watermelon any more", and that was long before I found and started growing heirloom varieties, so I was thrilled when I found it and was able to grow it. I also grow at least one Big Boy tomato plant every year because he always grew it. He loved Big Boy and often about half the tomato plants in his garden would be Big Boy. I like having it in the garden because it reminds me of him. I generally dry some of each type of hot pepper that I make and make my own flakes for use in cooking. When properly dehydated, they store forever, and I can choose which kind of flakes I want to use while cooking. There are lots of pepper plants that I think are worthy of growing as ornamentals whether a person likes to eat the peppers or not. The black and purple ones are my favorite ornamental types, mainly because they contrast pleasantly with the edible ones I'm growing that mature to yellow, red or orange. . I grow Black Pearl and Purple Splash every year, whether I intend to or not. One year I didn't sow seeds of either one, but got some volunteers from the previous year. I've also grown tons of the NuMex ones over the years, like NuMex Sunrise, NuMex Sunset, 6-4, Sandia, Suave Red, Suave Orange, etc. The last 3 or 4 years I've really had to rein in my desire to grow 2 or 3 dozen pepper varieties because I was planting conservatively in the face of anticipated drought. This year, since we are having some winter rain for a change, I'm going to pretend we won't have drought this spring and summer (hey, it could happen!) and I'm going to plant a lot more different kinds of peppers. I need to make some Tabasco sauce and other things that I don't make every single year. Y'all, the NMSU Chile Pepper Institute sells the seeds of lots of the varieties developed there at the university as well as the seeds of some varieties they didn't develop. They include shipping and handling in the price per pack, so keep that in mind when you see their prices. I"ll link its website below. Here is a link that might be useful: Seeds @ NMSU Chile Pepper Institute

Amy, I always plant sweet bells in Spring but you probably could plant in mid-summer for fall. I haven't tried that. I'd rather have the sweet bell plants large, mature and ready to explode into a riot of blooms as soon as the Autumn weather cools off to the appropriate level. I've always felt like bells planted at mid-summer might not be as large or bear as heavily as those planted in Spring. Katie, You can make the famous Garden Web/Harvest Forum recipe for "Annie's Salsa" with ReaLemon or ReaLime juice substituted for the vinegar. Sometimes I make it with 1/3 vinegar, 1/3 ReaLemon, 1/3 ReaLime, but you can use either vinegar, ReaLemon or ReaLime or any combination thereof as long as you use the proper amount. It is an approved substitution for that specfic recipe. The reason ReaLemon and ReaLime are specifically listed is because they consistently test at the proper pH for use as a vinegar substitute in canning, while store brands of lemon and lime juice often test at a lower pH that would make them unsafe to use as a vinegar substitute. Here's a thread with the Annie's Salsa recipe that includes Malna's notes, including the note about using bottled lemon or lime juice. I don't remember if this thread has the explanation about ReaLemon or ReaLime being the approved bottled substitute or if that is in another Annie's Salsa recipe thread (as there are many, many threads about this very popular salsa). I can at least 200 jars of Annie's Salsa a year, and never make it with 100% vinegar, now that we know we can use bottle ReaLemon and ReaLime. We give it away as Christmas presents and our friends beg for more of it year-round. Yes, it is that good! Annie's Salsa Recipe and Notes I also roast and freeze tons of peppers, especially jalapenos, to use in cooking in the non-gardening season when I don't have fresh peppers. Rebecca, I grow pimentoes every now and then, but not really often. A few pimentoes go a long way at our house. Dawn

Sorry. I really didn't mean that I thought you didn't know what you were doing. I was just checking because it wasn't clear to me whether you had a mess of peppers in your kitchen that you wanted to use, if you were growing them all and wanted to use some, or if you wanted to make chili and could buy any of them. I have some Hatch chilis I need to use and I can't decide between chili, salsa, soup and chilis rellenos. The chicken recipe looks stellar. Habaneros are a pain (literally), but have such a great, distinctive flavor. There's a version of Bob's recipe in this thread along with a bunch of other recipes from regulars. For convenience I'm posting the following, which is the version I have saved (only a little different. It has more beef, and maybe one or two other differences): Bob_cville's Award Winning Chili 4 lbs Choice Angus Stew Beef 1 lb Smoked Sausage (chopped) 1/2 lb thick-sliced Bacon (chopped) 2 large Yellow Onions (chopped) 1 large Sweet Onion (chopped) 1 large Red Bell Pepper 2 Serrano Pepper (seeded and chopped fine) 1 Tbsp Oil 3 Tbsp Cumin 1 1/2 Tbsp Chili Powder 1 1/2 Tbsp Ancho Chili Powder 2 Tbsp Diced Pickled Jalapeno Peppers 1 Tbsp Crushed Garlic 1 tsp Black Pepper 2 15 oz cans Diced Tomato w/ peppers (drained, reserve liquid) 1 small can Tomato Paste 1 Tbsp Adobo Sauce 4 Chipotle peppers (seeded and chopped) 2 15 oz Bush's Chili Beans 3 15 oz cans Black Beans (drained) 1 15 oz can Small Red beans (drained) 2 12 oz bottles Dark Beer (porter or stout) 1.5 oz Lindt Dark Chocolate w/ Chili Spread beef pieces on baking sheet and place in freezer for about 10 minutes. Place in batches in food processor and pulse several times until meat is coarsely ground. Next in brown meat in large shallow pan over high heat in smallish batches, deglazing pan with the beer between each batch, keeping seared meat and the deglazing liquid in a glass bowl for later. Next smoked sausage until lightly browned, and remove that meat to another bowl. Then cook bacon until crisp, and remove to bowl with smoked sausage. Then add the onions to the bacon grease and cook over medium heat until onion is softened and translucent. Start large pot with oil over high heat, add red bell pepper and serrano pepper, stirring frequently until the peppers are browned and lightly scorched. The add onions to large pot and add chili powders, cumin, and garlic stir in well for a few minutes, then add tomato paste, pickled jalapenos, black pepper, chipotle peppers and adobo sauce, stir and cook for a few more minutes. Next add the diced tomatoes, all of the beans and the two bowls of cooked meat, and any remaining beer, heat to simmering and reduce heat to low and simmer for about 1 hour until the meat is tender. If the pot seems too dry after it reaches simmering, add some of the reserved liquid from the canned tomatoes. Remove from heat, stir in chocolate, refrigerate overnight. Reheat the next day to a low simmer, and serve with shredded cheddar on the side.