I am getting excited for soup and chili season! We are hitting the low 50's at night this week and it's really getting the fall mood going. I haven't made any yet though.

Low 50's already?! We are having a hot night in CT. While I do love soup/chili/stew season I have not had enough heat to recover from last winter yet! Also having a terrible garden year due to my neglect.

Hot sauce huh? That sounds interesting. I was thinking pizza/pasta sauce! I second ob2b- tell us more!

I wish 'twas the season for me, my tomatoes just aren't ripening! Setting on, but very slowly..... :(

Just cookies for the kiddies here. And tollhouse pull aparts at that....hey cut me some slack I just moved in.

Canned a lot of tomato sauce for pizza sauce a few weeks ago. A version of Alton Brown Tomato Sauce

Last week - local market had raspberries $1 per 6oz package. Made jam and pepper jelly with them.

Will, that looks so good! We had lousy weather for gardening this year--our garden was water-logged for weeks, so no extra tomatoes. Peaches were good, though--I made cobblers, preserves, peach butter, and put some in the freezer. I'm looking forward to apple season.

Yesterday was my elder DD's BD, and instead of cake, I made 5 batches of brownies--does that count? ;)

We were waterlogged last year and the year before our tomatoes were hit with late blight. So we're happy to be back to a healthy growing season again.

As far as the brownies go, Heck Yeah! Got pictures?

This isn't exactly a glamour shot, but boy are they good! Had a couple this morning with coffee. One batch was sugar-free for my diabetic father, so it went home with him, and this is what's left:

Few tomatoes this year but we have an bumper crop of apples. Planning on canning some pie filling tonight. Yummmmmm.

We have just a little garden, but it's doing very well. Lots of cucumbers, and the heirloom tomatoes will be ripening like crazy soon. I also have cute (and tasty) little red peppers. This was one day's harvest - DH and I tried our hand at canning, with a small batch of apple/tomato chutney (which was delicious).

mmmmm...yum to everything.

Boy am I hungry now!

Annkh - 1 day's harvest? More than my entire season!! Fouramblues, may I inquire as to how one gets onto your Xmas list?

Next year I'm putting in 1 hill of cukes (instead of 2), and 2 tomato plants (instead of 3).

Water is cheap and plentiful here, and having a sprinkler on a timer makes it easy to keep things watered. And we've had perfect weather.

My DD made an apple pie from wealthy apples last weekend for my birthday. I hadn't had that variety since I was a child -- had forgotten what a nice apple it is! The pie lasted oh, not quite 2 days! That's the nice thing about apple pie, good for all 3 meals!

I dried a lot of fruit this year -- had a good crop of both blueberries and strawberries (miraculous for the strawberries since it was so wet and cool). Used an electric dehydrator, now have fruit to put in oatmeal all winter! But, because of the cool temps, there has ripened exactly one fig from the dozen that the bush set. And my eggplant has just sat there. Also, my calamondin dropped all of the fruit that it had set late last winter.

I tried a pepper variety called "sweet pickle" which has done well and is just starting to ripen; and as usual getting lots of tiny cherry tomatoes. I need to think of something different to do with those. I love tomato, but it does seem to make my arthritis flare so I have been eating a lot less in sauce, soups etc. Maybe I'll make green tomato pickle instead of letting them ripen.

I have one large pumpkin coloring up from a huge volunteer plant, but I noticed this morning that (I think) borers have attacked the vine. I hope that it will survive long enough that I can pick the big guy!

DH came in shouting "we have pear!" And that is all we got this year - 1 pear.

LOL, Oasis. Did you eat it? Or did your DH pet him and hug him and call him George? :)

LOL funky, he is still coddling it, watching it every day, and waiting for the PERFECT moment to pick it.

lol oasis, u just made my day, so funny!!! enjoy that pear!!!!

Ha, funky, that is what I did with my fig! Didn't want it to drop and be eaten by the raccoon! (Watching it every day, that is, I didn't name it!)

That's hilarious oasisowner. Growing up my mother practically named the raspberries. Even this summer she was giving me, in the latter half of my forties, picking instructions :-)

raee_gw - watch those raccoons! At our old house we had hundreds of grape clusters that the #$%@ raccoons would gorge themselves on. Like clockwork, 2-3 days before the grapes were sweet enough for us, raccoon grape orgies would commence in the arbors.

Wow.. I have no words.. I am in awe of some of the stuff you are all doing. I cannot really do much. Most my kitchen stuff is in storage until the new house is done. The house we just sold had 5 raised gardens we made, each 12'x3' and I had bell peppers, jalapenos, tomatoes, everything and now we live in a 2 bedroom apartment and I cannot even fit my kitchenaid mixer in the cabinet :P

I will have to live vicariously through all of you till next year!

It all looks beautiful btw.

Nightowl - I wish they had a forum here just for cooking.. I'd find a way to bribe you into it and tell me all about your cooking! heh..hell all of you! :P

Russ

I can't imagine leaving those gardens. I hope the time passes quickly for you and that you are in a place with a real kitchen and a good garden soon. I am not so great. There are AMAZING cooks here and I am not one of them. But, we sure enjoy trying new things and experimenting. When we were raising kids and all that, not so much. Sadly. But now our kitchen is a 3-4 adult playground and we enjoy vegetable gardening and canning. Here is herb linguini. Really easy to make and so good.

That is awesome. I kept holding back. I literally would have so many things cooking at once, I ran out of places to put them. When I get to making my bread, I will have 3 loaves cooking, three sitting ready to go in, and three pans in the sink being washed to prep.. heh. When we packed the house, my wife was like, "do we really need all of these?".. no answer was needed when she saw my face :P

We had great dirt in the gardens for a couple years. I cultivated it each year, adding what I felt it needed etc.. then, the last year we were there, I let some yahoo talk me into letting him provide dirt he swore was awesome.. and it ruined it. It stunted the growth of our nice plants and we were going to sell so I did not fix it.. but man we had some good soil before that.

I am looking at making a much larger garden on the new place, which will have 2 acres so plenty of room. I'll have dirt brought in because these old bones can't carry 40 50lb bags of dirt anymore :P

Russ

Our tomatoes have done better this year than they have since we have lived here...15 years. We have 6 tomato plants and we have had tomatoes coming out of our ears...but my husband has been eating them as if he'll never get another one so no canning this year. This was my KAW from yesterday. I've been seeing this recipe on FB and Pinterest for weeks and was looking for an occasion to make it. A co-worker is celebrating her 20 year anniversary on the job on Saturday so I made this for her. It came out so good and can't wait to dig into it today!!!

DCward, that is beautiful! What is the bottom layer? Pineapple upside down cake was my husband's favorite, I always made it for him on his birthday.

Looks amazing. Can you share a link? I doubt I could bake such a perfectly made one though. Raee -- what a nice memory. He must have been a special guy.

The bottom layer is cheesecake, pineapple upside down cake is a favorite of mine as well. This cake was AMAZING!! I'll post a link to the recipe in the morning.

As promised, although a week or so late...

Hot Sauce!

First, the pepper plants.

It was a good year so 24 bottles in all.

Some Habanero, Some Cayenne.

Russ, try this: http://ths.gardenweb.com/forums/cooking

Not all of the same people, but there is overlap.

Willtv.. that is so cool.. we make salsa.. but never made hot sauce. You have a good recipe(s) you like to use?

Thanks! I will check out that link, Hatethecold!

Russ

Russ,

If you'll PM me I'll send the recipe along.

lol.. no idea how to do that, sorry :P

R

If you'll click on my user name you'll see, on the page that loads, in the top right corner, a button that's labeled "message". Click on that and you'll be able to send me an email.

yea, only see following facebook, share link, and google+... no message

Unless that google+link goes to you...that is the closest to a message you have.

R

Interesting. If I click on your name I see the message box underneath the Facebook & Google+ logos. If I click on some others, I don't.

In any event, I'll get the recipe and send it to you. Probably tomorrow.

It is a setting. If you click on "Your Houzz" upper right and click on "Edit Profile" then scroll all the way down, there is a box that says "Who can message me" and it is a drop-down menu that allows you to set it to followers, or anyone etc.

Russ

Russ,

I was going to message you but couldn't figure out how to attach the Hot Sauce recipe file.

So, here it is for all to see.

Full disclosure, it's from The Whole Chili Pepper Book.

Thank you Willtv:)

Willtv - how long does it last before spoiling? I assume it is kept in the refrigerator?

Amazed at all your produce! We planted one bell pepper, one cherry tomato and one watermelon plant in a flowerbed for fun. We didn't get much; the kids enjoyed finding, picking and eating what they found.

Has anyone seen this blog? She grows and makes tons: amazingly she feeds a family of 9 for $100 a month.

http://theprudenthomemaker.com/blog/tags/tag/40-cents-a-day

I did make an easy applesauce cake and one bowl carrot apple muffins ( with banana) a vegan GF recipe but I just made it "regular".

http://www.food.com/recipe/applesauce-cake-186855

http://minimalistbaker.com/one-bowl-carrot-apple-muffins-vegan-gf/

nightowl , Yes. I keep it refrigerated. I've used it as long as a year later without any problems.

It's great to see the diversity of culinary talent being contributed here.

Lord.. Will.. that is some hot HOT sauce.. lol. I made it last night. I do not think I did it right or my blender is junk. It turned out a little "grainy".. not like a Tabasco sauce or Louisiana sauce.. more like a watery salsa..but LOOKED identical to your pictures. My blender needs to be replaced I think as it did not "liquefy". BUT.. that being said.. it emanated HOT.. lol!

Thank you :P I cannot wait to make some breakfast tacos and test it on my co-workers.. lol

Russ

Russ - pass the results through cheese cloth.

Allrighty, will do that! Thanks!

I bought 48 hot sauce bottles.. lol. The cost of buying 12 and shipping them was more than the dang 2 cases of 24 I found with free shipping heh. Gona take a LOT of peppers to make that much sauce!

How long does it last, btw? Can't make more in the apartment I am in.. but when the new house is done.. this will be on my "make it for Christmas presents" list.. heh

Russ

Putting the gardens to bed this weekend.

I strained the sauce and that worked. I ended up with ONE 5oz bottle full.. lol.. so need to make a muuuuuch bigger batch if I want to fill up those bottles and use them for Christmas gifts, but that will be next year. The kitchen is this apartment can't handle that ;)

Going to try a Tabasco pepper sauce for comparison.

R

Russ,

Yeah, the habanero sauce is realllly hot. And it comes out pretty thick even after straining, But, it's soooooo good!

Nightowl, that's quite the collection of root veggies. Something that I've never had luck with. My garden gets pulled out in the next week or two. Another reason to hate the winter ;)