Ah, great minds think alike! I also have frozen poppers that I plan to prepare this weekend. Some are already breaded according to a recipe provided (I believe) by Linda Lou this summer when we were all talking about freezing poppers. The recipe says to bake them but I have to admit, when I tried them I decided I really prefer fried. Of course. Some are not breaded. I have made poppers before by wrapping them in wonton wrappers and frying and I really like the way that comes out. So I may do that. Haven't decided whether to thaw first or not, but probably will do so in the frig. Let us know what you do and how it turns out - you too bcskye. Ann, who used to be a huge Denver Broncos fan but now also watches only for the snacks and commercials

Hi Mark! You haven't posted in a while, so I'm glad to see you're still here. We preserve them by canning them. My husband loves peppers! I try to grow him a year's supply in the summer. We also love, love, love to make jalapeno poppers or to stuff them and grill them. I noticed Scott likes them stuffed and wrapped in bacon too! Medcave, While it is true that sometimes they don't cork, mine almost always do. Sometimes I pick them even before they reach corking stage too, like if we're wanting to make some salsa! Scott, I wasn't real crazy about Jalapeno M when I tried it either. Here in our garden it just isn't as vigorous of a producer as many others and it does seem slow. Both 'Grande' and 'Mucho Nacho' are highly productive--I think we get more peppers per plant from them than from any other jalapeno we've ever grown. Jay, I'm glad you commented on the flavor change. I can't eat many hot peppers because I am allergic to them, so I don't eat them often and thus don't pick up on the flavor changes I guess, and Tim is happy to eat them at any stage at which they're picked because he is a pepper maniac. Dawn

Paula, My experience with no cages is that the plants, even if only 3' or 4' tall, eventually fall over and that leaves the fruit vulnerable to pill bugs, sow bugs and every other tomato-loving bug in the garden. Also, heavily loaded branches can snap off which is even worse. I even cage 2' tall determinates for the same reason. In fact, I grew a row of dwarf plants (Orange Pixie, Canary Yellow and Red Robin) in the garden this year that reached 18" tall at the most. I staked each of them to one stake and it was a good thing because they carried heavy, heavy fruit loads and would have been lying flat on the ground without their stakes. Once the plants are too big to be caged, you can stake them, but I wouldn't rely on one stake for the main stem. I'd put up a stake for the main stem and one for each major stem. It will look a little silly, but it will keep your plants and fruit up off the ground. Or, you can use stakes and twine to do a Florida Weave type trellis. Normally, you'd use the Florida Weave as soon as the plants start to grow and keep adding more twine as they get taller. However, it is not impossible to go back and add it later. I'll link some Florida Weave instructions below. We made grilled poppers last weekend, and I think we'll make more today. Last week we stuffed them with a mixture of cream cheese, cheddar cheese and Monterrey Jack, and then wrapped them in bacon. This week I don't yet know what we'll stuff them with. We made a lot last week, so there were some left over and I heated them up in the microwave and ate them for breakfast! Ok, so it was not a traditional breakfast, but it sure was yummy. With the grandkids, there are so many fun things you can do. Remember that you can scratch their name into a young pumpkin or winter squash, and the rind will heal over but the scar still will spell out their name as it enlarges. Kids love that. And, save some bottles and then insert very young (newly formed) cucumbers or squash into the bottles and let them grow inside the bottles. (This works best in spring's cooler weather.) That fascinates kids. I've also found that children love to grow vegetables in odd colors like yellow tomatoes or purple bush beans. They also enjoy having their own plants that grow mini-watermelons like Black Tail Mountain, Bush Sugar Baby, Sugar Baby or Yellow Doll. One of the dwarf okras like Little Lucy or Baby Bubba are really fun for kids too. If you grow birdhouse gourds (plant as soon as soon is warm enough in spring because they take forever to mature) on a fence or even up a tree, y'all can harvest the gourds in the late summer or fall, let them dry over the course of the winter, and turn them into birdhouses by early spring. I could go on forever....there's so many ways to entertain a child in the garden. I almost bought Maddie gardening tools this spring but she was going on an extended trip with her great-grandparents and grandmother so she was gone for most of June. Then, she was back but soon off again to spend a month with her dad. It feels like she's hardly been here in Oklahoma at all. I do expect her back in early August though, so maybe we still have time for some quality gardening fun. She does have a watering can and trowel, and the cutest Holstein Cow rainboots, complete with a face on the toe area and a tail at the rear end of the boot. Mostly she puts on the boots and spends time filling up the watering can at the wading pool and then watering the grass. It is pretty easy to amuse a two-year-old. One day we'll have to do a whole thread on gardening with kids. I know we did one a few years ago and it was full of creative ideas. Pepper juice under nails. Yikes! I'm asking this tongue-in-cheek, of course, but what were you thinking? LOL I can't really think of any way to get it out of there either, but if I come up with any ideas I'll come back and post them. I ALWAYS wear gloves and won't handle hot peppers without them, but then I suspect you normally wear them too. Let's just say you were excited about the harvest and got caught up in the moment and forgot the gloves. Jay, Chuckwagon cooks! Oh, I am so jealous. My dad was a great cook, but not a chuckwagon cook, and he cooked on weekends. His favorite things to cook were anything from his garden! My mom, who did most of the cooking, couldn't cook at all. I just bet you ate a lot of wonderful meals growing up. I also bet you have a cast-iron stomach. I can only eat wimpy mild peppers, but Tim and our son's girlfriend eat the hot, hot, hot ones like habaneros. Dawn Here is a link that might be useful: Florida Weave How-To

technically this isn't a popper, it's also NOT fried. I prefer Afterburners Makes 12 servings Source: Southern Living Serve with a spicy queso dip 12 unpeeled medium-size fresh shrimp 12 fresh jalapeño peppers 6 slices bacon -halved lengthwise Peel and devein shrimp. Cut a slit in each jalapeno pepper; remove seeds and membranes. Carefully place one shrimp in cavity of each pepper. Wrap each pepper with 1 bacon piece and secure with a wooden pick. Place on a jelly roll pan. Broil 5 1/2" from heat for 6 to 7 minutes on each side, or until bacon is cooked. Serve warm. I bake them on the two-part broiler pan that came with my electric stove. The fat from the bacon drains nicely