hot

Is HOT the best word to describe the 2017 crew of hot sauces? NO.  Mouth of fire... the Punisher... or May Cause Death, as one of Mark's sauces is proudly named, are way better descriptions.  These are not for the weak!  Even his buffalo style sauce, which is the "mildest" of the four, is still full of heat.  There's a good reason a dropper is used here because you're really insane if you think you need to pour this stuff on.  Mark's pepper plants were outstanding this year as it was a perfect summer for growing peppers.  The 2017 Sauce Line Up is made from his Carolina Reaper, Trinidad Scorpion, and UK hybrid Bubblegum peppers.  Eat at your own risk.

Grandma Rose's Apple Cake

If you live in the Midwest and/or have German/Polish/Eastern European heritage... you probably grew up with this apple cake.  My Grandma Rose used to make it regularly and as a kid, I LOVED it.  It's not a cake that needs frosting and is super delicious plain or with a little powdered sugar on top.  A scoop of vanilla ice cream wouldn't be bad either!  Imagine if Apple Pie and Cake had a baby...this would be it.  I opted to make mine today with NO nuts and I added a tiny bit of Vanilla. 
IT IS SOOOO GOOD!

Ingredients

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1  3/4 cups sugar
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• dash of salt
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 3 eggs, lightly beaten
• 1 cup cooking oil
• 1/2 - 1 teaspoon vanilla (optional)
• 5 medium apples, peeled and diced
• 1 cup chopped pecans or walnuts, toasted (optional)

Directions

1. Grease a 13x9x2-inch baking pan; set aside.  In a very large bowl, combine flour, sugar, baking soda, salt and cinnamon and set aside.
2. In a medium bowl, combine eggs, oil and a ½ teaspoon of vanilla (vanilla is optional);  Add egg mixture to flour mixture, stirring just until moistened (batter will be stiff). Stir in apples and nuts (nuts if desired).  Spread batter in prepared pan.
3. Bake in a 350 degrees oven for approx. one hour or until a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool in pan on a wire rack for at least 1 hour. Serve slightly warm or at room temperature.

sun sugars: come and get them!

hello local readers:
We have an overabundance of ripe sun sugar tomatoes right now. Give me a call today if you would like some. We have more than two people could ever eat!

sun sugars are here!

We have sun sugar tomatoes! I picked the first ripe ones on June 30th and they are as delicious as ever. Last summer I posted about these sweet, delightful cherry sized tomatoes - read it here. Is anyone else growing these?

mmmm bacon

Did you see the cupcake recipe in my last five for friday post? I made 'em! I opted for cream cheese frosting and went overboard with a strip of bacon on top. They're delicious and you really can't taste the bacon that much in the cupcake itself. Maybe I'll use more bacon next time...cuz there will definitely be a next time.

the sauce

Some people bake Christmas cookies... we make holiday hot sauce.

Mark is the heart and soul behind this project. He selects the peppers to grow in our garden and then creates a sauce recipe which is different each year. I am more on the packaging and distribution end of things.

In the Spring Mark planted Bhut Jolokia peppers which are more commonly know as the Cobra or Ghost Pepper. These peppers are the world record holder for the hottest chili on Earth. I have zero tolerance for all things hot so I have not tasted this sauce however Mark says it's surprisingly NOT as hot as he thought it was going to be. He said it's the hottest sauce he's ever made yet completely edible and enjoyable. Yeah, he's pretty happy with it!


The pepper plants were so tiny back in June! (they are on the far left)

We collected peppers all summer long.

We had quite a few green peppers on the plants in October. Mark learned a trick to ripen this last batch of the crop by hanging them upside down in our garage window. It worked!


There was some fire roasting that occured out on the grill. I was out Christmas shopping so I missed that step.

tomato heaven

I picked some sun sugars to add to my lunch today...


and then I found the batch that Mark had picked before he went to work...

Someone gave us a few "chocolate cherry tomatoes" to try. I thought they were OK. Mark seemed to like them. Sun sugars are still number one in my book. This was my first experience with the chocolate variety. Anyone out there growing them?

Sun Sugars

Sun Sugar Hybrid Tomato
Lycopersicon esculentum (F1)

If you are not already growing Sun Sugars - too bad for you. I absolutely love these little orange tomatoes. This variety produces heavy yields of very sweet, flavorful, and juicy orange cherry tomatoes with thin skins that are crack resistant. Sun Sugar plants fruit in huge quantities, with a single plant often bearing hundreds of fruits in a single season. I have read that orange tomatoes contain a type of lycopene that is more readily used by the body than the type found in red tomatoes… healthy AND delicious! Seriously, grow these and you will be soooo happy. In my neck of the woods, plants can be purchased at Karp's Garden & Feed Center and when I lived in Chicago, I used to buy them at Gethsemane up in Andersonville. You can buy them on-line too if none of your local garden centers are selling them.

As of last night, I have eaten all the ripe ones in my garden (sadness) but in a few days I'll be back in tomato heaven.

raised veggie-herb garden

Back in 2007, Mark built this raised planter for our vegetables and herbs. The sunniest spot in our yard is the pool area so if we wanted to grow successfully, we were going to have to live with this garden next to the pool. Mark's idea was to build it with a cantilevered bench side to add extra seating around the pool (see why he is such a keeper!). When it was built, we still had grass in that corner of the pool area. It was pea graveled as phase two of this raised planter build.





This is how it looks right now amidst all the patio construction. We have to sand and oil it every year and I hope to do it this weekend (along with all the teak patio furniture). We got some orange tomato cages this year and we are trying two new types of tomatoes...Juan Flamme and Mountain Fresh. And as always we are growing the Sun Sugars which are by far my favorite.

holiday party recipes

These were a big hit at my house last Saturday night...

Robert The Bruce Cheese Ale Dip

2 (8 ounce) packages of Cream Cheese, Softened
2 (8 ounce) packages of shredded Sharp Cheddar Cheese
½ cup of Beer – I used the Three Floyds “Robert The Bruce” Scottish Style Ale
½ teaspoon Garlic Powder
1 tbsp Dijon mustard
1/8 teaspoon Blackened Seasoning

Place the cream cheese, the cheddar cheese, the mustard, and the beer in a large bowl. Using an electric mixer, blend together. Once you have these ingredients blended a bit, add in the garlic powder and the blackened seasoning. Now blend until smooth. Serve with pretzel bread and pretzel crackers.


Holiday Health Spritzer (with all that juice, it has to be good for you!)

Yield: Makes about 9 1/2 cups

5 cups Tropicana orange/tangerine juice (no pulp)
2 cups chilled lemon-lime soft drink
1 1/2 cups Vodka
1/2 cup maraschino cherry juice
1/4 cup fresh lemon juice

Mix ingredients into a carafe or pitcher and pour over ice.
I threw a couple of lemon and lime wedges into the pitcher.
Garnish: I used a lime wedge and a maraschino cherry