Hot Pepper Jelly

So remember those peppers I mentioned before?

The ones that are producing way faster than I can use them?

Today I decided to try a new Hot Pepper Jelly (HPJ) recipe.  I am a huge fan of HPJ over cream cheese served with crackers.  It's a very easy, yet delicious, appetizer.  With the holidays coming up, I wanted to make sure I had a good stash in the pantry (and also, I'm not convinced we're growing the Jalapenos next year, so just in case I need to make as much as I can!)

The last batch I made called for only jalapenos and liquid pectin.  It gelled up almost too well, and it was mostly sweet, there was no kick AT ALL to it, so I knew it wasn't going to be my 'go-to' recipe.
I found THIS RECIPE this morning and decided to go for it, since it called for the boxed pectin AND a variety of peppers (I think the red and green will be really festive for Christmas.)

I don't know what I was thinking, but I decided to chop them all by hand.  Next time, remind me to throw them in the food processor.  If you're doing this at home, make sure you wear gloves.  Those peppers can leave lasting side effects if you don't (it's a mistake I only made once and never again since!)

I ended up using a little less than 3 cups of chopped jalapenos, two chopped cayenne, and about 1 cup of chopped red pepper.  I seeded them, too, because I figured it would be hot enough as it is with the cayenne.

Add 1 cup of cider vinegar in a large sauce pan, along with a box of pectin.

Bring to a rapid boil over high heat, stirring constantly.

Add in 5 cups of sugar and return to a boil.  Let it go for one minute, then remove from heat.

Place in jars and process in a boiling water bath for 10 minutes.  Cool on a wire rack.  (Check to make sure they've sealed and all that good stuff.)

All of the peppers will float to the top, which is fine by me.  But I'd read that if you turn the jars every 20 minutes or so while they cool, the peppers will be more evenly distributed.  So I decided to give it a whirl.

This batch definitely has a kick to it, but that's MY opinion and I don't really like spicy things.  It isn't too hot, though, so I think this recipe might be a keeper.

When life gives you Jalapenos...

We inherited four lovely pepper plants from the previous owners.

Two bells, a cayenne, and a jalapeno.

They are all teeming with peppers.  More peppers than we will ever use, since only one of us eats hot stuff.  I am leaving most of the bells on the plants so they will turn red.  Then I'll slice them and freeze them for fajitas this winter.  Organic peppers are crazy expensive, and I'm grateful to have them.  I've been dehydrating the cayenne peppers and then grinding them in the food processor.  Dad's getting them for Christmas.  The jalapenos, however, have me stumped.  And there's a ton of them!

A quick search of Allrecipes yielded  this recipe and I decided that I'd make a batch for the potluck we have this weekend.

Following the suggestion of others, I decided to boil the bacon first in hopes of getting it to crisp up once it bakes in the oven.  I've never boiled bacon before.

Then, I mixed up the cream cheese, ranch dressing mix, garlic powder, mayo, and shredded cheese (the recipe calls for sprinkling the cheese on top, but I figured it'd be less messy to mix it in.)

After slicing and de-seeding the jalapenos, I soaked them in water.  Supposedly it cuts the heat even more.  I remembered to wear gloves, which is always a good thing.

Then, I used an off-set spreader to fill the peppers with the cheese mixture.  After wrapping with half a slice of bacon, I secured with toothpicks and froze them until this morning.  Once thawed, I popped 'em in the oven.  I did set them on a rack so that they wouldn't be setting in all the bacon grease getting soggy, even though the goal of boiling the bacon was to eliminate some of the fat.

But this wasn't just any rack... the only thing I had that would serve its intended purpose was this French-bread holder.  The holes are supposed to crisp up the crust (I think?) while baking.  I paid a buck for it several years ago at a yardsale.  I haven't made much French bread since then and considered getting rid of it, but I'm glad I didn't.  Now that I know it has two uses, I can justify keeping it  ;-)

Here they are in all of their cheesy-bacon goodness.  I personally can't tell you how they taste because, as the husband says, "You think milk is spicy!"  But he can't resist anything with bacon, so HIS verdict (after he told me I needed to bake them longer so the bacon got really crispy) is that they are good enough to take with us.  And, despite my best efforts, he says they still have quite a bite to them.