Using Every Part of My Produce Presents

    I had lots of jalapenos and habaneros, I needed to find ways to use them. I decided I had to make a hot chili out of those babies. One thing that I have learned over the years is never tell them what you are cooking. That way if something goes wrong and you have to make something else they won't think you are a bad cook. Or if it turns out to be something else by mistake they don't need to know that either. Years ago when my husband and I first got married I said I was going to make chili but it came out like soup. My husband didn't think it was very good chili, but if I had just served it and said "here's your soup" it would have been fine.
    So I intended to make chili but I really didn't have enough tomatoes to make it thick enough. I wanted to make it go farther so I made Hot Chili Soup in the crock pot instead. This is a vegetarian soup but in this case I cooked some ground beef in the microwave for my husband and he added it to his bowl. The soup was delicious, flavorful and spicy hot. We crumbled up lots of whole wheat saltines into it and topped it with a dollop each of nacho cheese sauce and a homemade sour cream-based onion dip.

    To use the fresh lemon I cut half of it up and put it in iced tea. The other half I used for a homemade salad dressing for some fresh garden greens that I grew in outside pots. No part of the produce went to waste.  I had hot peppers left over so some I chopped and added to an already hot vinegar that my husband had made and kept in the refrigerator. The others I chopped finely and placed on ceramic plates outside in the sun to dehydrate naturally for a few hours. In the evening I brought them inside and placed in the kitchen cupboard to dry for a few days. Now they are dried and  look like a beautiful green and yellow confetti. I will put this in a recycled container for a future chili or soup. Three separate ceramic plates hold the seeds from the lemon, jalapenos and habaneros and are sitting in a cupboard to dry. I always keep one kitchen cupboard open for drying things on plates. The seeds will be placed in labeled envelopes and be added to my seed box later. I am very excited to try planting the lemon seeds. The man who gave the lemon to my husband got 150 lemons off his tree last year. All of the scraps from the peppers and lemon went into the compost pile.
    One thing I will remember next time is that I need to wear latex gloves when chopping habaneros.With a Scoville Scale hotness factor of between 100,000 to 500,00 they can really burn. The jalapenos only rate at 2500 to 5000. The Scoville Scale ranges from a 0 to 1,000,000.  After working with the peppers for three days I am paying the price. While ringing out an ammonia soaked mop with rubber gloves my hands started burning because they had a leak in them. Later I did the dishes wearing gloves in very hot water. Afterwards they were throbbing and burning so bad that I took an ibuprofen. It even hurts my hands to shower! An injury from a habanero was not what I expected but I won't  make that mistake again. 

 Hot Chili Soup  
1 cup dried kidney beans
1 tablespoon olive oil
3 cloves minced garlic
1/2 teaspoon onion powder
1 teaspoon cumin
1 1/2 teaspoons chili powder
1/2 teaspoon Italian seasoning
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 finely chopped jalapenos
1 finely chopped habanero
1 1/4 cups salsa
1 14.5 oz can diced Italian tomatoes
1 10 oz can diced tomatoes with green chilis
     Since I wanted this ready in time for dinner but did not soak the beans overnight, I heated a bowl of water in the microwave with a lid on it until it was almost boiling. Then I soaked the kidney beans for about four hours. I drained, rinsed and put them in the crock pot covered with a few inches of water on high. After several hours I tested them to see if they were at the desired tenderness. Mine took about four hours. Once they were done I scooped out most of the water, leaving about a half inch covering the beans. I added the remaining ingredients and simmered for another hour. You can serve it with crumbled whole wheat saltines or tortilla chips and  a dollop of nacho cheese and sour cream dip.



Lemon Dressing
zest from 1/2 a lemon
juice from 1/2 a lemon
1 T white vinegar
salt and pepper to taste
   Mix it all up and pour on top of fresh salad greens. I like to use citrus pepper or lemon pepper in mine. To get the zest of the lemon, gently scrape it across the small part of a cheese grater. Top the salad with almonds if desired.