What Do You Do with Banana Peppers

My banana pepper plant has been the most successful plant in my garden.  It has been producing lots of peppers since April.  Yes April and it is January.  I picked a bunch more this week and there are about 15 baby peppers growing now.  They will be ready in a couple of weeks.  I have pickled them once before and was very pleased with the outcome.  I decided I would go ahead and try it again but this time I had so many more peppers.  The last time I found a recipe for one jar.  This time I decided I wanted a sweeter pickled pepper.  I used a combination of the first recipe and the new recipe I found.

First attempt I used the recipe posted here - http://jessicasfoodspot.blogspot.com/2009/07/so-you-grew-gardennow-what-5.html

This time I used the first one and this one - http://www.food.com/recipe/sweet-pickled-banana-peppers-17254

Here are my ingredients

1/2 lb Banana Peppers
4 cups white vinegar
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 tsp mustard seed
1 tsp celery seed
1 tsp pepper corns

Directions

First sterilize your jars.  Since I was cutting some peppers and leaving some peppers whole, I used 2 different sized jars.  I ran the jars and rings through the hot water cycle in my dishwasher.  Once the cycle is done, remove the jars and dry them

In a saucepan bring the vinegar, sugar, mustard seed, celery seed and pepper corns to a rolling boil.  Remove from heat.  In a large pan bring plain water to a boil.

While the brine is coming to a boil, prepare the peppers for canning.  I cut 3/4 of them into rings and removed the seeds.  The remaining 1/4 of peppers I cut off the stem and removed the seeds.  Fill the jars with the peppers.

Pour the brine over the pepper, leaving 1/2 inch space at the top.  (Note: I filled the jars completely to use all the brine.  Once the canning was done there is a space of about 1/2 inch at the bottom of the jar as you can see in the picture of my completed jars.  I did the same thing the first time and forgot.)  Place the lid and screw on a ring.  Place the jars in the boiling water and boil for 10 minutes.  Remove the jars from the water and allow to cool.  After a few minutes check the jars to make sure they sealed.  This is simple to do.  If the jar is not sealed the lidd with pop up and down.  If it did not seal then it must be stored in the refrigerator.  If it did seal they can be kept in the pantry until the seal is broken.

Some recipes say let the peppers sit for a few days and some say a couple of weeks.  I say you decide.  I have done both and the peppers are great after just a few days if you can't wait to eat them.

Day 19 of 365 Days of Pictures

Today went by so fast.  I don't know where the time went.  I guess when you are busy time flies by.  The day started with getting Kirsten and Anthony up and off to school.  Normally Wednesday Vivian would go to Mom's day out, but the past few days she hasn't been feeling well and I was going to take her today, but she is coughing up a lot of mucus.  The coughing is causing her to gag and a few times she has thrown up from the gagging.   I would prefer her to stay home when she is like this.  I still had to take her to the center for class pictures.  We spent 30 minutes there then we went to CVS, Wal-Mart and back home.   Next on my to-do list, a doctor visit for me.  I had my annual checkup and my doc said every thing looked good and then handed me a referral for a mammogram.  I knew he was going to since my mom died from breast cancer and I have talked to my doctor about it as well as my concerns about it.  Since my insurance pays for them at any age we decided it was time to get another one.  The first one was 5 years ago.  I came home fed Vivian lunch and put her down for a nap, then called my insurance to verify my coverage for mammograms.  They are covered 100% once a year.  Called the hospital radiology department and made an appointment.  After all that I decided it was time for a treat.  Pablo has to have cookies every night before bed so I  decided to make sugar cookies.  We haven't had them in a long time.  I usually just make chocolate chip cookies, but I wanted something different.

Day 3 of 365 Days of Pictures

Today is Anthony's 10th birthday.  I can't believe it has been 10 years.  Time just seems to go by so fast.  I still remember the day he was born.  It was a day full of emotions both good and bad.  I was almost 36 weeks pregnant when my water broke and Anthony was born.  He was 4 weeks 1 day early.  I was so scared when he was born because the labor and delivery was fast and easy.  I thought the worse - that I was going to be going home with out him.  Luckily he was 100% healthy weighing 7lbs 1oz and 19 inches.  I can't imagine how big he would have been at 40 weeks.  I had pre-term labor at 28 weeks and was on bedrest until 35 weeks.  The doctor said this is the reason he was so big at 36 weeks.   He could have possibly gained anoth 1.5-2 pounds if I would have delivered on or around my due date.

Now on to my picture of the day.  Cupcakes for Anthony's birthday

Day 1 of 365 Days of Pictures

Today I sat around tried to decide what to take a picture of.  This preoject is going to be harder than I thought.  I will need to take a picture of something everyday and sometimes this will require some thought.  I prefer to take pictures when ever the opportunity arises.  This project is going to require me to have my camera with me at all times. 

Today's picture was taken after dinner.  I couldn't think of anything to take a picture of except the kids since we didn't leave the house today.  Now if you know my kids they like to push all of my buttons and after 2 weeks off from school I have no more buttons because the kids have pushed them so much they are broke.  So this picture is how I am winding down tonight after a very long 2 weeks

Yesterday I was reading a magazine and there was this delicious looking picture of cupcakes.  They were coconut cupcakes with coconut-white choclate frosting.  So what have I spent my morning doing.  Making these of course and they are soooo good.  The kids are going to be in heaven when they get home from school and find this surprise.  In case you want to make them too here is the recipe.... http://www.womansday.com/Recipes/Coconut-Cupcakes-with-Coconut-White-Chocolate-Frosting-Recipe

We have 1 week before we begin Kirsten's orthodontic treatment.  Next Thursday she will get the spacers and then the week after that she will get the braces.  Her dentist said she will need them for 2-2.5 years.  Luckily the kids dentist is also and orthodontist. 

More later.....Vivian is napping and I need to get some things done around the house while she sleeps.