Tag Archives: gardening

Foodie Page, Homestead and Garden, Man Cave

Yummy Tailgating Recipe Using the Last of Your Summer Habaneros

Here is my Habanero Pepper plant. As you can see, I need to make a couple of recipes - one for the weekend, and one for the freezer!

I do not like habaneros peppers.  I don’t like to pick them.  I don’t like to can them for habanero pepper jam to spread over cream cheese later in the fall.  I always forget I’ve been handling them and then scratch my nose or rub my eyes; horrific running around in circles ensues: “Argh – my nose! My eyes! Ahhh!” When I’m out picking them I make a mental note, “Use gloves, or go wash your hands immediately.”

I always forget.

So, are we clear?  I don’t like habanero peppers.  What I DO love, though, is a jerk chicken marinade recipe that is so good it even makes me tolerate growing the peppers…really, just for this one recipe.  I give the rest away.  There are people out there who eat them, even raw.  My eyes are watering while I’m typing this entry!

So, this Saturday morning post is to remind you that Jamaican Jerk Chicken can be a hearty AND lower fat item for your outdoor grilling.  And in case you’re trying to use up any extra habaneros left in your garden, even better.

Remember, tomorrow is “Silent Sunday.”  We hope you enjoy our Photographs of the week and our new masthead featuring the Oklahoma State Fair while we take the day off from writing.  We’ll see you back with new essays on Monday.

From the Red Dirt Chronicles Contribution Group to You and Yours…Have a safe, happy and enjoyable Labor Day weekend.

Sincerely,

Kelly, Julie, Rob, Mark, Rachel, and our soon to be coming on board or one time contributors

(Click photo to go to “AllRecipes.com” for my favorite Jamaican Jerk Chicken Recipe)

Jamaican Jerk Chicken for Labor Day Grilling ~~YUM!
Homestead and Garden

Meanwhile, Back at the Ranch….Garden Season 1

by Julie Allgyer

My husband Greg and I are celebrating our 6th successful year in the country.  The success is measured simply by the fact that we are still both alive and still married.

After two years of sharing a trailer with his father-in-law and four years getting our log cabin just the way we want it, I decided I didn’t have enough to do this summer.  Hence, our garden was born.

It is still unclear to me why a gal whose first salads consisted of only lettuce and French dressing would want to start a vegetable garden.  I even have a story of how, at an early age, I successfully hid Brussels sprouts in an air conditioner vent to avoid eating them.

The bottom line is that I didn’t do it for the food.  I did because I had two key elements:  time and space.
A fabulous garden was designed by yours truly that would not only be productive, but would also look like a work of art to any small plane traveling over our area.  (See graph below)

I filled the soil with all the goat and horse poop I could get my hands on, harvested directly out of our pasture. I planned, researched, and studied the Farmers’ Almanac, but nothing was happening. (Meaning, the plants were just sitting there.  So GROW, already!)

One Saturday morning I walked outside to find my beautiful plots of lettuce, peppers, and peas redesigned into rows! My husband Greg had been busy.

Note:  I do NOT have a graph to show the modified version of my garden.

Before I knew it, however, I had a crop.  As the summer progressed, we consumed all of the lettuce that survived.  Next, I gently added one cantaloupe, one watermelon, and cucumber plant.

Why only one of each, you ask?  Well, my pepper plants are filled with enough peppers to rival any Christmas tree look alike contest.  I can only make so many bacon-wrapped, filled with cream cheese poppers, and the tomato plants are speckled with green balls ready to ripen at any minute.

Selling some of my veggies seemed to be the next logical step.  I made a sign, put it out by the road, and waited.  As it turns out, however, the older clientele can’t really eat peppers.  Trust me.  I heard all about it.

Shortly after returning home from my “farmer’s market” trial excursion, it was back to the internet to explore another adventure:  canning.

As it turns out, canning really isn’t all that difficult if you’ve got two major elements: time and space.