wherein Liz pretends to garden

[edenfalling]

Back at the very end of April, my friend Susan visited me for the weekend, during which we participated in the Cayuga Wine Trail’s annual Wine & Herb event. This involves going to each winery in turn, where you get a small potted herb, a sample of a food that includes that herb, and some wine samples chosen to go with that food. We ended up with twelve plants, which we split evenly; I then gave three of mine to my mother since she cooks real food rather than living on frozen dinners and takeout. This left me with three tiny pepper plants: one generic bell pepper, one fancy Orange Blaze bell pepper, and one jalapeño.

I finally got around to potting them on June 9th and put them out on my back porch.



Only two survived the first week — the Orange Blaze got uprooted by something (or someone) and I was not able to save it. The jalapeño also got attacked twice, but the second time I tied it to a popsicle stick to keep it upright and it has since turned the corner and begun to grow. The bell pepper, meanwhile, had no problems whatsoever and is happy as a clam.





I have no idea what I’m going to do with the actual peppers, assuming either plant lives long enough to produce any. *ponders* Maybe I can make stir-fry? I used to make giant batches of chicken-and-vegetable stir-fry and freeze the leftovers for weeks…

(The peppers are on a table on my back deck, which I don't otherwise use; the table was left by a previous tenant. The cinderblock structure with the green roof is the house's attached garage, which belongs to Downstairs Neighbor S.)

Comments

[branchandroot]

Squirrels probably did for the Orange Blaze. Hang in there, little jalapeno!

Bell pepper is good for stir fry, also for enchiladas. Maybe you can use the third pot to grow some cilantro, to have it fresh. It re-seeds nicely, too, unless you harvest the seeds as coriander.

[edenfalling]

I am cheering for the jalapeno too. Grow, little pepper, grow!

My basic stir-fry recipe is as follows: take one bell pepper (red or green), one boneless chicken breast, half an onion, some kind of flavoring (generally Italian salad dressing or soy sauce). Chop up vegetables, toss into frying pan or wok with some oil and flavoring ingredient, heat on low. Chop up chicken, roll in little dish of flavoring ingredient, add to mix, heat on medium-ish until done. Sometimes I add zucchini or yellow squash for variety, or toss in some spinach leaves at the very tail end, just long enough to wilt them. It goes very nicely over rice or noodles, and in a pinch can also be used as sandwich filling. :-)

(I have substituted beef for chicken a couple times, but chicken is a more forgiving meat.)

[akatsuki210.livejournal.com]

Hmm, for the jalapenos you could make nachos. There's also such a thing as hot pepper jelly (my mother-in-law makes it and it's pretty good).

[edenfalling]

Nachos! Now there is an idea. Nachos are awesome. :-)

Making jelly sounds a bit beyond my level of cooking skill and committment, but I love that people will make jelly out of something as non-intuitive as hot peppers.