Weekend Musings ~ Herbs and Hot Peppers

I have been so lazy this weekend. Some would say that is what weekends are for, but after two days of lazing about - I took Friday off to get a good long weekend in with Monday being a holiday - this morning I was feeling like I HAD to do something.
I decided I just had to get a little bit busy in the kitchen.

Hot pepper vinegar ingredients, vinegar not pictured.

I got to cutting up some carrots and onions for our long planned hot pepper vinegar.

We have been planning it for weeks. We have what are supposed to be ghost peppers  - my MIL planted and then left with us to tend while she is away. They have been getting bigger and turning from green, to orange, to a deep hot red color.

Watching the hot peppers get redder and redder

We have watched as day by day the get redder and redder, somewhat anxiously. Ghost peppers are supposed to be the 2nd hottest peppers on earth. The  deep burning red hot color perhaps an indication that these things are dangerously hot. They don't have little tails like some ghost peppers we have seen, but suspect these will be just as hot. Perhaps my mother-in-law's (MIL) garden had a little magic going on ~ it has been known to happen with her peppers. Maybe cross pollination or something, but sometimes her 'seasoning' peppers have a little kick, and her hot peppers are not as hot as you would expect. But these, these seem crazy hot!
I suspect magical things going on, she has magic garden hands. She grows fabulous things.

Hot peppers - SO RED

A mention of putting some in a vinegar to preserve for her return was met with excitement on her part. Oh, and of course she wants us to save the seeds for next growing season, so the seeds had to be carefully extracted. I left the peppers for hubby to cut.

Ready for the peppers, then the vinegar.

Hubby knows how to cut to save the seeds, plus his tolerance for hot peppers is much higher than mine. One whiff of of him cutting these up, my throat burned and I had a coughing fit.
These puppies are HOT!

He declined using plastic to protect his fingers, brave man.

I moved on to basil and rosemary infused olive oil - though not together this time.
They each will got their own jar. Maybe next time.

Basil plant

We have a fabulous basil plant out back. Check this site for Basil 101, with a link to a heap of recipes and ways to use basil. I have come to love basil aioli too, so here is a nice basil garlic aoli recipe, Aren't we all a little tired of only making pesto with basil?

We also have two fairly small rosemary plants, one mine and one we are tending for my MIL.

Plant sitting this rosemary plant for MIL

There are so many uses of rosemary. It is great with almost any meat, in breads, and of course pasta sauce. Here is a nice article on the many uses of rosemary, including some links to drink recipes and even for using in beard oil!

My rosemary plant- in front of the pepper plant.
I actually got this from MIL so it is related to hers.

I have been wanting to use this abundance of good herbs, but I find it is hard to do in everyday cooking. Wait, I don't cook every night. Sometimes what I cook just does not call for these, and sometimes I just don't want to run outside to get some. Lazy hits me at various times.
I decided some infused olive oils would be perfect, as I use olive oil nearly every time I cook. It may add just the right amount of flavor to dishes that don't necessarily need the fresh herb.

I decided to just use the mason jars I have, rather than buy new glass jars for the oil. I still have so many mason jars from last years mango jam production, why waste money on more glass containers?
(Sorry, I can't believe I didn't blog about that mango jam last year! It was so popular, I got asked by 3 people this year for more. But sadly our tree did not produce like last year so I will be lucky to get one batch done. 3 of those jars apparently already spoken for.)

I got enough herbs today for one rosemary and two basil jars.

So easy! Add barely chopped herbs, then add oil. Let sit. Really, it has to be the easiest thing to do, and such good results. I made a small batch of basil infused oil a few weeks ago and have been using and it is great! Some recipes say to heat up the oil, but in keeping with the lazy theme, I am just doing the 'leave on the counter where the sun shines in' method.

Don't search herbs on Pinterest for inspirational thoughts and sayings, by the way. Unless you want the option to search for 'herbs for witchcraft'. It was a suggested search after typing in 'herbs'. If you are as curious as me, it takes you to some pretty interesting things. If I kept going, I would have been a witch by the end of the day.
At least I have my kitchen protected and safe from evil. I will let you know about the fortune.....

Basil plant - plenty to protect and potentially plenty of fortune.

A Sunday morning full of healthy plants is still a good day. Especially when I know the garden has lots of protection itself, in the form of lizards. They are a bit camera shy but I managed to get this one before he ran off hiding.

Garden lizard, I could not get any closer. The lizards in the garden area are camera shy.

We have plenty more peppers, too. By the time we are done, we will have way too much hot pepper vinegar.

Finished. Not bad for a Sunday morning. Now the only ingredients left are time and sunshine.

I think I am going to infuse some oil with hot pepper too, and maybe even try a relish or a salsa. There are options, but with the heat of these, it will be interesting to see how edible these things will be.

Still a bunch left to use and to turn red.

So many hot peppers. A little goes a long, long way. Seven are still green! So we have plenty!!
What else could I do with them all? Hmmmmmm

If you have any ideas for hot peppers, basil, or rosemary, please share!
(I really don't want to have to resort to hot pepper spells or carrying around basil in my purse.)