Fresh from the Garden – Peppers! (recipe round up)

Kim

If you’re lucky and have a garden, are part of a CSA, or just have a friendly gardening neighbor, you are probably getting a bounty of fresh produce right about now. I thought I would highlight a few of my favorite recipes using some of these fresh veggies – I’ve already done a round up for zucchini, and today is peppers – bell peppers, banana peppers, jalapenos!

First up, Pickled Jalapeno Peppers. These are SO good! You can also do pickled banana peppers with this recipe.

Jalapeno Salsa, also another one of my favorites.

Homemade Pepper Relish, sweet and spicy.

Another Pickled Banana Peppers recipe. I like these a lot!

And, Jalapeno Poppers, or in this case, Hot Banana Pepper Poppers! These are made a little bit skinny with turkey bacon and reduced fat cream cheese. Yummers.

And if you missed the zucchini round up, check it out here!

Do you have veggies coming out of your ears? Or are you like me, and really wishing you had a garden?! I am fortunate that my neighbor shares his bounty, and I have several Farmer’s Markets in the area around where I live. Hopefully I’ll have my garden next year…in the mean time, what are you cooking up with in season fruits and veggies?

Bacon Wrapped Green Beans

Kim

Leave it to me to take something healthy and ruin it. Not that adding bacon is ruining it, it’s just that whole pesky eating in moderation thing. Which my husband did not practice when eating these. It’s not my fault…I have all these green beans coming in from the garden, and posted Green Bean Bacon Bundles. What’s a girl to do? Well, make some bacon wrapped green beans of course…

Green Bean Bacon Bundles
from
makes about 10-12 bundles *I made 14

1 pound fresh green beans

10-12 slices of thick-cut bacon *I used regular bacon

2 tablespoons butter

1 tablespoon brown sugar

2 cloves of garlic, minced *I only used one

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon pepper

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Spray a 9 x 13 baking dish with non-stick spray.

Wash and thoroughly dry green beans, then season with salt and pepper. Bundle together about 5-8 green beans – this will depend on your size of beans and the amount of beans you get for one pound. Bundle together as many as you’d like! Using a slice of bacon, wrap it around the center of the beans to hold it together. Lay the bundle bacon seam side down in the baking dish to hold it together. Repeat with remaining beans.

Heat a small saucepan over low heat. Add butter, brown sugar and garlic and whisk until melted and combined. Using a pastry brush, brush the mixture over top of each green bean bundle. Cover the bundles with foil and bake for 35 minutes. Remove foil and bake for 10-15 (it took more like 25 minutes for me to get the bacon somewhat crisp, and I still ended up putting it under the broiler for a minute) minutes more, just until bacon gets crispy.

Verdict? Bacon makes everything delicious. Even vegetables.

The only thing for me is that I baked them in a casserole dish, and the beans cooked in all that grease. Which may be the point, but the green beans absorb a lot of that grease, which obviously is not good for you. I think when (when, not if) I make them again, I’ll cook them in a roasting pan, with the wire rack, so the beans still get the juices of the bacon while it’s cooking, but a majority will drip down into the pan. That should also get the bacon crispier without having to broil it. (b/c I almost always burn everything I put under the broiler – see 1st pic)

These were definitely a winner with the hubs, not so much with the kids. But as you may have noticed, my kids don’t like anything!

Since I’ve been blogging for a year now, I thought it would be fun to look back on previous posts. Fun for me anyway 🙂 So…
Last year’s Post: Healthy Choices (and ongoing struggle fo’ sho’)

I’m linking it up with , , Mouthwatering Monday @ , , Just Something I Whipped Up @ , at It’s a Blog Party, at All the Small Stuff, , @ 33 Shades of Green, @ For The Love Of Blogs, , , , ,, for Fat Camp Fridays, (currently being held at ), , , , , for Savory Sunday; (Ingredient Spotlight: Bacon!), ,

Homemade Pepper Relish

Kim

I picked all these beautifuls babes from my garden

and these too!

I was trying to decide what I could do with all my peppers besides sticking them in the freezer, and I decided to try making relish. Since my pickled banana peppers were delicious, I thought the odds were good that I could maybe pull it off. I searched the internet, got a general idea of what to do and went for it! I adapted my recipe from this one for .

Pepper Relish

12 cups of diced assorted peppers (red & green bell peppers, banana peppers, and jalapenos)
2 medium onions – diced
2 T. salt
3 cups white vinegar
2 cups sugar
1 t. mustard seeds
1 t. celery seed
2 whole jalapeno peppers {additional to 12 cups above}

*I used a food processor to dice peppers and onions.

1. Combine peppers and salt in a large bowl. Let stand for 2 hours. Drain.

2. Combine sugar, vinegar, and mustard/celery seed in large saucepot.
3. Cut slits in the two additional whole jalapeno peppers and add to vinegar mixture.
4. Bring to boil.
5. Reduce heat and add peppers and onions, simmering 10 minutes.
6. Remove whole jalapeno peppers.
7. Pack hot relish into clean jars, leaving 1/4-inch head space. Adjust caps.

8. Process 10 minutes in a boiling water canner I don’t have a canner, so let them sit in a boiling water “bath” for 10 minutes.

Notes – next time I’ll reduce the sugar even more (original recipe called for 3 cups) and increase the number of jalapenos used.

This is a yummy sweet and spicy relish. I would prefer it to be a little less sweet and a little more spicy. Like me. haha. However, for my first time making it – I think it’s pretty good! Let me tell ya – it takes a looong time to seed 12 cups of peppers!!!

But look how pretty they turned out 🙂

Will my kids eat it? Absolutely not.

I’m linking this recipe up with , and – Ingredient Spotlight – Bell Peppers, and

Green Bean Bacon Bundles from makes about 10-12 bundles *I made 14

Green Bean Bacon Bundles
from
makes about 10-12 bundles *I made 14