Happy Thanksgiving

It has been a wonderful year, and there are lots of people worth thanking.  So, Thank You!

This week I've been busy getting ready for a houseful of company, with good friends, good food and family from near and far.  Do to all the abundance, things get pretty crazy in November.  I am trying to get the "bed-and-breakfast" place ready, while at the same time, finish the year's seed-saving operations, finish drying and processing the herbs, get the garlic beds ready and tend to all the peppers.

The peppers are all hung on the Christmas tree with care.  We are a little late in taking the tree down this year, and I ran out of room to hang all the peppers.  So....the Christmas tree is loaded with my best crop ever of giant cayenne, espanola and other numex-style pepper crosses.  All hung high enough not to tempt visiting dogs, hopefully.  Deck the halls with boughs of ..uh.. PEPPER?!

We're doing the traditional Thanksgiving dinner with the usual fixin's.  I am not really in charge of the meal, but did provide input into the quantities.  We are having only one pie, only a few potatoes, half the amount of stuffing, and NO dinner rolls.  Half of us are on healthy lower carb, and one guest is on an Ornish-type diet.  For this evening, my guests are bringing "cowboy beans", which sound like a HFCS bomb.  I also cooked up four pounds of baby burgers for tonight's feast, featuring southwestern American food.  No bottled bbq sauce for me, cause I cooked up a  batch of habanero sauce so hot even I can't eat much of it.  Instead of baking the usual three batches of cornbread, I just bought a package of plain corn tortillas.  This afternoon, I'll be selecting the sweetest pumpkin out of the patch, and cooking it up for pies and breakfast smoothies.  I will also be cooking up a pound of pork sausage into old-fashioned country sausage for breakfasts.

Here's my hot sauce recipe this year:  8 orange habanero peppers, 1 red jalapeno pepper, 1 giant dried cayenne pepper (or use 6 smaller peppers), 1 large onion, 2 cloves garlic, 1 carrot, dash of salt, vinegar.  Cut up the vegetables and cook mostly covered in vinegar until soft.  Cool.  Blend until smooth.  Return to pan and cook over low heat.  Pour into glass jars and chill in the fridge.  It keeps for a few weeks.

Usually I am farther ahead, but this year we both caught colds, and now my husband has pneumonia, so there are just some things that won't get done before the house gets full.  Have a great Thanksgiving holiday!