The Turning Leaves

Its the middle of October and I have not had a post for a while. Surprisingly i have been busy with work and other activities.

My garden did well the last month or so of the year. I was able to get a few more tomatoes and one moon and stars watermelon. My peppers are what surprised me. I had three jalapeno plants and they thrived in the last month or so. I was picking up to 2 dozen each time i went out to the garden. I was trying to come up with ideas for all these jalapenos, should i give then away? Yeah i gave away some, but i wanted to do something that i had never done with peppers before. Then a light came on, how about making my own chipotle peppers. I mean i have a grill, i also have the wood chips to some them as well. the night before i smoked them i dried them out in the oven for a little while to speed up the process. the next day around 10 am i set up my grill and began the process of smoking the peppers. I let them smoke for about 8 hours. this was still not enough. they still were a little moist and for me to keep them for the winter they needed to be completely dry. I brought them in the house and dried them in the oven for the remainder of the time which was about another 2 hours. Once finished they smelt wonderful and could not wait to use them in some many different applications.

A few days later i decided to make some pasta sauce from scratch and used one. Obviously they did not give the sauce very much heat, yet gave it a very nice smoky smell and flavor.

I also have some other peppers, fish peppers and some Thai chili peppers, I have dried all of them and I am debating weather to keep them whole and or put them into my coffee grinder and make my own ground chili mix.

A few weeks ago I pulled out everything from the garden and emptied my compost bins and turned over all of the soil. To give back some more nutrients into the soil, I planted some winter rye. I let that grow for about 2 weeks. Once it was high enough, I turned it all back into the soil. this alone will make the soil even richer and there probably wont be any need for more compost, only for when I plant next year like always I add some into each hole I dig for the plants. I will keep making compost and will till that into the soil in the later months of next summer. I also plan on doing a soil test next year, we will see how good I have done with the soil with my self taught knowledge. It should be interesting.

Even though the Farmers Markets are done here in Illinois there is still some great produce out there at your local grocery stores. The Fall/Winter crops are in, squashes, sweet potatoes ans other varieties of potatoes. When you cook at home know you will be spending more time at the stove and or making items n the morning to have that evening. The use of one pot meals comes into play and the ever so versatile crock pot. All those veggies, salsas, sauces and pickled items that you canned this summer you will need to brush off the dust, bring them upstairs from your root cellar and reheat them to again try to bring that summer flavor back into you meal to warm your heart from the bitter cold of winter.

Two great wines that you should try out this winter to pair with your stews, hardy steaks and etc. are the following:

2006 Concannon Cabernet Sauvigon

This wine is a rich, full flavored wine, it has hints of ginger, black cherry and cassis. Expect a long finish. A great wine with great value that will also age well for a few years, so buy one to drink and the other to sit.

2005 Peju Cabernet Sauvigon, Napa Valley

One smell of this wine will fill your nose with black cherry, chocolate and hints of bay leaf. The tastes on your palate are predominantly plum and holiday spices. A very long finish that will have you taking another sip. This wine I would also buy 2 one to drink and the other to age, this wine could age 6-8 more years if you have the patience.