Habanero Hot Sauce

When we came home from our San Diego trip our garden was a mess.   It was raining so much before we left, things grew like crazy.  I guess the month we were gone though, it only rained a couple times. My potted wisteria vine?  Dead.  My potted Japanese Maple?  Dead.  Potted boxwood?  You guessed it.  Dead!  Not surprisingly, all my potted succulents look beautiful.  I never learn.  Pots should be filled with succulents here unless you can water regularly, which I have proven year after year that I can not. 

I did get smart with my little vegetable garden this year though.  It was hooked up to a soaker hose on a timer, so every morning at 5am they got 10 minutes of water.  The tomatoes, peppers and herbs were saved.   As a matter of fact they were thriving. 

If you follow me on Facebook and/or Instagram,  you saw my habanero plant was weighed down with peppers.  

 We have absolutely no problem eating all of the peppers from the two jalapeño plants.   I harvested about 40 habaneros the other day and there are still a ton [of green ones] on the plant!  I called out to facebook friends for suggestions of what to do with all of these peppers and got back some great ideas.  (Thanks!) I did give some away, I sliced some and froze them to use for our spicy popcorn, and we've added some to our red roasted salsa just for an extra kick.  Other suggestions for habaneros were: pepper jelly and a pepper hummus. Both of which I would like to try on the next harvest. 

But what did I do with the other 24 peppers from this "first harvest?"

Ahhhh, yes.....the point of this post.  Habanero hot sauce.  While visiting my brother Tim back in January, he pulled a plastic squirt container from his fridge.  It was full of fire.  We loved it.  He just sent me the recipe and it is from Rick Bayless.  (Of course!) If you love Mexican fair, you probably know this guy.  If you haven't heard of him, you are missing out.  Go make one of his recipes NOW!

Since I put hot sauce on a lot of food [and Ernesto puts it on everything] I doubled the recipe.  (I figured we could freeze some too)  It is a quick, simple recipe and really has delicious flavor, if you don't mind the burn.

HABANERO HOT SAUCE

Makes about 2 cups

INGREDIENTS

5 cloves garlic, unpeeled

1/2 cup peeled, roughly chopped carrot (you'll need 1 medium carrot)

1/2 cup roughly chopped white onion (you'll need about half of a small onion)

12 medium (about 5 ounces) orange habanero chiles, stemmed

1 cup apple cider vinegar

About 2 teaspoons salt

1/4 teaspoon sugar

DIRECTIONS

Roast the garlic in a skillet over medium heat, turning regularly until soft and blackened in spots, 10 to 15 minutes. Cool and peel.

In a small saucepan, combine the carrot, onion and habanero chiles with the vinegar and 1 cup water. 

Partially cover and simmer over medium-low heat until the carrots are thoroughly tender, about 10 minutes. Pour into a blender, add the roasted garlic, salt and sugar. Blend until smooth.  (I vita-mixed the shit out of this, the texture is perfectly smooth!)

Thin with a little additional water if you think your hot sauce is too thick. (mine came out just right) Taste and season with additional salt if you think necessary.  (not needed IMO)

Pour into jars or containers and store in the refrigerator .

 We ate this on grilled chicken tonight and I'm looking forward to eating it with our eggs tomorrow morning.  Yum!   So, do you think you will try this recipe?

Pss. Years ago we made this habanero salsa.

Garden Progress & Our Cool Fence!

I have been sitting in Octane Coffee House (close to my house) for 5 hours now.  Blogging and belly shots really take time to keep up with my friends. 

I was so behind, I told Ernesto I have to leave the house to get this done.  I do put mateo to bed early every night, but I am tired by then and don't feel like being on the computer much.  We have been so busy during the day- playing gardening, jewelry making that I even missed a few belly shots. Bad blogger!  I did post new ones tonight though, so if you are curious about the growth of my belly (which has been significant the last few weeks) here are Week 27 and Week 31 and now Im finally up to date with Week 32.  Whew!   I can't believe I only have 6 weeks left (mas o menos). 

This is how I left my boys at 530p today.  

 Scooping dirt.  Because our yard has a slight slope we need fill dirt.  Luckily, there is plenty to be had for free if you search Craigslist.  This is load #2 and we will probably get one more.
You can see a little glimpse of our finished  fence there, but I have a lot more to share.

First though,  a special thanks to my mom and dad for coming down to help.  My dad and Ernesto were outside for 3 days building this thing and my mom was taking care of Mateo while I made jewelry. It was a joint effort for sure.

 Ernesto had  most of the posts set so when my dad arrived they started screwing on the boards.

 It went pretty quickly.  Because the boards are going to shrink some we did not leave a space in between each board as originally planned.  This was a decision made by the men.  They guaranteed that the boards will shrink and space out about 1/4-1/2 inch.  "It won't be uniform", I argued.  I lost. Oh well,  I really like the solid look too.

 Here it is coming along.  We used 12 foot boards and 4x4 post every 6 feet.

 Notice above, the sod we laid three weeks ago was coming in nicely (compared to the first few days).
But that is nothing compared to what it looks like today.  We have lush, green grass!

Ernesto had to mow it last week and after all the weekend rain it needs mowed again. 

Here are a few pics capturing the whole yard/fence. What a difference, right?

 We left this corner open because we are planning to build a pergola and patio in that space. The dirt border around the whole fence will be more garden:)

 Here is my hard worker.  I am really proud of him.  He has been working non-stop and it is so satisfying to see everything coming together. You're doin' a good job mi amor!

At the end of the cement driveway we are building a long and skinny shed.  (4x14?)  We are going to have a gate to enter a small skinny garden that will lead to our entertaining paradise. Ha!  Sounds good right?  We will get there. 

In the front yard, my collection of blue pots still grows.  And see the big white elephant to the left of the door?  My mom got that for me at a yard sale and I think it is so cool with the blue pot on top. Thanks again mom!

 What a difference two weeks and a lot of rain can make in a garden.  Just look how everything has grown and spread out.

 I am so happy with it.  My passion for gardening grows too.  I can't resist buying a few plants every time Im at Home Depot, and I love walking other gardens and talking about plants.  I guess I have my mom to thank for that.  She is a true master gardener.  I actually brought home more plants from her garden when I was there last week.  And I bought 2 climbing rose bushes.  Im not a huge fan of rose bushes, but I love climbing plants so I thought I would give them a try.

 I added some stepping stones that lead back to the vegetable bed on the [south] side of the house and planted Creeping Jenny (the chartreuse ground cover pictured above) so the edges will be surrounded with plants.  Im hoping this will fill in quickly.  I may pick up a few more plants to help it along.

 This side garden is what I will concentrate on next.  I have one raised bed where I have already planted 4 tomato plants (Bush Cherry, Grape, Roma and a yellow Sun Country).  I will be adding a few hot pepper plants, cucumbers up my bamboo teepees and a bunch of herbs.

 Whew! Still a lot of work to be done!  I really don't have much time left to work.  I figure after mid June, the garden is on its own.  I did buy a timer and soaker hose for the vegetables.  I will set it to water for 5 minutes every morning at 5am.  Im hoping this will be the key to a big harvest!!

Backyard & Garden Progress

Where have I been?  Where are my belly shots?  I just need more time. Period.  Is that going to happen in June when I have this baby?  Ha! The last two weeks have been spent on gardening and the back yard re-do.  My front garden seemed to grow in overnight.  It is looking beautiful I must say.  The bright chartreuse color of the Creeping Jenny in front makes the whole garden at this point.  We added a few nice big rocks and I got the mulch down last night.  Now we wait. 

There is already a lot blooming and so much more to come.  I really love gardening. My mom has taught me so much, sometimes I surprise myself when I am talking about it to others. I have come a long way.

The vegetable garden has yet to be planted, or even built for that matter.  The whole south side of the house will be dedicated to veges and Ernesto promised me that this year he will put soaker hoses on a timer. Yeah! 

I have a little gardening helper this year too.  Mateo loves loves loves shoveling dirt from one pot to the next.  

Side note: Must. Get. Sandbox.

These 3 blue beautiful pots (above) are my latest acquisition from....wait for it....TjMaxx/Homegoods. (Surprise!) They have the best pottery every Spring.  Not the cheap ceramic ones either.  These are heavy clay pots made in Vietnam.  Just like you would see in an expensive garden store.  I can't resist.  I know I have a problem, but they look so good lining my front stairs. 

OK...now on to the back yard.  Let me first remind you of what the yard looked like before.  I took this picture last summer and although Ernesto (and my dad) had built these awesome raised planter beds, the whole yard was a mess.  No grass, ugly trees, kudzu outta control, etc.  

Now here is the area after a couple weeks of hard labor (done by Ernesto of course!)

This pic also taken through a screen from upstairs. 

We had thought we were going to have to hire someone to clear/level out the yard, but once Ernesto got started working he said he could just finish it himself.  Her borrowed a friends chain saw and cut down several trees.  We did have to pay to get one tree down that was hanging over the neighbors house.  The worst part was getting the stumps out.  This took him days.  

He rented a tiller and prepped the yard for grass.  This little guy was obsessed with watching.  Every time it was turned off he signaled for "mas mas."

My mom flew down for two days last week to help me.  I just had to cry to her on the phone at 930am and she was on a 11:45 flight.  God, my mom is the best! I just can't say that enough.  I have a jewelry show coming up and really need to make some inventory, yet I wanted Ernesto to work on the yard. 

My mom played with Mateo for two days and after she put him down for his naps, she went outside and helped Ernesto with the yard!!  I can only hope that I have her energy when Im her age.  Heck- I wish I had it now! 

The next sep was laying sod.  We didn't want to wait for seed to grow, it's almost May, we need a yard pronto!  Besides the sod wasn't too expensive and worth the [almost] instant gratification.  We do have to wait for the roots to take hold and for it to turn green of course.   We planted Bermuda grass, which unfortunately turns brown in the winter, but with full sun in the south, we were told it was the best option.  This is day one. 

Here on day four, it is already looking more green!  Also notice how much better the planter boxes look against the grass. 

It's not a huge area, but our yard feels a lot bigger.  We don't need a huge yard, we just need it to be functional.  Mateo will be loving it this Summer.

We aren't even close to being done yet.  The fence is next on the list.  Ernesto is ordering the wood tomorrow and hopefully in a week we will be enclosed!!
We are going for a horizontal fence.  Something like this one with an inch or so in between the boards.

via pinterest

The wood comes treated, but we are undecided if we will use paint or stain. 

This little drawing from last summer still depicts the "plan" except the garden will be moved to the front side of the house where there is more sun. 

I am just dying for my pergola covered in wisteria.

Also,  I am trying to tell Ernesto that we can build our little shed out of pallets [that we get for free on Craigslist] but he is not convinced.  Have you guys seen this?

There are some really cute sheds out there. (just search pallet shed)  Even if he doesn't like the look, my plan is to have is covered in vines anyway, so why would we side it to match the house??
Either this creeping fig

or a bushy ivy would be so beautiful, don't you think?

I think I'll let Ernesto finish the fence before I bombard him with more projects and ideas.  One thing at a time.  Little by little, our "estate" is taking shape, and I am loving it!

Creating a Garden from Scratch!

Our yard was a mess.  Weeds. Weeds. Weeds. And 2 boxwoods.  In the front we don't have much of a yard.  Erensto and I dug up all the weeds and then covered it with a heavy plastic for a week to kill everything.  Here was our blank slate.

I know I should probably put some bushes here (like most people do in Atlanta) instead of a high maintenance garden, but I just love my mom's garden filled with flowering perennials and wanted to fill my little plot with some of the same. 
If you saw my facebook updates around Easter, you know that I brought 5 Rubbermaid tubs of plants [via air] from my mom's garden to transplant into mine.

 The soil here is BAD! Hard. Red clay.  It's going to be a huge difference for these compost spoiled plants from Ohio.  We did amend the soil with a bunch of manure and nicer topsoil, so we will see what happens.  Here is the garden right after I planted everything.

Ignore that pile of rocks to the left.  This is what we dug up, and that is just the bigger rocks.  We had an even bigger pile of smaller rocks.  All the plants are feeling a bit sparse and hodge-podge right now, but I'm hoping once they get established, they will fill in the space nicely.  I just had to get them in the ground quickly as it had been 4 days since they were dug up in Ohio.

Here they are a few weeks later and looking a bit more established.  I still need to put newspaper down and then mulch.

 The sedum that I planted may be the only reliable plants this year.  These are hard to kill.
 They are planted along the edge and will eventually spill onto the sidewalk.

For the back yard, we have beautiful plan in our heads which includes a stone patio covered with a pergola,  a fireplace and grill, a grassy area, and garden beds in one corner running up the side of the house.   All of this will not be happening this year of course, but we will do what we can.

Currently, there are two ugly trees overrun with kudzu and a bunch of weeds.  One challenge I have is to clear all of that out without hurting the few beautiful wisteria vines.  I need to save them for the future pergola.

First things first.  I needed a vegetable garden!  With the horrible clay soil/drought conditions here, I knew a raised bed would be our best bet.  We recycled some wood found across the street, added 10 bags of top soil along with a bunch of manure (picked up free from Craigslist)

I now have it planted with tomatoes, jalapeño & serrano chiles, zucchini, cucumbers, eggplant and parsley and cilantro.  (pole beans will be planted up a bamboo teepee to the side)

 Everything seems to be happy and growing fast.  The soil is so good, Im hoping that makes all the difference for a big harvest.  I have already noticed that it does not dry out too fast, which is great because there have been only a few "spring showers."
Our deck is small and square. And because we don't have a garage/shed [yet], we will need to store things under it.  Yes, very trashy looking, I know.

After Ernesto did such a great job with the raised vege bed, I convinced him to build a raised bed all around the base of the deck and attach lattice so I can grow vines on it creating a wall of green. (thus hiding all the stuff under the deck)

He got started right away and had they took shape in no time.

My dad helped with the final steps of leveling the beds and attaching the lattice.  I am extremely happy with how it turned out. We found free fill dirt on Craigslist (surprise surprise!) and added the rest of the manure.  I can't wait to plant these!

I definitely want to cover the lattice with vines though,  Im not a big fan of plain lattice.  Imagine, if you will, the lattice covered in this star jasmine.

It is evergreen in GA and the blooms smell ridiculous!  It is supposed to be a fast grower too, so I will be planting asap! I will post updates as things progress.  Have you guys planted a garden this year?