Thai Sweet Hot Sauce

Thai Sweet Hot Sauce in the jars,drying chili's
basket of veggies to make dinner with.


This afternoon I made the Thai Sweet Hot Sauce from the Ball Canning site.You can find the how to here. I would experiment with the amount of Chili Flakes you use.I am happy with the sauce but if you don't like Thai hot it might be a bit much.I'd say it's close to 3 chili's hot like they show on some of the Thai restaurants menus.Also I was hoping for it to be more like the sauce we have been buying.The store stuff is sweeter and this recipe is more vinegar-ie almost tart.I like it for what it is.I am still searching for a sweeter one.
I was not able to take any photos because I was mostly working alone.I did have Sol's help with the peeling of the garlic.An extra pair of hands was helpful when you need 1/2 cup of chopped garlic.Sol loves cooking shows on TV ( I wonder where he got his love of cooking?) and remembered seeing something about using your knife back to speed up the peeling.We just placed the unpeeled garlic under the knife and smashed a bit.Just enough for the clove of garlic to pop out.I know there's a couple handy gadgets out there that do this but I don't have room in my kitchen for anything that only has one job.
I received a comment from my last posting about making Pear Honey out of my pears.(I did ask the boys about wither or not they like canned pears and there was no excitement from them.One of those "If I have to" looks.) Chance took this idea and is aiming for it.He Googled around for it and it looks like all you need is Pears,Pineapple juice and Sugar.From what we can tell from his reading it comes out like a syrup or honey type something,sounds good to us.The pears are not ripe enough yet so we have a few days to get to this.Thanks Lorri for the tip.
I am finally getting around to making pickles this weekend.I keep getting side tracked but I have to get in gear before the cucumbers are gone for the year.I also spied an ad for peaches at the farm where I picked my blueberries.I am going to give them a call in the morning to see what their price is.Then I will have to figure out how many I want.Your own peaches in the middle of winter is a bowl full of sunshine to help you through the gray Oregon winter.
We are looking for a trade for our hops.We grow Willamette's and Cascades both of which are Oregon varieties.We'd love to find someone to trade hops for home brew.We have also put the word out for two other trades.We have extra Bartlet Pears and Asian Pears, both are not sprayed.We don't like the Asian Pears and it's a bumper crop this year so there are plenty to trade for.
Tomorrow I have cleaning and cooking to do.We have company coming for the evening on Friday.Chance is going to hang some lights in the back yard so we can sit out.On my to make list are Marshmallows, party dessert and a bit of fun around the fire.
Lorri- I know you live in storm country and there has been a big one brewing,stay safe,I am thinking of you on the other side of this country wondering how close this storm named Bill is to you.
Rois