How to Grow Tabasco Sauce, Step 1, included information on growing Tabasco pepper plants from seed. Step 2 is an illustrated guide for using the fresh peppers to make your own Tabasco sauce.

After the Tabasco peppers have ripened to the perfect color of red, pick them from the plant, wash, and carefully remove the stems and green caps. Chop peppers and place them in a saucepan. It’s always a good idea to wear kitchen gloves whenever handling fresh peppers.

Add about 1 1/2 cups or more of white vinegar to the pan of chopped Tabasco peppers. Mix in 1 teaspoon of salt. Heat the mixture until it just begins to boil and then turn heat down. Simmer for 5-7 minutes. Allow the pepper and vinegar mixture to cool completely.

Carefully pour the pepper mixture into a blender. Make sure the lid is on tight and puree. Pour the mixture into a jar and tighten the lid. Place the jar in the refrigerator and allow it to steep for 3 weeks.

This is the first of a two-part blog post on how to plant, grow and bottle your own Tabasco sauce.

Well-known food writer Eugenia Bone once wrote there isn’t a condiment sitting in the refrigerator that can’t be homemade.

That idea stuck with me last season as I was deciding what to plant in my garden. I thought about all the assorted bottles of sauces and small jars of accompaniments taking up space on the shelf in the fridge and landed on my favorite: Tabasco sauce.

Because that large bottle is my go-to favorite for spicing up soups, adding a zing to curry and sloshing on dirty rice, I decided to plant, grow, and bottle my own.

It was about this time last year when I set my sights on homegrown, homemade Tabasco sauce and I kept that in mind as I shopped for seeds in the piles of gardening catalogs that stack up so nicely right after the first of the year. I found authentic Tabasco seeds in the Baker Creek Heirloom Seed catalog.

Get your favorite apron ready. Tomorrow, November 23, is National Tie One On Day.

National Tie One On Day was started by “apron lady” EllynAnne Geisel to help us put the giving back in Thanksgiving.

Her idea is that each of us should use the Wednesday before Thanksgiving as a time of sharing instead of stressing. It’s time to stop worrying about preparing a large holiday meal and focus on others.

It’s easy to get started. Just take a moment out of your day, wrap a loaf of bread or other baked goodie in an apron or a towel and deliver it to someone who could use a kind gesture. (And these days, who wouldn’t benefit from a random act of kindness?)

As we all know, these last few years have been especially difficult for so many of our friends, neighbors, and family members. I can’t imagine anyone who wouldn’t appreciate a thoughtful gesture like this.

Save those pumpkin seeds!

I love all the fruits of fall. I can’t pass by the displays of colorful squash, squatty pumpkins or warty gourds without grabbing a few and putting them in my shopping cart.

Besides looking lovely on the kitchen counter, they can be used in all kinds of recipes.

Whenever I cook with squash, I always save the seeds as a special treat for the squirrels. But when I carve a pumpkin for Halloween, I keep those seeds to make a roasty toasty snack.

Pumpkin seeds, also called pepitas, are a healthful, delicious snack and a good source of protein.

To prepare the seeds for roasting, remove all the pumpkin’s innards and separate the seeds from the stringy and gooey pulp.

Put the seeds in a colander and rinse well. Shake off the excess water and dry slightly. Place seeds on a rimmed cookie sheet.

This recipe for Mad Scientist Soup is a dreadfully delicious Halloween supper, especially when served with a loaf of Dead Head Bread.

Let loose your inner Mad Scientist this Halloween and experiment with different fresh, frozen, or canned vegetables to concoct a steaming pot of soup.

Every batch is different depending on what garden-grown goodies are chopped and tossed into the brew. This recipe included tomatoes, green beans, small potatoes, and thin slices of summer squash, but you can add whatever vegetables and herbs are preserved from your gardening efforts.

For a vegetarian soup, substitute vegetable broth for the beef, omit the ground turkey, and use more veggies (like canned or frozen Green Giant peas or corn).

Mad Scientist Soup isn’t complete if you don’t call ingredients by their scary, seasonal names: garbanzo-bean brains, frog eye pasta, and real kidney beans.

Ingredients

Halloween is a holiday we can really sink our fangs into. Here’s a tasty home-made bread recipe to get you into the spirit.

Start your seasonal celebrating by baking up a loaf of Dead Head Bread.

This is an enjoyable way to bake a loaf of bread from scratch. It’s not difficult at all, it just takes a little bit of time to let the dough rise.

It’s a perfect way to spend a cold day inside and use some of your home-grown herbs to sprinkle on top.

It’s also great fun to shape the dough into something scary. Your family is sure to howl for more.

Dead Head Bread Recipe

Ingredients
1 and ½ cups of warm water (divided)
1 packet active dry yeast
1 tablespoon honey
4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon crushed black peppercorn
4 tablespoons olive oil (divided)
1 tablespoon minced garlic
1 tablespoon dried rosemary
1 tablespoon dried sage
2 tablespoons shredded Parmesan cheese

It won’t be long until the first frost claims the last brave tomato vines still full of green tomatoes. Be sure to pick these little gems while the weather is still warm.

One of the best parts of fall is picking a basket of green tomatoes to enjoy as the weather starts to turn cold.

Generations of clever cooks have learned how to make the most of these little green gems.

Green tomatoes can be baked into breads, muffins or cakes.

Green tomatoes can also be sautéed, stewed, roasted, fried, made into relish or chutney, stirred into soup, and preserved by canning or freezing.

There are hundreds of green tomato recipes available online that show I’m not the only gardener who appreciates tomatoes still tinged with green.

Here’s how to make the most of your green harvest:

After picking the green fruit, sort the tomatoes according to size and color.

Got basil?

Large leaf Italian basil like this can be whirled into a delicious pesto in less than 15 minutes. I cut back this plant by about half. Then washed and dried the leaves to fill 2 cups (tightly packed).

For a nice, creamy pesto I grated about 3 ounces of Parmesan in my food processor and then set the cheese aside. Then I finely chopped 2 cloves of garlic. I added the basil leaves, cheese, 1/4 cup pine nuts (or walnuts) and 1 teaspoon or so of salt.

Pulse the mixture until it’s combined. Then add about 1/2 cup of olive oil while the processor is running. Mix until smooth.

This makes enough pesto for 1 pound of pasta, like my favorite whole-wheat penne. Serve with a salad and crusty bread for an easy summer meal.

Pesto also freezes well and I’ve often doubled this recipe and filled small containers or ice-cube trays for the freezer. It makes an easy winter meal, too!

Here’s a repeat of my Fourth of July blog from last year. It seems like a good time for some more good old fashioned craft-making fun.

I had such a great time making a Fourth of July wreath for my front door, I thought you might like to try making one, too.

Most of the materials were found in my own backyard, but I took a few shortcuts with craft-store goods. I’ve never been able to make as nice a bow as I can buy for 99 cents.

If you have vines growing in your yard, like the trumpet vine growing in mine, you should have plenty of material to craft your own twisted vine wreath and I’ve included some tips on how to make one.

If you take a stroll through your garden, I’m sure you’ll find some flower heads you can use to decorate the wreath, like yarrow and baby’s breath.

A few years ago I invited our new neighbors over for a get-acquainted dinner. The prickly pear cacti in my front garden were sporting delicious-looking young pads so I decided to make a Nopal Salsa and serve it as an appetizer.

I cut the tender edible cactus pads, called nopales, boiled them in water and removed the spines.

Then I mixed them with other ingredients for a colorful salsa and served them with home-made tortilla chips and frosty margaritas.

The neighbors dug into the salsa and thought it was delicious. But when I mentioned they were enjoying the cactus from my front yard, they both stopped eating in mid-bite.

I assured them the salsa was made with a vegetable that’s an important part of the menu in the southwestern U.S. and Mexico.

Nopales (pronounced noh-PAH-lays) are the tender, edible cactus pads from the familiar prickly pear cactus (Opuntia species). Once the spines are removed, the fleshy pads are cooked and used in many different recipes from salads to salsas. The prepared nopalitos taste a little like a slightly tangy well-cooked green bean.