Cooking

I received a Youtube education about making your own dried hot pepper flakes....so I gave it a go. They all fit on one large cookie sheet. The goal here is not to cook them, but rather just dry them out (you can also accomplish this by letting them hang up on a string or something for several weeks). I kept them in the oven for about 7 total hours, at a temperature of 170 (which was as low as the oven would go). When it was all said and done, I crunched them up with my hands and put them in a bag to enjoy. While green instead of red, it still packs a pretty good punch, and is the culmination of many MANY hours of internet research, several hundred dollars of investment, and countless sleepless nights worrying about Bacterial Leaf Spot (OK, that might be a slight exaggeration). I successfully cheated the outdoor reality of living at a coastal 61 degrees N latitude location, and I would chalk Cayenne Version 1.0 up to a general (though not exceptional) success.

Just for fun, here....of note, it is mid APRIL and this is what things still look like outside. Yes, those are winter hats and gloves and 20+ inches of snow.