The Rest of September

Catherine and one of her science experiments.

For Dan's birthday, we went out to eat and then hung out by this little lake for a while.

Dominic and Mommy.

For the record, no one fell in, but they were making me nervous!

Happy Birthday, Daddy!

When you give kids Pull-n-Peel Twizzlers, this is what they might do.

The kids picked the hot peppers one day.

They got a lot!

On September 20, 2015, Dan's beloved uncle, Fr. Al Brungardt, died after a battle with cancer. On September 25, we attended his funeral in Victoria, KS.  It was a sad time, but also a joyful time of remembering Fr. Al's life.  There were many family members in attendance.

At the cemetery, just down the road from St. Fidelis Basilica.  You can see the steeples in the background.

Fr. Al was laid to rest.

Later that day, we stopped to visit Dan's niece and her husband.  They bought the original Brungardt house across the street from the Basilica. While we were there, we found out the Homecoming Parade would be coming down the street, so Becky found sacks for the kids to collect some loot.

Here comes the parade!

Horses!

The kids checked out their loot.

We toured all over this neat, old house.

October Garden Photos

These pictures aren't of the garden, but of things made with produce from the garden!

Stuffed peppers

Dan's Hot Sauce from our hot peppers

Hot Stuff!

Jalapenos and habaneros.

Hot Pepper Mania!

Dan planted 26 hot pepper plants this year. They have been, and are, producing copiously.  There are three kinds:  Anaheim, Garden Salsa, and Cayenne.  We have given away a lot of them, because really, I don't cook much with them as it makes the food too hot for the kids. 

Dan has made three batches of hot pepper sauce, one from each kind of pepper.  First he chopped them up:

Then he cooked them in a big pot with vinegar and salt until they were soft:

Then the hot pepper mixture got run through the food processor.  Note, do not put more than two cups of liquid in at a time or it will leak. 

Then Dan poured the pureed mixture into this tall glass canister.  Dominic approved:

After the hot pepper sauce steeped for a week or so, Dan strained it and poured it into bottles, some of which have even gotten a personalized label:

I've frozen a few hot peppers for use in cooking this winter, but only a small amount.  I've used some in both fresh and canned salsa. We've also canned some pickled hot peppers.  Here are some pickled cayenne peppers: 

So far we have done 12 quarts of pickled peppers, with one more pepper type to go.  All of these hot pepper products are mostly for Dan, as he can add as much as he wants to whatever food I make if he wants to "Kick It Up A Notch!"

And we've still got loads of hot peppers out in the garden!