Candied Jalapenos

Looky there, I kept my promise.  No kid photos.  Just food.

I made this recipe for the first time two years ago, and have been making it ever since.

Jars are requested at Christmas now.

So, so, so good.

And crazy easy if you have a food processor with a slicer.

I used this recipe:

Sweet Candied Jalapeno Peppers

When I made them this year for Christmas, I used ten pounds of peppers.

That would have been A LOT to slice by hand.

All you do is bring the vinegar, sugar and spices to boil, throw your peppers in, cook for a few minutes, then transfer to jars.

The recipe gives canning instructions, but I just stick mine in the fridge.

We generally use ours on Mexican-style dishes, but my girlfriend had some on flat bread with cream cheese.

Mmmmmmmmm.

They're seriously so stinkin' good, they'd be good on anything.

The amount of heat depends on the peppers.  I think this last batch was hotter than the previous, which was fairly mellow.

But even the hotter version isn't insane.

Just enough kick.

Did I mention how good they are?

That's ten pounds of peppers worth.

They cook down quite a bit.

We had nachos for dinner last night and I smothered mine in them.

Ahhhhjeahhhhh.

Good stuff, kids.

Baby's 5th Birthday Party

Baby celebrated another birthday.  She went from five pounds to five years in the blink of an eye.

She changed her requested birthday party theme so many times, that I finally just decided she was gonna get whatever I came up with.

Ha!

I just did girly stuff, using mostly what we already had.

It sorta has a butterfly and flower theme, if you squint your eyes and hold your mouth just right.

We had the usual gathering at home, with a meal that she picked.

We did it after the work day on a Friday, which is why most of the photos are so dark.

Watermelon gummies, that someone got into before I took photos.

Pastel buttermints.

Dollar Store plates and napkins.

Gummy butterflies.

I was planning on getting cut flowers at the grocery store for a centerpiece, but she wanted primroses instead.

Smart girl.

The Daphne is from the yard.

Pink lemonade and fun flower straws.

For pre-dinner snacks, we had veggies and dip, fruit, and chips with onion dip.

I had cucumbers for the veggie tray, that I found in the crisper drawer a couple days later.

Boooo.

For dinner, she requested corn dogs, which is sorta hilarious, considering the only time she'd ever had them was at a neighbor's house.

She wanted tots to go with.

Easy for Mom.

After dinner, the boys played Blokus with the kids, then she opened presents.

Then cake.

I made a three layer sponge cake the day before, that flopped.

It was my first attempt and it didn't rise, at all.

It literally looked like three eggy German pancakes.

So the morning of, I made a lemon pound cake.

She doesn't like frosting, so she asked for strawberries with whipped cream.

I cut the pound cake into thirds and layered it.

Candles lit, Happy Birthday song sung, she then proceeded to take longer than any child in history to get her five candles blown out.

Finally.

And last, Baby and Daddy time.

Baby is definitely no longer a baby.