I know we don’t all love the kitchen, nor do we all live in a rural setting full of farms with fresh produce.  BUT if you do, or if you want to invest in peppers from the grocery, you can make this pretty quickly.

I use whatever peppers I have.  Today it was Hungarian wax peppers.  It doesn’t matter which peppers you use.  (I saved all my jalapenos to make some jalapeno soup. . .wish me luck).

Roasted Garlic Hot HOT Sauce

Hot peppers of choice, enough to cover the bottom of a baking dish

One whole head of garlic

Mexican mint

Sea salt

Olive Oil

Here’s the truth: I don’t measure or follow recipes, so if you want to try this, you need to CREATE.  Get messy and go for it.

All I do with the peppers is slice off the tops.  Mine come from an organic farm, so I don’t even rinse them unless they’re noticeably soiled.

Tip: Getting a large stone makes crushing garlic cloves super simple.  You just smash them with the stone, and then quickly peel away the skin.  I’ve also heard that putting all the cloves in a towel, pulling the corners together (imagine a knapsack on a stick), and smashing it on a hard surface also removes all the skins.  (It makes a big mess of your towel though!) Kids love to smash garlic.  (Kids love to smash anything, don’t they?) I don’t get so much help with the hot peppers, but garlic smashing is a hit! Bonus: If your baby is young enough he/she will be so proud to “discover” the perfect garlic smashing rock for you when you’re out on a walk somewhere. Good job!

Mexican mint probably doesn’t matter to the “recipe,” though surely it will alter the taste.  It doesn’t taste at all like mint. I’ve no idea how it got its name. I used it today because I have a bunch from my garden.  Note: Mexican mint plants make pretty and tiny yellow flowers most of the season, and I use it in all sorts of burrito, taco, and rice dishes.  Bonus: It’s easy to grow.

Note: Use only sea salt. Don’t use regular processed or iodized salt (ever).

The olive oil I just sprinkle over the top of the peppers before I roast them.

After cutting the tops off the peppers, lining the bottom of a baking dish with them, throwing on the smashed garlic (no need to mince), the sea salt, and the Mexican mint (if you have it), put the baking dish full of peppers in the oven at 450 for about 20 min or until the peppers start to show signs of roasting (brown or black areas, see middle photo above).   Once the dish is cool enough to handle, blend everything up in a blender or food processor. If you need to liquefy it, use some apple cider vinegar (it has great health benefits and will also help preserve your sauce).

I store my hot sauce in canning jars, but I don’t actually can it. I keep my hot sauce in the door of the fridge all winter. It will last for months (unless someone in your household devours it sooner).

That’s it!  You might ask how this recipe is good for kids.  Well, it may not be.  Our oldest (9) loves hot anything.  For the others, it’s useless.  But this blog is about YOU finding what YOU are passionate about.  So if you like to cook, take a day to do it for YOU and not for the rest of the family.  (And don’t worry, they won’t starve. Over in my world, lots of them come around to my wacky concoctions.)

I’m so grateful for this Saturday, even though here in the North Country it’s a soggy one.  What I do today is a choice.  I’m choosing miracles.