Preserving the Heat

After a few very strong summer storms, only one jalapeno pepper plant remains in our little backyard garden. Fortunately it's a prolific one and I picked 15 fairly large peppers the other morning.
We have a couple of ways to preserve these for use later in the year, but the best way is to freeze them. After being frozen, they're good for cooking in soups and casseroles.
Here's how I flash froze my harvest that day:
First I washed all the peppers, then dried each with a paper towel. I dried them so that when I freeze them, the pieces won't have ice on them.
Cut off the stem end and slice down the middle of the pepper.
Use a spoon and scoop out the ribs and seeds. This removes most of the heat - I like the heat, but Greg's not a fan.

Now there is just the pepper shell. I sliced these length-wise into thin strips, then cut the strips into small pieces.

Doing that left me with a nice tray of diced jalapenos. Place a piece of waxed paper on a cookie sheet before spreading the pepper pieces into a single layer.

Now place the tray in the freezer for a few hours. When the pieces are frozen, you can put them in a Ziplock bag and store in the freezer for later use.

I would so love to show you a photo of my freezer bag full of goodness, but when I got the tray out of the freezer in the garage and was walking into the house, I dropped it and all my pretty frozen pepper pieces landed in the doorway - some inside the house on the floor, some on the porch. I didn't even say a bad word - I was speechless...

Like I said earlier, it's fortunate this is a prolific plant. I will be able to put some peppers in the freezer in another few days, and will definitely be more careful walking around with the tray.