At some point last year, I realized that I’d gotten way from doing things for myself, relying too much and too often on pre-made, pre-fabricated, pre-packaged, and pre-processed goods. This was a depressing realization.

So one of the things I have promised my self to do this year is to make more stuff. It doesn’t really matter what that stuff is, but if I think I can create rather than buy a thing, then I’d give it a shot. So today, we (me and my daughters) made some hot sauce.

The whole thing was a bit of an impulsive decision that started early this morning. I perused many different recipes over a cup of coffee, but none of them were quite right, so I decided to draw on the collective knowledge and make up a recipe. So yeah, I’m not sure how this is going to turn out &emdash; but that is, after all, part of the fun.

First, we gathered the ingredients (sure, that sounds all earth mother father and stuff, but we just went to the store):

• Four (4) fresno peppers. I’m not familiar with their flavor, so these were not my first choice. But I wanted a red pepper, and as these were the only peppers of that hue available, they became my only choice.
• Two (2) habanero peppers. One of my favorites for the good balance of heat and flavor.
• One (1) lime. It seemed like a good idea. Time will tell.
• One (1) orange bell pepper. Some of the recipes I’d researched called for sugar. I wasn’t real wild about this idea, so we opted for an orange bell pepper instead to give the sauce a little sweetness. Next time we may try honey. Or nothing. it all depends how things turn out.
• White vinegar, just enough to cover the peppers in the blender.
• A few dashes of salt. The girls wanted to try pink salt. In the spirit of cooperation, I agreed.

I cut up the peppers (wearing latex gloves). I didn’t want the girls to help with this, but I did let them smell the peppers. They agreed the habanero had more punch.

We dumped everything into the blender. We added the juice of the lime and only half of the orange bell pepper, then pureed it to a frothy orange slush, transferred it to a small pot, and slowly brought it to a boil.

After boiling, we let it cool for a few minutes and transferred the sauce to three 8 oz. Ball jars I use for honey. I would have preferred the whole mixture go into one jar, but, I didn’t have anything that large on hand. Whoops.

We covered the jars with a cloth, and now they sit on the counter, where they will remain for the next three days.

As a bonus, we saved some of the seeds from each pepper, which we’ll try to germinate so we can grow our own plants.