One item that takes up quite a lot of real estate in our veggie garden is hot peppers. We have 18 plants this year, with 6 of those being jalapeños. There is, of course, no way we can eat 6 plants worth of jalapeños before they go bad.
Why hot and cold though? The peppers themselves are the hot and how I save them is the cold.
Nothing could be simpler. Wash the peppers and dry completely. Lay them in a single layer on a baking sheet, lined with paper towels, parchment paper, or as I do here, with a woven kitchen towel. 
Freeze until completely solid, probably about 4 hours or so and divide among containers – I usually use freezer grade zip-lock bags. You can use containers if you prefer, but you will never be able to use them for anything else because the flavor of those peppers is forever married to the plastic by the time you use them up. 
When you want to use the peppers, just take out however many you need and let them thaw slightly, and using a very sharp knife, slice them up. These little slices are perfect on pizza which is what we use a lot of them for. I also chop them up and use them in soup, stew, casseroles, chili, burritos, tacos, quesadillas, or sprinkled over my bran flakes on those mornings I have trouble waking up. 
Don’t have a garden? Because they are so cheap in the stores right now, you can buy a good supply and get some put up for your own pizza. Then, you’ll feel all Little House on the Prairie this winter when your guests remark on the fresh zippy flavor. Don’t tell them how easy it was – better they should think you had to sweat.
I love the last picture. Now, tell me how long it took you to put that together?
it was no big deal – I had to cut it up for my bran flakes anyway…
“sprinkled over my bran flakes on those mornings I have trouble waking up.”
EEEEKK !!!!
If I ever did that you’d have to bury me by dinnertime.
Bear((( )))
I came by from sky watch but I love your blog and look forward to catching up on past posts. I too have lots of peppers and this looks like a great way to take care of the little buggers. I’m all for freezing stuff…..well except my kids and the farmer.
You are joking about the bran flakes …. aren’t’ you?
I have made fresh Peach and Mango Salsa three times this summer. The first time was a Mango Salsa from the salad book I use and it used olive oil. It was good but the family preferred not having the oil in it. The other times I just made it how I thought it should be and added the fresh peaches. It was so good! The last time I made a huge batch and I was thinking …. “I hope this gets eaten before the peaches go bad.” It took me two hours while we were all watching the Olympics. I got done at 11 PM and I am not kidding when I tell you that, aside from the small container I managed to horde for my lunch for the next day, it was all gone by 11:15 PM! (Four teenagers and a Mom) Our neighbor gave us the fresh tomatoes (and a few from my son John’s sole tomato plant too). I added fresh garlic, scallions, red onion, one mango, two peaches, fresh jalapeños, some grilled banana peppers, chopped fresh cilantro, fresh squeezed lemon and lime juice and cracked peppercorn. My only regret was that I don’t have a Nikon D-whatever-number-it-is and a nifty blog to share it with the world! ; ) As you can tell, I was quite proud of myself!
What a great idea becuase the plant produces so much! Thanks for the tip.
…This is odd that you posted this when you did because right now I’ve got more jalapeno peppers than I know what to do with and I was just wondering what to do to preserve them – thank you! :o)
…And great photos of them too btw…
…Blessings…
Do you like them pickled? We use pickled ones in my house like crazy. I buy 3 jars at a time when I am at the mega-mart. I wonder if you can can them….
MMMMMMMM!!!
bear and CM – I am kidding about the bran flakes….mostly. :) That salsa sounds good CM!
Egghead and Diane- one thing I love about SkyWatch is finding sites I love – like both of yours! ;)
np/Cathy – and this year they are really working overtime – we are already giving them away by the bagful!
tj – let me know how you like them :)
Lori – do pickle them – I use the fresh pickling method which leaves them nice and crunchy and fresh tasting. It is the same basic recipe as the refrigerator dills I posted a couple weeks ago.
I’m not a hot pepper fan. But I love all your cooking tips and . . . of course . . . the photos.
Dang it. Here I was thinking you’d stumbled on the secret to making bran flakes tasty.
I had forgotten I have some vacuum packed bags of these in my freezer! Thanks for reminding me! I am soooo making salsa tonight! We didn’t have a garden this year, but if I pull these out and grab a few other things we can have awesome salsa tonight!
Thanks for stopping by my blog today, hope you come back!
Thanks for the great tip! I had no idea you could freeze hot peppers. I’ll definitely be stocking up on them for winter.
I freeze all of my hot peppers, and my favourite application of them is, instead of thawing them, while still frozen, grate them up with my mircoplane. You practically end up with jalapeno (or other pepper) powder, and it adds such a fresh kick to many dishes.
Great ideas here! I will skip the bran flake idea, sorry.
We love jalapenos and can’t wait to plant some in our garden next year.
A favorite recipe for appetizers is halved jalapenos, stuffed with a mixture of cream cheese and dry ranch dressing. Wrap a piece of bacon around it and grill until the bacon is crisp. yum!
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