Pepper Jelly

A good thing to do on a cold day (and every day is cold) is to make jelly. David left me a bunch of jalepeno peppers that I hadn't used, so I decided to turn them into my favorite pepper jelly. From what I can gather by licking the spoon, it is delicious.

The first time I had this kind of jelly was in New Mexico when I visited Don for the first time. We went to a store in the Old Town section of Albuquergue and there was a store there called Chili Peppers. There was a tray of crackers and a bowl of jelly to try. This was good strategy, since I'm sure few people would take the chance on buying it without tasting it first. I know I wouldn't. I pictured it being like a mixture of ground black pepper in a gelatin-like solution. Much to my suprise and delight it was very tasty and I bought some. Since then I have rarely had any. One doesn't find it in the grocery store, at least not around here. The sight of those hot peppers staring at me every time I opened the refrigerator must have stimulated some dormant synapse to fire and I thought of the jelly.

What a miracle tool the internet is. The thought no sooner entered my mind that I was able to look up the recipe and find several different versions of pepper jelly. In times past, I would have had to search through my cookbooks, and even then I don't think I would have been able to find one. So now the house is full of the wonderful sweet-and-sour smell of sugar and vinegar, and warm from the boiling of jars. How easily the world can be made wonderful.