NY Hot Pepper Relish

20-30 peppers
1 or 2 onions
5-10 cloves garlic
2 c. white vinegar
1.5 c. water
1 tb sugar
2 tsp salt

Roast, de-skin and de-seed the peppers, chop and put in a big saucepan or pot. Dice the onion and garlic, add it to the pot. Put all the other ingredients into the pot and bring to a boil. Simmer it for 20 minutes, then ladle into sterilized glass jars. Process the jars. Later, get some good-quality buns and sausages. Invite your friends over and grill up the 'dogs. Top with exotic mustards, perhaps homemade sauerkraut, and this pepper relish. Garnish with a few cold ones and some tunes.

I found the original recipe, posted way back in 2005, on The Cutting Board forum and pretty much used it straight up, except it called for red cherry peppers and I had on hand a mongrel assortment of peppers from the Saturday farmer's market. The poster notes that, "here in upstate NY, when you order sub sandwiches, unless you specify, you will get a sauce like this on them. It's got a good flavor but, IT'S VERY HOT."

Let's hope so. I can hardly wait to try it over a bratwurst.

Free Money

The photo is from wonkette.com—click here for the full post. Really, though, the post attached to the photo isn't worth reading; what is interesting is DC's lack of a bottle deposit. After big events in metropolitan California, those money-earning cans and bottles are gone. Either the waste companies take 'em away, or the can men get them. I personally root for the can men. California reclaims about 61 percent of its recyclables, which is good, but Oregon kicks our ass with an 84-percent reclamation rate—and Iowa, Vermot, and Michigan have rates in the 90s. That's some motivated recyclers.

I'm a so-so recycler, and I still pull enough cans and bottles out of my trash (and off the street on which I live) to pay for my dump fees. Put a little effort into it and I could throw in a trip to the taco wagon as well.

Check it out at the Bottle Bill Resource Guide.

Almost-free Chicken Soup

1-2 lemons
rice
vegetables
pepper
butter
garlic
onion
roast chicken carcass

Toss the roast chicken carcass in a pot with some water and simmer until what meat's left falls off the bones. Pull everything out of the pot with a slotted spoon and remove all the bones and gristle. Discard the bones and gristle, and put what you kept back into the pot of stock. Add whatever vegetables are on hand, and simmer with a lid on. Zest and juice the lemons, adding both to the pot. Add 1/2 to 1 cup of rice, depending on how much rice you like in your soup. Add as much or as little pepper as you like. Saute thinly-sliced garlic and onion in the butter and add that to the soup pot. When the rice is cooked and you're hungry, it's ready to eat.

I made this on Sunday, because one of the guys in my Saturday gaming group brought a couple of rotisserie chickens to share that he got free at work (he works at a market). I already had four carrots, half an onion, some garlic and the rice on hand, plus two lemons—one from the free shelf at work, the other I found on the sidewalk the day before; it was still good, so I took it home. I went to the store and bought a leafy bunch of celery, so all in all this soup, which I just finished today for lunch, cost me 79 cents. And I only used half of the celery in the soup. So call it three days' worth of meals for 40 cents. W00t!

Escape from Berkeley

It is a classic road rally, 600 miles from the liberal embrace of Berkeley to the anything-goes lights of Las Vegas. No speeding is allowed, or in some cases even possible. And if you stop to refuel, it had better be in someone’s trash.

On Saturday, five teams began the Escape From Berkeley, maybe the world’s most eco-friendly motor race, driving all manner of alternative-fuel-burning jalopies, roadsters, and even a frying oil-fueled Mercedes-Benz, with a single goal: to complete the race using no petroleum.

“Gentlemen, start your whatever they are,” the M.C. shouted to begin the race, which offers the winner $5,000.The final catch of the race is that participants — artists, environmentalists and even a cattle farmer from Alabama — have to find or scavenge their go-go juice, whether it is used vegetable oil from restaurants or twigs and sticks from the side of the road. All the vehicles, which had to be street legal, were allowed to start with a single gallon of whatever fuel they used.

“We’re just going to hang out in front of Ace Hardware and beg,” said Ben Wedlock, who was riding a two-man bicycle, augmented by a one-horsepower electric motor that runs on ethanol.

Read the full article by Jesse McKinley in today's New York Times. Or, follow the action on the Escape From Berkeley website.