Jalapeno Vino

pepperfestival.com

Every September, the next town over has a chili pepper festival.

Because I have IBS-C, this has become one of my favorite things ever.

Last year, the chili pepper fest made an impression on me for two reasons.

First - There were so many bees!!! As friends and I walked from hot sauce vendor to hot sauce vendor, bees COVERED every table and sample jar. I've never seen so many bees in my life. I knew I was going to get stung. And I did. Right above my bum. Just like a tramp stamp.

I went on to have a panic attack. This is because when I was a child, doctors told me that I was allergic to bees. However, no precautions had ever been given or taken for this. So I couldn't quite remember if this allergy was factual or if I'd made it up.

Five minutes went by. I didn't go into shock. So I knew for sure: NOT ALLERGIC TO BEES!




The second memorable event of that day was this: I tried a new kind of vino that I'd never had before.

JALAPENO VINO!!!!

Wine and spice are BFFs to the IBS-C gut. Taken as an aspertif post-meal, jalapeno vino cuts through the food. It's like: "Oh, you want me to digest this for you? No problem. I GOTS THIS."





It's also DELICIOUS.

Growing up in a house of Ellios pizza, cereal, and Easy Mac - I never knew real flavors. So when I first tried spicy food, it tasted spicy. Only recently, as I've stuck to raw unprocessed foods, have I begun to detect flavors underneath the heat.

Jalapeno is hot. It's also really cool. It has a green summery fragrance to it, like cucumber. It can cut through any heavy meal. But it don't wanna hurt ya. Jalapeno is to digestion as a push is to a toddler on the swing. It gives you a little lift.

Cardinal Hollow makes jalapeno vino the for real way.



There are tons of recipes online explaining how to be legit with it.

As a wannabe-herbalist, I'm more into infusions... like infusing lavender in wine or olive oil... I did that back in '08 and lost the pretty pink after photo. But this is a good one too.

http://straightfromthefarm.net

For the jalapeno vino, I did the same damn thing.

Jalapeno Vino

Ingredients

1 fresh jalapeno chopped

16 ounces of pinot grigio




Instructions

Put on gloves to protect your fingers.

Chop jalapeno. 

Drop jalapeno pieces into a 16 ounce jar of pinot grigio.

Let the jalapeno pieces and vino sit in the fridge for 5 days.

After five days, drain the vino into a new jar.

Do whatever you want to with the jalapeno.

Drink the vino.

Next? 

I'm thinking cayenne and shiraz.

Any suggestions???

Finally, a ginormous thank you to AMBER for nominating me for the Food Stories Award.

Amber is majorly awesome, someone who I think I would've been BFFs with if we had gone to high school together. I'm so flattered that such a good writer and brilliant foodie thought of me for this. Also - I really do try to tell stories. I spent 60 thousand bucks and countless hours of my life on learning how to be a published fiction writer. Gotta make something out of that!


Now! It's MY turn to nominate.

I'm nominating Sarena from The Non-Dairy Queen.

Oh Sarena! Where do I begin? She's the wife of an illustrator, the mother to two incredibly cute sons, and reading their blog, I swear - the four of them seem to have so much fun together. She has a crazy bad ass work ethic, busting her butt around the clock. And she still finds time to work out every day and cook amazing allergy free food for her men.

 

monkey bread

Sarena's recipes are super simple and super delicious. I've been using her pancake one for two years and have not looked back.

From my perspective - she seems to have the coolest life, full of everyday adventures. I love reading about it.

If you're so inclined:

Here’s how it works:

1. The nominee should visit the award site (http://foodstoriesblog.com/food-stories-award/) and leave a comment indicating that they have been nominated and by whom. (This step is so important because it’s the only way our judges will know who is being considered for the monthly award).
2. The Nominee should thank the person that nominated them by posting on their own blog & including a link to their blog.
3. The Nominee should include a courtesy link back to the official award site (http://foodstoriesblog.com/food-stories-award/) in their blog post.
4. Share one random thing about yourself in your blog post.
5. Select at least five other bloggers that you enjoy reading their stories and nominate them for the award. Include these nominees in your blog post. Many people indicate that they wish they could nominate more so please feel free to nominate all your favorites.
6. Notify your  nominees by leaving a comment on their blog, including a link to the award site (http://foodstoriesblog.com/food-stories-award/).

Food Stories has put together a phenomenal team of judges to review all nominees and to select a Food Stories Award Winner for each month.

IMPORTANT … In order to be considered for the monthly award, you must fulfill each of the listed steps above. After your site is reviewed and all the steps have been followed then the site will be added to the “official” nominee page for entry into the monthly giveaway. Please feel free to comment below or email if you have any questions/comments.