Texas Pepper Jelly Blog

Texas Pepper Jelly: Worth the Trip!

Craig Sharry | July 20, 2010

shrimp My grown daughter came down to visit me tonight, which was lovely! Her visit was unannounced, though; usually, we know when she’s stopping by.

She walked casually into my kitchen and casually opened the pantry door. Still being casual, she moved the various cans and bottles around until I finally asked her what in the world she was looking for!

“I was hoping you’d have some pepper jelly I could borrow,” was her sheepish answer.

Apparently, she’s having people over on Thursday night and wanted to serve our family’s favorite pepper jelly/cream cheese dip. along with some awesome dippin’ shrimp.

I didn’t have any Texas Rib Candy to give her, but in a few days I will! That stuff is truly well-named. Mmmm, so good.

Fortunately for Sara, I did have some. I hid the last Pineapple Habanero jar behind the peanut butter, and let her take the others. Not that we don’t love all the flavors; it’s just that if my husband opened that pantry and found his Pineapple Habanero gone, he’d have had something to say about it.

I offered to give her the brick of cream cheese I found in the back of the bottom drawer of the refrigerator, but seeing as how it expired in June of 2009, she politely declined.

“I’ll stop at the store on my way home,” she said.

Bon appetite, lucky guests of my beautiful daughter.

Now I need to order more pepper jelly. I’d planned some serious stir-fry for the coming weeks and I can’t make stir-fry without pepper jelly now that we’ve discovered it.

Category: Super Easy Party Recipes, Texas Cookin' Tips, Texas Pepper Jelly, TPJ Appetizers, TPJ Company dinners, TPJ Recipes, TPJ Snacks, What's Cookin' Wednesday |

Monday Munchies: Fresh & Zesty Pineapple Pie

Craig Sharry | July 19, 2010

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mondaymunchies Fresh pineapples are a good price right now – where I shop, a lovely large one is about $2.50. For our pineapple pie, you should probably buy two, just in case. You’ll need four cups.

Your family will know it’s midsummer for sure when they see Texas Pepper Jelly’s Fresh & Zesty Pineapple Pie on the table!

Ingredients:

3/4 cup sugar (I use Splenda)

3 tablespoons quick-cooking tapioca

Tiny dash of salt

4 cups fresh pineapple, cut into 1/2-inch pieces. (do not use canned pineapple!)

1 tablespoon lemon juice (fresh-squeezed – not that bottled stuff)

1/2 cup Texas Pineapple Habanero pepper jelly

Pastry for double-crust pie (make it or buy it; it doesn’t make any difference)

1 tablespoon butter

What to do:

In a large bowl, combine the sugar, tapioca, salt, pineapple, pepper jelly, and lemon juice. Let this mixture stand for about fifteen minutes.

Line a large deep-dish pie pan with half of the pastry crust and fill with the pineapple mixture. Dot with butter.

Adjust the top crust, seal, and flute the edges to your liking. Cover edges of pie with foil.

Bake in a 375 oven for twenty minutes. Remove the foil, and bake for another 25 minutes or until crust is uniformly golden. Cool the pie thoroughly before cutting; if you slice it too soon, it’ll run all over the place.

It’s absolutely delicious. It’s even better the next day, after spending the night in the refrigerator. Some people put topping on their slice, but my family likes this pie just as it is.

Oh, and that surprise Texas Pepper Jelly will have for y’all soon? It’s awesome, too. Just you wait. Mmmm, you’ll love it!

Category: Monday Munchies, Spicy desserts, Super Easy Party Recipes, Texas Cookin' Tips, Texas Pepper Jelly, Texas Rib Candy, Texas Tips, TPJ Recipes |

A Feast of Fridays: Zesty Pineapple Ham

Craig Sharry | July 16, 2010

One comment

feastoffridays Zesty Pineapple Ham is an excellent family dinner entree, and an equally excellent company dinner entree.

We had this delicious dish for Easter Dinner last year; there is just something “warm weather-ish” about baked ham.

Ingredients:

1 two-pound fully-cooked ham center

1 can of pineapple chunks, drained (save the juice) (8 1/4 oz. size can)

1 tablespoon whole cloves

4 teaspoons cornstarch

1/4 cup packed brown sugar, dark or light

2 tablespoons rum

1 tablespoon honey

1/2 cup Pineapple Habanero Pepper Jelly

What to do:

Slash the top of the ham and place it on a rack in a shallow baking pan. Bake for a half hour, at 350. Remove from oven.

In a large saucepan, mix together everything except the cloves. (Don’t forget to add the pineapple juice!) Bring to a boil and immediately reduce heat and simmer for five minutes. Stir until the mixture thickens.

Spread over the ham and return it to the oven; bake for about fifteen more minutes. Remove from oven, and spoon any “pooled-up” mixture or fallen pineapple chunks over the ham again. Stud the ham with the cloves, put ham back in the oven for five minutes. Remove the ham, remove the cloves.

Serve hot.

If there is any ham left over, which I doubt, it will make a spectacularly tasty sandwich, hot or cold.

Mmmm, Zesty Pineapple Ham.

Category: Feast of Fridays, Spicy main dishes, Spicy sandwiches, Super Easy Party Recipes, Texas Cookin' Tips, Texas Pepper Jelly, Texas Tips, TPJ Company dinners, TPJ Recipes |

What’s Cookin’ Wednesday: Texas Rib Candy Tacos!

Craig Sharry | July 14, 2010

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whatscookinwednesday Oh my gosh, look what we’re having for supper tomorrow night! My family is going to LOVE this!

Our newest product, Texas Rib Candy, is the star of Texas Rib Candy Tacos, naturally. Rib Candy is well-named, too; it’s so awesomely good, you might find yourself spilling a little on purpose just so you can spoon it up, plain!

This particular recipe uses Apple Cherry Habanero Rib Candy, and these tacos are so fantastic they’re almost dessert! These are also the perfect summer taco, because they’re best served cold.

Main Ingredients:

juice of one medium lemon

1 teaspon Dijon mustard

1 teaspoon salt (do not leave out!)

2 cups shredded cooked chicken, dark or light (your preference rules here)

6 tortillas or taco shells, soft or hard

1 large apple, diced

1/2 cup cherries, pitted and diced

Apple/cherry salad, see recipe below

2/3 cup Texas Apple Cherry Rib Candy

cilantro leaves (leave this step out if your family doesn’t like cilantro)

Ingredients for apple/cherry salad:

1 medium apple, diced

1/2 cup cherries, pitted and diced

juice of 1/2 lemon

dash garlic

1 cup shredded lettuce

What to do:

Mix all of the main ingredients (except the shells) together and let them “set.”

Make a small buffet out of Texas Rib Candy Tacos by putting the main ingredients on a nice platter, and set the salad on another. Don’t waste your time putting the rest of the Texas Rib Candy in the refrigerator; people will want more than they’ll get in the recipe itself. In fact, I wouldn’t count on having any Texas Rib Candy left over at all. Next time you order some, you’d better order several. Seriously. It’s that awesome.

You might wonder, looking over this recipe before you begin, why there is so much apple and cherry in it. After your crew tears into it, though, you won’t wonder any more. You’ll know.

P.S. Use fresh cherries. DO NOT used maraschino cherries!

P.P.S. Some people keep the shredded lettuce separate from the rest of the ingredients. Do this however you wish; Texas Rib Candy Tacos are yummy good no matter what your method of serving preference might be!

Category: Ethnic recipes, Spicy main dishes, Spicy salads, Super Easy Party Recipes, Texas Cookin' Tips, Texas grilling sauces, Texas Pepper Jelly, Texas Rib Candy, Texas Tips, TPJ Company dinners, TPJ Recipes, TPJ Sauces and Salsas, What's Cookin' Wednesday |

Monday Munchies: Spicy Plucking Bread

Craig Sharry | July 12, 2010

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mondaymunchies “Plucking Bread” is sometimes called “Monkey Bread,” and they are much the same thing. Both are easy, nutritious, attractive to look at, and very, very versatile. You can turn your “plucking bread” into dessert, snack, or full meal, all depending on what you add to it.

Here is the recipe for Spicy Plucking Bread.

Ingredients:

3 cans refrigerated dinner rolls

1 stick butter

1 cup sugar (do not substitute Splenda for this recipe)

1 heaping tablespoon cinnamon

3/4 cup chopped walnuts or pecans

3/4 cup pepper jelly (any flavor) (I like to add the matching fresh fruit, but you don’t have to.)

What to do:

Get out your largest angel food cake pan or bundt pan and grease thoroughly. Be sure to include the middle. Melt the butter in a small saucepan or in the microwave, and add the sugar, cinnamon, nuts, and pepper jelly.

Cut each of the rolls in two and cover the bottom of the pan with them. Spread the pepper jelly mixture over the top. Add another layer of rolls, and another layer of pepper jelly mixture, and repeat until all ingredients are gone.

Bake at 350 for about 35 minutes. (Keep checking to make sure the middle isn’t still goopy.)

When you remove the pan from the oven, immediately invert the pan onto a plate.

My kids like to spread more pepper jelly on the piping hot bread before they tear into it.

And when I say “tear into it,” that’s exactly what I mean. Because plucking bread is made up of separate pieces of dough, it bakes into balls of bread that can be “plucked” off and eaten.

Of course, if you’re wanting to appear a bit more refined, you can always slice it with a sharp serrated knife. If you do eat it this way, you’ll notice that the inside of the loaf is absolutely beautiful – criss-crossed and patterned with dark and light and nuts.

P.S. Don’t forget that soon, VERY soon now, Texas Pepper Jelly will be announcing its newest and most awesome product!

Category: Monday Munchies, Spicy desserts, Super Easy Party Recipes, Texas Cookin' Tips, Texas Pepper Jelly, TPJ Appetizers, TPJ Recipes, TPJ Snacks |

A Feast of Fridays: Freeze It! Freeze It In A Baby Soda Bottle!

Craig Sharry | July 9, 2010

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feastoffridays I’ve already recommended pepper jelly ice cubes to you all, and I still recommend them heartily. The weather here in southern Indiana is so hot and humid that you can’t have enough cold things within your grasp.

Today I’m going to recommend pepper jelly popsicles. You can use almost any kind of enclosed container for a frozen pop; I have used small juice glasses, Tupperware frozen pop molds, cheap dollar store molds, and a spoon or stick in each square of an ice cube tray, even. These all work fine.

My favorite popsicle mold, however, is something rather strange. Well, strange to be used for this, that is. I teach hands-on science when I’m not experimenting with pepper jellies in my kitchen, and I own dozens of “baby soda bottles.” I buy them from Steve Spangler’s website.

WRAC-100-100x100 These are perfect for so many things in my science job, but they are also absolutely the most perfect popsicle molds I’ve ever used. Seriously, they’re the perfect shape and size! They’re tough and almost unbreakable, and dishwasher-safe. I have several sets, each with its own little rack. They take up very little space in the freezer, so you have room for several rows of pepper jelly popsicles. Pepper jelly frozen in these baby soda bottles is also the perfect size and shape to make ices to drop into thermos bottles and those awesome stainless steel drinking glasses with lids.

But mostly, when I’m not using them in my labs, I just fill those baby soda bottles with pepper jelly – or sometimes with fruit juice – or sometimes both – stick a stick in there and let the freezer do its job.

Oh, and by the way? Do you know why these little beauties are called baby soda bottles? It’s because they really are baby soda bottles! Yup, these are what your two-liter pop bottles look like before they’re blown up into two-liter soda pop bottles! Cool, huh. Don’t try to make popsicles in a full-grown soda bottle, though. Use these, or something that’s the approximate size of these. It’s not that I begrudge you the large popsicle; it’s just that if it’s too big, there’s no way you can eat it all before it melts all over you!

Stay cool, y’all.

Category: Feast of Fridays, Texas Pepper Jelly, Texas Tips, TPJ Recipes, TPJ Snacks |

What’s Cookin’ Wednesday: Super Easy Spicy Appetizer

Craig Sharry | July 7, 2010

2 comments

mondaymunchies It bears repeating! Our Texas Pepper Jellies make the best cream cheese appetizers and dips EVER!

Easiest of all? Just unwrap a package of cream cheese – I use Neufchatel so I can pretend it’s “diet,” – put it on a plate or in a small bowl, cover with the Texas Pepper Jelly flavor of your choice, surround it with assorted crackers, and stand back.

I usually have several small bowls of this, each with a different pepper jelly over it. Be sure you have PLENTY of crackers; there won’t be any left over.

Yes, there’s nothing to making this at all. Yes, it’s so easy it’s almost unbelievable.

Once you taste it, and watch your family and guests tear into it, though, and you’ll believe it.

It’s soooo good. It’s just simply the best and simplest appetizer/dip in the world.

Oh, and by the way? The combination of cream cheese and pepper jelly will turn your ordinary breakfast bagel into something FANTASTIC!

Category: Super Easy Party Recipes, Texas breakfast recipes, Texas Pepper Jelly, Texas Tips, TPJ Appetizers, TPJ Recipes, TPJ Snacks, What's Cookin' Wednesday |

Monday Munchies: Spicy Summer Punch

Craig Sharry | July 5, 2010

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mondaymunchies Many families are still celebrating our country’s independence today, and many people are relaxing on the last day of a four-day weekend. Most of us would agree that we drink far too much carbonated soda, so let’s make a big batch of Spicy Summer Punch! It’s good for us, and it’s delicious. This recipe makes a large batch, perfect for a punch bowl or for several pitchers. Spicy Summer Punch freezes well, too.

The day before you make the punch, make special ice cubes by using lemonade, orange juice, pineapple juice, or all three – or any kind of fruit juice – in ice cube trays or in any kind of mold you wish.

Ingredients:

3 cups sugar (I use Splenda)

4 cups water

2 cups strawberries (fresh or frozen)

6 cans (the 6-oz size) frozen lemonade (do not dilute)

2 cans (the 6-oz size) frozen orange juice (do not dilute)

5 cups pineapple juice

4 cups pineapple chunks

2 cups Texas Pineapple Habanero pepper jelly

1 gallon water (Yes, this is another “helping” of water)

2 quarts of dry ginger ale

What to do:

Boil the sugar and water (the 4-cup batch) for about 10 minutes, or until it forms a syrup. Add the juices and pepper jelly, and chill for 2 or 3 hours. Add the remaining ingredients, and pour over the ice you made or molded yesterday.

Freeze half (or more) of the punch if you don’t need a large amount right away.

I like to float all kinds of fruit on top of the punch; I usually use thinly sliced limes, lemons, and oranges. The pineapple chunks are floaters, too. If I have berries, those are good, too. In fact, if I have berries, I usually freeze them into the ice cubes the day before.

This is a lovely tart punch with a spicy kick, not the foamy creamy sweet kind. It does a perfect job of quenching the thirst of a hot and humid summer day. Put some toothpicks on the table so people can stab and eat the pieces of fruit.

Keep on checking our blog; our newest product is something so awesome, you won’t believe it until you try it. Just before Labor Day, all will be revealed, and won’t you be glad! Yes, you sure will be glad. Mmmm, yum.

Category: Drink up!, Monday Munchies, Spicy drinks, Super Easy Party Recipes, Texas Cookin' Tips, Texas Pepper Jelly, Texas Tips, TPJ Recipes |

A Feast of Fridays: What’s a Summer Holiday without Spicy Potato Salad?

Craig Sharry | July 2, 2010

3 comments

feastoffridays It’s Fourth of July Weekend, and that means cookouts, picnics, and reunions galore! And what is any of those things without a big bowl of cold potato salad?

That’s why I’m posting our fantabulous potato salad recipe again. People ask me for it all the time, ever since I first posted it here, and I usually just send them the link or the recipe via email.

However, since everybody will be wanted potato salad this weekend, here’s our Texas Pepper Jelly potato salad recipe, in its entirety. Enjoy, y’all.

Ingredients:

Ten large potatoes: peeled, cubed, and boiled. Drain and set aside. (I don’t peel them any more, if I use red potatoes.) (Let them cool before you start mixing things into them)

Eight large dill pickles. Chop LARGE and set aside.

One large onion. Chop finely and set aside.

One green pepper. Chop LARGE and set aside.

Two boiled eggs. Peel and chop and set aside.

One small jar of red pimento. Open and drain.

3/4 cup of Miracle Whip.

One tablespoon cheap yellow mustard.

1/3 cup of Pineapple Habanero Pepper Jelly

Tiny dash of salt, if you must.

What to do:

Now, dump the drained potatoes into a large bowl, and throw everything else in there with them. Mix thoroughly but carefully, so you don’t mash the potatoes. Cover the bowl tightly, and put it in the refrigerator. Potato salad is best cold, you know.

We’re having all the family here on the Fourth, and we’re grilling out, naturally. I’ll be making Spicy Potato Salad tomorrow night AFTER everybody goes to bed. If I make it too soon, there’s none left for the actual meal.

We do what we gotta do.

(Don’t forget to watch this space for our new product’s official debut! It’s awesome, and you’ll love it. That’s all I’m sayin’ right now.)

Category: Feast of Fridays, Spicy salads, Spicy side dishes, Super Easy Party Recipes, Texas Cookin' Tips, Texas Pepper Jelly, Texas Tips, TPJ Company dinners, TPJ Recipes |

What’s Cookin’ Wednesday: Grilled Chicken Supreme, Version I

Craig Sharry | June 30, 2010

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whatscookinwednesday This was what was for dinner last night. Don’t bother stopping by; there aren’t any leftovers.

Ingredients:

4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts

2 cups Texas Apple Cherry Habanero Grilling & Finishing Sauce

1 cup fresh cherries and apple slices (cut the apple VERY thin, and don’t peel it)

2 tablespoons honey

3/4 cup brown rice

What to do:

Put the brown rice in a large bowl with the appropriate amount of water and let it cook while you fix up everything else. It will take longer to cook than the chicken will.

Don’t laugh, but I like to pound boneless chicken breasts sort of flat before I put them on the grill. They cook faster, they appear bigger (that’s important to a dieter!) and they’re a lot more tender. You don’t have to do that, though.

Brush the chicken lightly with the grilling sauce. While the chicken is grilling, combine the rest of the grilling sauce with the cherries and apples, and the honey. Microwave for about one minute.

Get out your big platter. Put the cooked brown rice on it, and cover with the grilled chicken. Pour the sauce and fruit over it all, and let it “set” for about five minutes before serving.

All you need now is a nice green salad and you’ve got dinner.

Be watching for a Texas Pepper Jelly announcement soon; we’ve got something really, really awesome coming your way, and you don’t have long to wait! Keep an eye on this blog!!!

Category: Spicy main dishes, Super Easy Party Recipes, Ten Minute Meals, Texas Cookin' Tips, Texas grilling sauces, Texas Pepper Jelly, Texas Tips, TPJ Recipes, TPJ Sauces and Salsas |

« Older Entries Recent Entries »

Texas Pepper Jelly: Worth the Trip!

Monday Munchies: Fresh & Zesty Pineapple Pie

A Feast of Fridays: Zesty Pineapple Ham

What’s Cookin’ Wednesday: Texas Rib Candy Tacos!

Monday Munchies: Spicy Plucking Bread

A Feast of Fridays: Freeze It! Freeze It In A Baby Soda Bottle!

What’s Cookin’ Wednesday: Super Easy Spicy Appetizer

Monday Munchies: Spicy Summer Punch

A Feast of Fridays: What’s a Summer Holiday without Spicy Potato Salad?

What’s Cookin’ Wednesday: Grilled Chicken Supreme, Version I

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