Texas Pepper Jelly Blog

Monday Munchies: Baked Pepper Jelly Ham

Craig Sharry | April 19, 2010

mondaymunchies Baked Pepper Jelly Ham is a wonderful company meal, Sunday dinner, or a family meal on those nights when you just feel like fixing something special.

I use a fully-cooked ham. If you use a “raw ham,” add 20 minutes per pound to the baking time.

Ingredients:

One fully-cooked ham (for five people, I use a ham that weighs about 3 pounds)

One 5-ounce jar of Pineapple Habanero Pepper Jelly

cloves, if your family likes cloves

What to do:

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.

If your ham is wrapped in plastic, be sure to remove all of this coating.

Place unwrapped ham in a roaster or dutch oven, and cover.

Bake for about an hour. Your ham is already fully cooked, so all you’re really doing is getting it really hot.

After an hour’s baking, remove the roaster/Dutch oven and set on top of stove. Take a VERY sharp knife (I recommend our Messermeister knives) and score the top into squares, diamonds, triangles, or whatever design you like. Just make sure your design is “fancy” enough to give the glaze some “cling.” Spread the pepper jelly all over the ham, even the sides. Return to oven and bake another half hour or so, until the pepper jelly glaze glistens.

Remove ham from oven and let it “set” for another half hour before you try to slice it.

If you’re serving four or five people with this recipe, you can count on a few slices left over for someone’s lunch the next day. If I have a can of shredded pineapple, I sometimes mix that with the pepper jelly.

That sweet/hot flavor just permeates the ham, and turns it into something so good, there are just no words to properly describe it. You’ll never glaze a ham with brown sugar again.

My son is the only one of us who likes cloves on this ham, so I usually just stick a few on one of the ham ends. The rest of us just like the pepper jelly glaze on ours. But a ham is big, so there’s plenty of room to “individualize” it a bit. 🙂

Category: Messermeister cutlery, Monday Munchies, Spicy main dishes, Spicy sandwiches, Texas Cookin' Tips, Texas Pepper Jelly, Texas Tips, TPJ Company dinners, TPJ Recipes |

A Feast of Fridays: Mandarin Orange Habanero Bread Pudding

Craig Sharry | April 16, 2010

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feastoffridays Oh my gosh, your family will never want anything else for dessert again!

What I had not realized was that my great-grandmother used to make her bread puddings with pepper jelly! It’s that “spicy” touch that absolutely MAKES this recipe fabulous! (My great-grandmother’s combination of sweet-spicy in her bread puddings was always the hit of any pitch-in, and her pans were scraped clean, while those who brought contributions that were merely “sweet” usually had some leftovers to cart back home.)

Ingredients:

5 slices stale bread, toasted

3 tablespoons soft butter (don’t use margarine)

3/4 cup Texas Mandarin Orange Habanero Pepper Jelly

3 beaten eggs

1 3/4 cups milk – and it’s even better if you use half-and-half or cream

3 teaspoons lemon juice

1/8 teaspoon nutmet

What to do:

Spread each slice of toast (do not remove crusts) with butter and pepper jelly, using ALL of the pepper jelly. cut into cubes and dump into buttered casserole.

Mix the beaten eggs with the milk, lemon juice, and nutmet, and pour over the toast cubes.

Bake at 300 degrees for 45 minutes. Serve warm or cold.

Set out whipped cream for anyone who wants it.

This recipe gives each of the four of us a large slice, with two left over for Tim to take in his lunch the next day. We like ours warm for a dinner dessert, but he likes the leftover slices ice cold for his lunch.

Category: Feast of Fridays, Spicy desserts, Super Easy Party Recipes, Texas Cookin' Tips, Texas Pepper Jelly, Texas Tips, TPJ Recipes, TPJ Snacks |

A Message from Texas Pepper Jelly’s CEO

Craig Sharry | April 13, 2010

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If you haven’t already signed up to receive Texas Pepper Jelly’s newsletter, I strongly advise you to do so. You’ll get not only advice, information, and recipes; you’ll also get discount codes and freebies!

Here’s the newest newsletter, straight from the pen of Texas Pepper Jelly’s CEO, Craig Sharry:

Stop. Before you read this newsletter, take a minute and send this to 10 of your friends or family members. They will be glad that you did. You will be glad that you did. Everyone will be happy. (Seriously, do as he says!!!)

Hello Texas Pepper Jelly fans. I hope this newsletter finds everyone happy and doing well. Charlynn and I are doing fine and looking forward to a busy summer. Recently I had a few free minutes and was flipping the TV channels when I saw something that got my attention. It was one of those food channel shows where they talk all about new products and such. This particular show was talking about the “new” rage of sweet and spice mixed together. So I decided to give it a shot to see what all the fuss was about. The truth is other than maybe some new products the “new rage” is nothing new. Heck all they had to do was ask any of our customers and they could have found out sweet and heat has been around awhile. Here at Texas Pepper Jelly we have been working on the sweet heat concept for about 5 years. So whats all the fuss about? I can tell you this it was interesting to see some of the new products on the market such as spicy cookies and ice cream with hot pepper flavoring inside, but if anyone has been listening we have been talking about this kind of stuff for years. I can remember when we first started that one of our customers ordered a lot of Apple Jalapeno. I finally asked them where is all that Apple Jalapeno going? The answer was simple. Their 6 year old granddaughter was putting it on ice cream. Now if a 6 year old knows our product is good every body should be giving it a try.

Over the years we have heard of a lot of uses for our jellies. Let me give you just a few examples. It has been used on cookies, ice cream, hot dogs, hamburgers, pizza, biscuits, sandwiches, peanut butter, chocolate, chili, ribs, chicken, cake, pretzels, chips, cream cheese, egg rolls, chicken nuggets, iced drinks, lasagna, pot roast, soups, spam, pasta salad, sausage, pizza rolls, cheese sticks, and many, many more items. It sounds like to me you are only limited by your imagination. So if you are a regular customer you already know what others do not. If you have never tried our product what are you waiting for?

Order Now!

I know you’re probably curious about now but it really is the most amazing product you can purchase for adding zest and flavor to your food. And here at Texas Pepper Jelly we have made it even easier for you to find recipes to use our products. It’s as easy as going to our blog and looking at all the recipes that have been posted just over the last few months. We have some pretty amazing recipes that are both quick and easy to make. So take a minute and check it out. It’s as easy as clicking Texas Pepper Jelly Blog.

Order Now!

Every newsletter I try to give you a recipe that is tasty and easy to make. This month is no exception. Try the recipe below and impress all of your friends. Summer time is here and nothing tastes better in the summer than a refreshing cool side dish. This month’s recipe is our Texas Slaw. Try this one. It’s quick, easy and affordable. Ingredients:

1 head cabbage

1 large onion

1 red pepper

1 green pepper

2 large carrots

1 stalk celery

1/2 cup vinegar

1/2 cup sugar

2/3 cup Pineapple Habanero Pepper Jelly

1 tsp salt

What to do:

Shred the vegetables (tip: It’s easier if they are cold. Not frozen, just cold.)

In a large bowl, mix the shredded veggies with all the other ingredients. Toss lightly but thoroughly.
Refrigerate for about 2 hours before serving. Do not plan on having any leftovers!

Order Now!

I told you that you would love it. After all everyone loves a cool refreshing side dish in the hot summer time. One of the many great things about Texas Pepper Jelly is just how many different ways you can use it. Another thing that you will love is our newsletter. Tell your friends about it. Tell them it’s free. Then they can get their own copy every month.

Newsletter Signup

Plus, anyone who subscribes today, will immediately be sent a free sample of our Country Sweet Texas Heat cookbook. These exclusive recipes will have your friends and family wanting you to cook all of their meals. (Do it now; this cookbook is AMAZING!)

Don’t forget you can also order from Texas Pepper Jelly and have us ship it to your favorite friend or relative. It is honestly the best gift you can give. Let’s face it; people love to eat, and good food makes everyone happy. So if you give Texas Pepper Jelly as a gift you’re making someone very happy.

Bonus Time!

Bonus Time is something we offer to our newsletter customers for subscribing. This month we are going to offer the old fashioned, always reliable, money saving, 10% discount. (I told you he gave out discounts in the newsletter!) This is one offer that gets everybody’s attention. It’s simple to use and the added bonus is the more you spend the more you save.

Newsletter Special:

10% Discount off your subtotal

Coupon Code – Discount

Do not forget to type the coupon code word in the coupon code box to save 10%. But act fast. This discount expires in 5 days. Yep that’s right, only 5 days to take advantage of our 10% discount.

Order Now!

As always, it has been a pleasure to serve you our customers. I hope you enjoy our newsletter and if you have not tried our product, what are you waiting for? Trust me, you’re going to love it!

Until next time,

Craig Sharry

Category: Craig Sharry, eCookbook, perfect gift, Spicy side dishes, Texas BBQ rubs, Texas Cookin' Tips, Texas Pepper Jelly, Texas Tips, TPJ Customer service, TPJ Gifts, TPJ Newsletter, TPJ Recipes, TPJ Rubs and Spices, TPJ Sampler Tins, TPJ Sauces and Salsas, What's Cookin' Wednesday |

Monday Munchies: One-Dish Pasta Texana

Craig Sharry | April 12, 2010

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mondaymunchies This is a versatile, nutritious, and delicious one-dish meal that your family will ask for again and again! Mine does.

Ingredients:

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 pound of pretty much any kind of meat, ground or cubed, that your family prefers

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/8 teaspoon black pepper

1 1/2 cups Texas Habanero Salsa

One 16-ounce can of black beans, well-drained

1 1/2 teaspoons ground cumin

1 medium zucchini, trimmed and sliced into little half-moons

1 finely chopped garlic clove

1 pound pasta, whatever kind your family likes.

What to do:

Heat the oil in a large skillet, and add the meat. Season with the salt and pepper. Cook until lightly browned – about five minutes.

Stir in the salsa, beans, and cumin. Simmer, covered, for about ten minutes. Add the zucchini and garlic and simmer another five minutes.

While the sauce is simmering, cook the pasta until tender. Drain and toss with the sauce.

Serve right away.

As usual with Texas Pepper Jelly recipes, don’t count on having any leftovers.

Category: Monday Munchies, Spicy main dishes, Ten Minute Meals, Texas Cookin' Tips, Texas Pepper Jelly, Texas Tips, TPJ Recipes, TPJ Sauces and Salsas |

A Feast of Fridays: Spicy Cinnamon Apples

Craig Sharry | April 9, 2010

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feastoffridays Oh my gosh, these are SO GOOD!

Ingredients:

5 tart apples (I use Granny Smith apples.)

1/4 cup cinnamon red-hot candies

One 16-oz jar Apple Cinnamon Grilling & Finishing Sauce

What to do:

Wash, pare, and core apples. In a fairly deep saucepan, mix together the red-hots and Apple Cinnamon Grilling & Finishing Sauce. Place apples in this mixture and cook gently for about 20 minutes, until just barely tender. Turn the apples frequently so all sides become “colored.” If your sauce thickens too much, add a little water.

Lift apples out of saucepan and arrange in a shallow bowl (not a plate or tray!) Pour the saucepan mixture over the apples, making sure to fill in the cores. Serve with chopped pecans, raisins, or anything else your family might like to add to the syrupy apple cores.

We fall on this bowl of apples like vultures, and it’s dessert. (You’ll need a knife and fork unless you have a drawer full of lobster bibs.) However, I know for a fact that some people use this very same recipe and then serve the apples on a lettuce leaf and call it either a salad or a side dish. Me, I don’t care. Sometimes I stir this up in the middle of the night and we watch movies, as a family, and lick the sticky off our fingers in the dark.

P.S. You can also slice the peeled apples and, using these same ingredients, sort of “stir-fry” the slices instead of cooking them whole. Tastes the same, just looks different.

Category: Feast of Fridays, Spicy desserts, Spicy salads, Spicy side dishes, Super Easy Party Recipes, Texas Cookin' Tips, Texas Pepper Jelly, TPJ Recipes, TPJ Sauces and Salsas, TPJ Snacks |

Texas Tips: Glazed Mixed Nuts!

Craig Sharry | April 7, 2010

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texaspepperjellytips Here’s another quick and easy Texas Pepper Jelly tip!

If you need a spicy, healthy snack and you need it FAST, here’s what to do:

Just take a package of nuts – any kind, really, but my family loves mixed nuts best – and mix some Texas Pepper Jelly with them.

Here’s how: Just put the nuts and pepper jelly in a bowl and mix. Spread mixture onto a cookie sheet and put it in the oven for a few minutes.

You can also glaze the nuts in a frying pan, but you can’t leave it even for a second; keep stirring until the nuts begin to shine!

Remove from heat, let cool, and stand back.

My son puts these in oatmeal, too, but he’s the only one in the family who goes quite that far. He says it’s absolutely delicious.

(This works with any flavor of pepper jelly!)

Category: Spicy desserts, Texas Cookin' Tips, Texas Pepper Jelly, Texas Tips, TPJ Appetizers, TPJ Recipes, TPJ Snacks, What's Cookin' Wednesday |

Monday Munchies: Texas Rice

Craig Sharry | April 5, 2010

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mondaymunchies

We’ve all heard of Spanish rice, but this recipe is for Texas Rice! It’s similar, but with that inexplicable Texas touch!

Ingredients:

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 pound ground beef

1 cup chopped onion

1 cup chopped green pepper

1 cup uncooked rice, white or brown (I use brown)

1 and 1/2 cups water

1 tsp. salt

2 tablespoons Chipotle Habanero Hot Sauce

1 12-ounce jar of Texas Habanero Salsa

1 large tomato, chopped (can substitute one 14 1/2 ounce can, chopped and drained)

What to do:

Heat the olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add beef, onion, and green pepper. cook until meat is lightly browned. Drain liquid thoroughly. Stir in remaining ingredients. Reduce hat, cover, and simmer for about 20 minutes or so, until the rice is tender.

Add a couple of breadsticks and a small tossed salad, and this is one of my husband’s favorite suppers.

Yum yum eat ’em up.

Category: Monday Munchies, Spicy main dishes, Texas Pepper Jelly, Texas Tips, TPJ Recipes, TPJ Sauces and Salsas |

Texas Tip: Create Zesty Deliciousness from Bottled BBQ Sauce

Craig Sharry | April 2, 2010

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texaspepperjellytips This one should have been a no-brainer, considering how my entire family is hopelessly and happily addicted to all Texas Pepper Jelly products, but we grilled out tonight and did a little experimenting.

Plain old generic store-brand BBQ sauce is ok, but not spectacular. However, mix the Texas Pepper Jelly flavor of your choice with it and you’re not just eating BBQ ribs; you’re feasting on the nectar of the gods.

We only had three jars of pepper jelly left in the pantry, and we used all three of them. Kroger-brand barbecue sauce has never known such ecstasy before.

And, as always when Texas Pepper Jelly is part of the recipe, there were no leftovers.

Category: BBQ, Feast of Fridays, Spicy main dishes, Texas Cookin' Tips, Texas Pepper Jelly, Texas Tips, TPJ Recipes |

What’s Cookin’ Wednesday: Zesty Texas Chicken

Craig Sharry | March 31, 2010

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whatscookinwednesday We had Zesty Texas chicken for supper tonight, and even though my husband said out loud that he was taking the leftovers to work the next day, the kids couldn’t help themselves and cleaned out the casserole dish. It was just so good!

This is the fourth time I’ve made this recipe, and each time I used a different sauce. So far, I’ve used Texas Habanero Salsa, Chipotle Habanero Hot Sauce, Apple Cherry Grilling & Finishing Sauce (added a chopped apple to the recipe for that one) and tonight, Texas Spicy Peach Grilling Sauce. Each member of my family has a personal favorite, including me.

Mine is the one with Texas Spicy Peach Grilling Sauce. I love peaches, and the combination of chicken, peaches, and Texas Spicy Peach sauce was tantalizing and AWESOME. My son liked this dish made with Chipotle Habanero Hot Sauce best; my daughter LOVED the Apple Cherry, and I think my husband would put a straw in the jar of Texas Habanero and just eliminate the middleman altogether. 🙂

Here’s the recipe for Zesty Texas Chicken.

Ingredients:

3 chicken breasts, cooked and shredded

1 stick of butter

1 large onion, chopped

1/4 cup green chilies

1/2 lb. cubed Velveeta

1/2 cup (insert Texas Pepper Jelly sauce of your choice here! So far, it’s been delicious with all choices!)

1/2 cup evaporated milk (Not the sweetened kind)

1 package of Doritos

What to do:

In a large skillet, melt the butter and add the onion, chicken, and chilies. In a separate pan, combine the Velveeta, Texas Pepper Jelly sauce of your choice, and milk. Heat until the cheese is melted and all these ingredients are blended.

In a casserole dish, layer the Doritos, chicken mixture, and cheese mixture; repeat layers until you’ve used it all.

Bake at 350 degrees for about 20 minutes, or until it’s “bubbly.”

This and a tossed green salad are all you need for a delicious, nutritious, and very simple-to-create supper.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to go make a peanut butter and pepper jelly sandwich for my husband’s lunch. The kids ate all the Zesty Texas Chicken.

Category: Spicy main dishes, Spicy sandwiches, Super Easy Party Recipes, Texas Cookin' Tips, Texas Pepper Jelly, Texas Tips, TPJ Company dinners, TPJ Recipes, TPJ Sauces and Salsas, What's Cookin' Wednesday |

Texas Tip: Hot Peppers!

Craig Sharry | March 28, 2010

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Excellent teacher Matthew Campbell had a post on his blog the other day that was so excellent, and so appropriate for Texas Pepper Jelly’s blog, that I’m borrowing it and putting it on here, with a link back to Mr. Campbell’s website, so even more people can see and learn from it! Thank you so much, Mr. Campbell, for putting together this very educational (and yummy) article.

Oh, and if y’all would check out Mr. Campbell’s blog on a regular basis, that would be an excellent thing, too. Just think of the things we’ll all learn from him!

So, chilitemp I like hot food. I like science. Why not combine them together? I was listening to Tom Allen on CBC Radio 2 Shift today (apparently, he provides me with much insight) discuss the Scoville Unit and determining the heat of peppers. Then I got to thinking about converting it into a science lab. Here we go:

So, Wilbur Scoville designed this scale in 1912 to determine and compare the pungency of peppers. This is defined by the amount of capsaicin contained within the pepper. His test, known as the Scoville Organoleptic Test, involves soaking dried peppers in alcohol (capsaicin is alcohol-soluble) and determining by how much it must be diluted with sugar water until it is undetectable to taste. So a pepper with a rating of 2000 Scoville Units must be diluted over 2000 times (its original volume) to render it unpercetable by human taste.

How does this apply to the science classroom? Well, this makes a fantastic open ended science lab that can cover important topics such as: experimental error, subjectivity of methodology, issues with perception, observation and experimental design.

My idea is to provide students with the background information presented above. Have them design an appropriate experiment to determine the Scoville Rating of an unknown sample. Provide each student group with a different sample (I would recommend nothing too hot as it can burn eyes and mucous membranes) and let them run their experiment. Students should have the opportunity to present and discuss the different methodologies chosen by their peers.

Of course, the one outstanding question on your mind is: you want me to have students drink alcohol? Well, it is unfortunate that capsaicin is not water soluble, but it is fat and oil soluble so I would recommend using vegetable/olive oil instead of alcohol in class.

Finally, here is how Scoville did it. He had a minimum of five tasters who were allowed to taste only once per session to prevent prior tastings from influencing their decisions. Because of the subjectivity of the testing, today we test through liquid chromatography.

One more extension is to discuss why drinking water after eating food spiced with capsaicin doesn’t work (it is not water soluble). Whereas the drink of choice, beer, has a mild amount of alcohol which can alleviate the burning sensation. The alternative drink, milk, has a compound casein (which is lipophilic or fat-loving) that surrounds the fatty capsaicin molecules and washes them away.

This is a easy to run lab which should provide ample opportunities for students to explore the scientific method while having a bit (or heaps) of fun.

More information on Scoville, capsaicin and peppers:
Wikipedia
Chile Pepper Scoville Scale
The chemistry of capiscum

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I need some cream cheese, Texas Pepper Jelly, and crackers.

Category: Texas Cookin' Tips, Texas Pepper Jelly, Texas Tips |

« Older Entries Recent Entries »

Monday Munchies: Baked Pepper Jelly Ham

A Feast of Fridays: Mandarin Orange Habanero Bread Pudding

Monday Munchies: One-Dish Pasta Texana

A Feast of Fridays: Spicy Cinnamon Apples

Texas Tips: Glazed Mixed Nuts!

Monday Munchies: Texas Rice

Texas Tip: Create Zesty Deliciousness from Bottled BBQ Sauce

What’s Cookin’ Wednesday: Zesty Texas Chicken

Texas Tip: Hot Peppers!

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