The solstice sunlight in Fairbanks, Alaska.

Pink and orange hair on Grecian models. Love.

It was the first really cold night of the year in Louisville and I was walking past the Louisville Slugger Museum. The people inside were talking to each other and laughing. It looked so warm and bright inside, I imagined a low hum of machinery and the smell of raw wood.

When I think about my life, sometimes I like to picture it as a movie just for fun. This is how I look in it.

I turned the jar upside down to help it get a seal, somebody told me to do that once, and so I do it, but I certainly haven’t done a double-blind comparison, so don’t feel obligated to do it yourself… should you randomly feel like also making this. (While drunk in the middle of the night! We could be soul siblings!)

But yeah, this recipe takes the cake for a non-Indian food recipe taking up spices. I took the tops off of a few banana peppers, deseeded them, then packed them as full as I could get with black pepper, salt, chevril, basil, thyme and ground clove. Like, 2 tablespoons each… a lot.

I packed a Mason jar full of the peppers, standing upright, then studded it with a few raw garlic cloves. Then I poured some boiling white vinegar over the peppers, along with a good amount of vermouth and put it in the oven until it bubbled. When it came out, I added several tablespoons of balsamic vinegar and some light-flavored oil to cover.

This might have taken a half cup of spices overall, not including the garlic, vinegar, vermouth and oil.

This Christmas season, I’m making food for family and friends. It’s been pretty convenient, puttering around in the kitchen and spacing out instead of going to the mall. Most of my family is getting pickled vegetables or preserved lemons or Chow Chow (for my mother, by special request), but one of my brothers doesn’t like pickles or vinegar so I had to change things up.

For him, I made Pears in Apricot Brandy, and I hope it’s good.

5 Bartlett Pears
1 bottle apricot brandy (I got this really cheap, it could have been anything)
Cloves, Cinnamon Sticks, Peppercorns and Bay Leaves.
Dash of salt.

Core and quarter pears. Combine ingredients and bring to a boil.

I poached the pears in the liquor, then added the fruit to heated Mason jars and poured some of the pot liquid over. Then I topped with more brandy to cover and put the lid on.

The jars are forming a seal, but I think it’s the brandy that’s going to preserve the pears. I’m just now trying my hand at canning things, so I’m relying on recipes that call for other means of preservation– salt, vinegar, spices or (as in this case) alcohol.

No Botulism there.

I made her country food,

String Beans
Red Peppers
Garlic Cloves
Vinegar to cover
Juniper berries
Peppercorns
Cloves

Cut Beans to fit jack and pack it full, fit peppers between ans garlic on top.

Boil white vinegar with other ingredients until rolling. Pour into jar. Put into 350F oven for 15 minutes. Top.

This recipe isn’t really canned. It’s sort of canned because the heat will cause a vacuum, and because of the salt and spice, but mostly it’s just tasty.

Downtown Louisville on the first cold night of the year.

This chick is amazing. Three instruments, multiple variations, cute, skinny, and she’s WORKING THE DAMN CAMERA TOO.