Mike and I have finally started to reap what we have sown in the literal garden sense. Of everything we’ve grown in our garden this year, I am most proud of our habaneros. Check out this hot little mama, beachcombers:

Don’t you just love her?

Mike and I have taken great care to ensure these peppers are as hot as possible. Correction – we have taken as little care as possible to ensure the heat. See, the trick with heating up peppers is to ignore them. Water them only to keep them from dying. We did just that and the result has been volcanic.

We learned that not only are these habaneros tasty they are also fun at parties. Our friends who live out in the country had a get together yesterday. Mike and I brought some of the habaneros along and thought it would be fun to have a sort of taste test.

The fun starts with Mike cutting the pepper into teeny, eeny, tiny, little pieces. Then he would spear a piece with a toothpick and begin to deliver a dramatic warning about how dangerous the pepper is, with me chiming in additional warnings. Initially, that was enough for the braver types to ‘yeah, yeah’ us and put the habanero quickly into their mouths. The reaction was classic. Instant beet red face, eyes start to water, sniffling begins, swig of beverage, hands go up, wheeee-eeew!, eyes get angry, for a brief instant the pepper eater looks like he wants to kick our asses, then laughter, and he looks around for the next victim. The pepper eaters have become conquerors and they help seek out the next person for us. This went on into the night as we cycled in and out of the kitchen. Mucho hilarante.

Who knew habaneros made such good party favors?