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Like a kid before Christmas excited.
We pick up our new puppy Sia tomorrow!!
We have been waiting for what seems like forever. My friend contacted me when she first suspected her female was preggers back in January. She knew we had lost both of our furbabies in December, and that someone had tried to scam us with another puppy, so she said she wanted to give me first pick of a puppy from the litter.
2 weeks after the puppies were born we took a trip to see them and can I tell you how hard it was to choose between 12 puppies! Oy!!! They were all so cute! Their little eyes weren't even open yet but they were already developing their own little personalities.
We knew we wanted a female since we already had Hawk and there were two that we both kind of gravitated to. The first one was the smallest and when I handed her to Kevin she rolled over in his arms and started licking his face UGH tell me my heart didn't just melt!
The second one was one of the bigger girls. She just snuggled into my arms and fell asleep almost instantly. But the clincher was when I held her out for Hawk to see. He came over to sniff her and her little head just popped right up as she started rooting and searching to find him. He gave her a few kisses and then I pulled her back into my arms.
It continued like that every time Hawk came near us.
I told Kevin, "Well I guess that just made the choice for us". We named her Sia, and we had a new puppy BUT we had to wait 6 more weeks before we could bring her home.
PEOPLE! Do you know how hard this has been?
It felt like this day would never come. But it is finally here and I just can't wait!!
Now, what does that have to do with hot sauce?
Ummm not much ? I just like to share with you.
Oh, and speaking of sharing, here is a pic of our cute little cuddle bug.
See why I am so excited??? ???
OK, on to the hot sauce.
I have been working on this hot sauce recipe for sooooooo long!
It all started when Kevin and I discovered a Mexican restaurant close to the house. We had one that we liked when we lived at the old place, but now that we moved that place is just too far away. Unless it is crazy awesome food, I am not going to drive over 30 minutes.
So this place is like 15 minutes away and Kevin loves it ?
Yes, Mr. I don't like Mexican food LOVES this place.
Being from Southern CA, I am a bit picky about my Mexican food, and IMHO the food is just OK, but if he likes it I am down for getting a couple margaritas and nibbling on nachos.
One day he asked for some hot sauce, and he told the waiter, "Can I have the real hot sauce?". So they obliged. It was pretty dang hot ? but I wasn't a fan of the texture. I think they blended in garbanzo beans so it had a kind of grainy texture that just put me off.
So I took some home and got to work.
I knew I wanted a hot sauce to rival sriracha with the amount of heat but still wanted the flavor.
The waiter told me that the sauce base was dried Chiles de Arbol. so that is where I started.
When I tell you that I toasted a truckload of dried chiles I am not joking! I tweaked and twisted the recipe over and over and was never completely happy with it. Oh, Kevin liked it, but I tend to be a perfectionist especially when I am going to share a recipe with Y'all.
Then one time, when I went to pick up the ingredients for the millionth time, the store was out of dried chiles. I was determined to still work on it so I found the ground Arbol chiles and figured what the heck, let's give it a whirl.
Well, the store being out of chiles was the best thing that happened to my recipe! Between the ground chiles and the habanero peppers? Oh ya, baby, it was fire ? and I mean that in a good way.
You get the great flavor at the first taste, that smokey chile flavor. Then it starts to warm toward the back of your tongue and threatens to blow your head off, but it just gets to that perfect place of hotness.
So, if you dig sriracha but want his Mexican cousin, you have found nirvana, my friends!!
Habanero Hot Sauce
ingredients:
- 1 pound Roma tomatoes, cut in half lengthwise
- 1 medium white onion, chopped
- 4 garlic cloves, crushed
- 2 or 3 habanero peppers, top removed
- 3 tablespoons olive oil
- 1/4 cup ground Arbol chili powder
- 2 cups water
- 1 lime, juiced
- 1/2 cup chopped fresh cilantro
- Kosher salt
instructions
- Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.
- Place the tomatoes on a baking sheet cut side down, with the onion, garlic cloves, and habanero peppers. Drizzle them with olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Toss to coat and place in the oven for 20 minutes.
- Take the baking sheet out of the oven and allow the veggies to cool just until you can handle them, slip off the skins off the tomatoes and transfer all of the vegetables and the chile de arbol powder into a medium saucepot with 2 cups of water, bring to a simmer, and cook for about 15 minutes, so the flavors come together. Let it cool a bit.
- Carefully transfer the mixture to a blender. Add the lime juice, cilantro, and salt to taste. Puree until the mixture is very smooth.
- Store the hot sauce in the refrigerator, tightly covered, for up to a week, or in the freezer for a month.
Like what you see? Please leave me a comment!
Christoph
Bobby your sauce looks delicious and your puppy is adorable!
Bobbi | Bobbi's Kozy Kitchen
Thanks so much Christoph! She is so much fun ? I hope you give the hot sauce a try!!
becca
Great and interesting post