Will's tangy sauce

The day has finally come. Will finally made a batch of homeade hot sauce!

The quest began a year ago. I bought him The Chile Pepper Encyclopedia for Christmas in 2007. In the late spring, we bought seven different varieties of chile peppers from Niagara Produce and planted a total of 28 pepper plants in our pepper and tomato garden. The plants had to fight for life as the nearby cucumber plant tried to suffocate them. While none of the crops could match the success of last year's habanero plants, we were still proud of ourselves. We were able to freeze some leftover peppers, but at no point did we have enough to try to make a batch of hellishly good poison.

Until our recent visit to Niagara produce.

Right out in the open, it had our names written all over it. And a price I could not refuse- 3.99 for a huge basket of mystery red peppers. There had to be over 40 peppers in the basket. These red beauties looked like chubby cayenne peppers, like they could almost be hungarian wax peppers. Were they hot? I was willing to take a chance.

The next morning we had eggs for breakfast, and used this opportunity to determine the heat level. Not knowing what to expect, I touched a sliver of the pepper to my tounge, and my mouth woke up immediately. These were going to be some good eggs, and even better hot sauce!

10 Chili peppers
2 cloves garlic
3/4 cup vinegar
salt to taste

Will started by removing the seeds and stems, and roasting off the skin under a broiler. I left the handling of the peppers to him, but he was not the only one to feel the power of the capsicum. Every breath filled my lungs with the fiery air. My eyes could feel the burn every time I walked into the kitchen. I did not have the guts to breathe in through my nose. The latex gloves could not stand up to its power while he was removing the meat from the skin. The ingredients were sent for a spin in the blender. Even after "diluting" the sauce with the requisite garlic and vinegar, it will still need to be declared at security checkpoints as a weapon of ass destruction.

Mission accomplished.