Monday, Monday

Chilihead Taste Testers This Weekend

Happy Monday Again,

What a wonderful weekend in the islands. Saturday we got some needed rain and it wasn't just drizzle. It watered the entire island and it looks so fresh. The trees in our yard seem perkier as if to say thank you Mother Nature! The wet weather kept most of the boaters off the water so our little shop was very busy. We sampled our Texas Longhorn Bread & Butter Pickled Jalapeno's mixed with cream cheese on a flavored tortilla as a roll up. (By overwhelming majority people liked the sun-dried tomato and basil tortilla over the spinach and herb ones). Every time we sample these, the stuff flies off the shelf. If you haven't tried it, stop by any weekend in August as we will be sampling these tasty morsels of goodness. The Jalapeno's have been pickled like a bread & butter pickle using the same sweet and tangy spices. The jalapeno's add a little kick that people wary of hot or spicy food love. We love converting people. And of course you can stop by any day when we sample the jalapeno's right out of the jar.

There is a meteor shower that is supposed to be amazing on Wednesday and Thursday nights. The forecast is for increasing temperatures by then and the skies should be clear. We have a skylight in our bedroom and it's fun to do some star gazing during the time of night when you should be asleep. Maybe hot flashes keeping me awake will do some good here.

When we look back over the weekend in the shop, we had a lot of laughs with some youngsters who wanted to try the hottest sauce in the store. For those of you who haven't visited the store, this is the part of the job we love. At first we try and educate by explaining the Scoville scale and the health benefits behind the peppers. This puts a psychological twist to the hottest sauce in the store they are about to ingest. Then they get one drop on a tasting spoon. This sauce takes about 1 full minute to take you on the ride of your life. During the first few seconds, there is a consensus that the sauce has a really good flavor and that it's not really that hot. We tell them to just hang on. Then the ride quickly takes off. After about 45 seconds there is a second rush which has been equated to a rocket booster. Then the endorphins kick in and there is a burst of energy expended by almost every tester. The tears start (in a good way) and sweating with red faces and a lot of whoops and hollers. Of course we get their picture for the chilihead wall and a few take the sugar cube to relieve the heat but others don't want to spoil it. No matter the reaction however, we always get a big "thank you" from these people on their way out the door with the sauce. We even get a few hugs. We simply reply "it has been our pleasure" which it really is. We have so much fun and love the people we have visit our store. Thank you for making this such a fun adventure. Oh yeah, check out the pic of our taste testers this weekend!