• The small individual 875 ml wine bottles are great for making this pepper vinegar; you can also buy pretty decorative bottles. Be sure to use only clear glass jars. Wash jars and remove labels if there are any. Basically, any jar will work – some folks use Mason jars. I like to use small jars so that I have more bottles of pepper vinegar to give away.
• Trim any long stems on the peppers. Pack as many peppers as you can get into the jars. Use the handle end of a wooden spoon or a chopstick to stuff the peppers in the jar, being careful not to damage the peppers. If you have sensitive skin, wear gloves.
• Using a funnel, fill each jar with the distilled vinegar, covering the peppers. Set on a shelf and in a few weeks you will have glorious hot pepper vinegar. You can refill the jars several times.

• Preheat oven to 275 degrees. Grease a large, heavy cookie sheet.
• Mix flour, sugar and baking powder in a large mixing bowl. In another large bowl mix eggs and egg yolks together. Add vanilla, almond flavoring, 1 ¼ cup of the nuts, cranberries, and the zest to the eggs.
• Gradually add the dry mixture to the wet mixture, stirring until just barely blended. You will have to use your hands and perhaps add another egg or you can use some of the reserved egg whites if the mixture is too sticky to form.
• Using greased hands, form dough into three 4-inch by 9-inch (or thereabouts) rolls that are 2 inches thick. Mixture will be sticky and you will have to use your hands. Using a greased spatula, gently place the “rolls” on greased cookie sheet, making sure the rolls are several inches apart.
• Press reserved almonds on top of the shaped dough.
• Bake 20 to 25 minutes or until the dough will hold together. Remove from oven and cool slightly. (You must not cool the biscotti too much because they will get too hard to cut). When cooled slightly, gently slide the rolls to a floured cutting board and gently cut through each roll at an angle into 1½- inch pieces. Turn each piece on its side and place on the cookie sheet.
• Bake again for 10 to 15 minutes. Remove from oven and turn each piece onto another side. If you prefer harder biscotti, turn biscotti and bake for 5-10 more minutes.

• Remove stems from orange and cut orange into pieces, leaving peel on. Put orange pieces in a blender with the orange juice and pulverize.
• Add cranberries and sugar. Pulse to mix, but do not completely pulverize. (This part of the salad can be made in advance and stored in the refrigerator).
• Add celery and nuts and lemon juice. Blend again.
• Soften gelatin in 1/2 cup cold water. Add 1/2 cup boiling water. Add to cranberry mixture.

• "Green" peanuts are not green; they are just young, raw peanuts. These peanuts are usually dug by hand several weeks before the farmer moves through the field with the machines that dig the peanuts. Here in eastern North Carolina, these green peanuts are ready late August or early September.
• Wash the peanuts, still in the shells, several times until the water has no grit in it. Pick over and remove any bad peanuts and discard.
• Put the peanuts still in shells into a large cooking pot. Cover with water at least 2 inches above the peanuts. Add the salt and stir.
• Bring to a boil. Lower heat and boil slowly for 1-3 hours, depending on how mature or old the peanuts are. If the nuts are really young and pink, it will only take about 1 hour of cooking. If they are older, it can take up to 3 hours. You might also have to add water to keep the water level above the peanuts. Keep cooking until the peanuts are soft inside. Cooking time varies according to how old the peanuts are.
• After they are done, they will continue absorbing the salt. If the salt taste is like you want it, then remove the peanuts from the salty water. They will keep in the refrigerator for several days.
• Refrigerate or freeze after cooking.
• It is much easier if you eat the peanuts outside. You can just spit out the shells.

• This is a “make now and eat now” salad. If you dress it, you eat it. You can cut the parts of the salad early, but do not amalgamate it until you are ready to eat it.
• 
  Cut the watermelon into large chunks and lay it out on a plate lined with paper towels to remove some of the excess water. I do that when I am making watermelon skewers for my B&B guests. It keeps the watermelon from weeping into the dish.
• 
  Cut watermelon again into cubes about 1½" large. Put cubes of watermelon, pepper strips and onion rings into each salad bowl. Add crumbled cheese. For each salad, cut 1 basil leaf and 1 mint leaf into very thin strips and place on top of each salad.
• 
  Wisk together the lime juice, honey, salt and pepper.
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  Garnish with an edible flower like a begonia or nasturtium. Dress salad just before serving.
• 
  Instead of individual salads you can make one large salad if you prefer. Also do not dress this until just before serving.
• 
  This salad recipe is adapted from a Watermelon Salad in "Our State" magazine.

Day 1:

• Add the sugar and water to a large cooking pot. Boil gently for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. Wash figs, do not remove stems.
• Add the figs to the sugar syrup – figs will not be totally covered. Bring to a slow boil and boil gently for 45 minutes. Don’t worry about stirring the figs. They will release more juice and then there will be more liquid. They are so fragile it is best not to stir them now, but do keep an eye on them. After 45 minutes remove pot from heat and set aside. Cover pot.
• If you feel you must stir the pot, use a wide spatula and gently lift the figs. Remember they are fragile.

Day 2 & 3:

• Boil gently until sugar is almost gone, checking often. For me this took several hours so I set the temperature on low.
• Gently remove the figs from the pot and place them on the cooling rack set on a large cookie sheet with sides. The figs will drip.
• Preheat the oven to 200 degrees. Turn off oven. Place the cooling rack and cookie sheet with the figs in the warm oven. Leave figs for several days to dry. You can keep heating oven again to 200 degrees if needed. I did not dry my figs totally. They are so tough if you do that. I think I like them half dry.
• Optional: When figs are dry enough for you, sprinkle them with the extra granulated sugar. They are already sweet but this keeps them from sticking together so much. Store figs in refrigerator in an air-tight container or zip lock bag.

• Melt butter in a large saucepan. Cook chopped onion for a few minutes until transparent, not browned.
• 
  While the onions are cooking, blanch the tomatoes for half a minute. Drain and cool tomatoes. Peel, remove the cores and cut into chunks, making sure that you save the juice. If using canned tomatoes, cut the tomatoes into large pieces, saving the juice.
• 
  Wash the okra. Cut stem ends off and cut into ½ inch round pieces.
• 
  Shuck corn and cut corn off the cob. Older or mature corn works best for this recipe.
• 
  Add the tomatoes and juice, okra, corn, salt, pepper and water to the cooked onions. Cook covered over medium to low heart for one hour or until the ingredients are all done.
• 
  Serve with homemade cornbread.
• 
  Yield: 7-8 one-cup servings