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we got our bhut jolokia at the Gainesville, FL hot pepper festival '09. we transplanted it into one of those giant dog-washing-tubs from Lowe's with a few bags of potting soil and manure. fertilized it every few weeks and eventually (when it the heat got below 95 degrees) it flowered like hell, and soon after i had between 60 and 70 peppers on the plant. the peppers are just now starting to ripen; a beautiful display of orange, red, and lime green. the plant is a monster. i am 6'4'' and i can look at the bhut jolokia face to face when im watering it. it's def. the king of our garden.

anyways, im sure you figured out what to do with your chiles since you started this post a few years ago, but my recommendation would be to just experiment the hell out of it. make hot sauce, cook with it, preserve some, dry some, make insecticide, pin one on the wall (a sacrifice to the chile gods), so on and so forth. here's a little recipe i "cooked" up over halloween weekend this year:

"tabasco burgers with caramelized ghost chile and onion"

- 1.5 pounds lean ground beef
- 6 oz package of goat cheese
- 10 fresh tabasco peppers (red and orange for sweetness)
- 2 green SEEDED bhut jolokias (unripened for the tang)
- one whole sweet onion
- four cloves of garlic

1. chop up the tabascos and throw into the goat cheese package. shake and mix it up. put in the fridge.

2. chop up your bhut jolokias, the onion, and garlic and put in a pan with some olive oil. let that cook at a medium heat. it will take a while

3. combine all of the goat cheese/tabasco with all of the beef. yes, all of it. make into two or three patties -- or one big one if you're a t-rex

4. grill it!

5. go check on your bhuts and onions. the onion should be completely browned when caramelized, and super sweet.

6. put the burger (cooked to your liking) and the caramelized bhut-onion-garlic mix on the bun of your choice.

7. eat it.

OPTIONAL: we also made this blue cheese spread that i put on the burger -- and it was super awesome.

- a 6 oz container of blue cheese

- jar of sour cream

- fresh minced garlic to taste

- a few oz of lime juice

--- mix all that stuff. that's it. spread it on the burger. eat it. the spread also work as a great chip dip.

side note: prepare to gain 34 pounds after eating.

side note 2: prepare to take a very painful dump at an interstate rest stop the next day.

I'm with @dvchurch. Don't cook it too long. Marinara is my go to I have no time to make dinner dinner because it cooks in a half hour.

I use a tablespoon and a half or so of olive oil, a good pile of minced garlic, hot pepper seeds and salt to two big cans of peeled plum tomatoes that I squish in a bowl by hand before adding them to the pan. Cook until just thickened about a half hour then add some fresh basil.

I don't think marinara is supposed to be really thick like a "Sunday gravy" it should be light.

Use 2-3 TBS and saute it with the onion in the olive oil.

@ all ya'll

I drain the spaghetti well after it is boiled in plain old salt water. I do not rinse the pasta. If the bf is in the kitchen, he'll throw a little olive oil on it back in the dry pan. The only oil involved is at the start of the sauce when I cook the onions. Also, I'm only using about a T of tomato paste (frozen, since I never use the whole can, I freeze it in ~1T chunks, usually tossing one into a pot of sauce). Does that sound about right? Would more help?

This is part of the reason I loved the SE baked ziti so much, where you cook the noodles in the sauce and then bake it - never have that problem when using that technique.

nh is jealous of a party on the beach in Nov.... especially breakfast!

neoguri is it, and the japanese udon style that comes in a bowl is super good, pretty healty, and super fillling, RAMEN is my life, mmmmm

i tend to hold off on the spice packet, using 1/3 to 1/2 of the spices, thinking thats where all the sodium is and adding flavoring of my own choice.

I'm hoping for a 6 burner Weber Summit Grill in Black enamel.... But I won't hold my breath. LOL

maybe a new kitchen would be nice. Delivered on the 25th of December, I could do that.

@onepercent99-I thought it was funny.

@fatitalianbroad - That's a good wish. Luckily I've already been granted that present as we've booked our trip to Paris and Italy for April. I've already started planning out our culinary travels as the trip is part vacation and part research for my career.

I hope you get to travel to Italy soon as well.

A Lodge Abelskiver pan and a copy of The Great Scandinavian Baking Book by Beatrice Ojakangas. I have her book on whole grain baking and it is outstanding. Also want Love Soup by Anna Thomas.