With a bumper crop of cayenne peppers in the container garden, it was time to get creative, so I tried something new---making cayenne pepper (the spice) from scratch. I got some ideas from a few websites and decided to go for it. I preheated the oven to its lowest setting, 175 degrees. I removed the green tops of the peppers.



I placed the peppers on my oldest baking sheet and dried them in the oven on low heat for four hours. When the peppers were darker in color and brittle, I removed them and ground them into a super fine powder using my food processer on its highest setting. I added a tablespoon of salt to the mixture then transferred it into my spice jar. Presto!

Despite some aggressive food processing, there are still a few seeds left in the mix, so the next time I do this, I plan to remove the seeds before drying the peppers. Also, be sure to let the fine powder settle for a bit before removing the lid from your food processor!