Well, Friends, it’s that time again–time for the One Kitchen, Many Hearts Big Reveal! Technically, we’re supposed to exchange gifts every other month, which would have made us due in August. However, since we all agreed that August was The Month That Wasn’t because of the flurry of activity, including a wedding/honeymoon, an anniversary vacation, running rehabs, and all around craziness, we postponed the gifting by a month until we could all catch our collective breaths.
Sometimes it pays to wait for the calm after the storm.
(Top l to r) Mads, Me, Megan. (Bottom l to r) Jeanne, Allison, Kat.
So here we are in September. Delaying our present-a-palooza only gave us more time to taunt give each other hints about all of the awesomeness that was coming.
Obviously, Allison excels at Pre-OKMH taunting–this was the last of several pre-shipment teasers. I can appreciate that. 
The Goods.
Also Perishables.
For those of you who don’t know, Allison lives on what she terms “the surface of the sun,” a.k.a. Arizona. Those “perishables” are a bag of fresh hatch chiles direct from the desert! Hatch chilies are not a variety, but rather named for the Hatch valley in New Mexico where they are grown. Think of them as the hotter cousin of the pale yellow Anaheim chile. The term “hotter” pertains to the heat of the chile, not the outward attractiveness, of course.
I’ve got plans for these little chiles! Top on the list are Hatch Chile Apple Cobbler, and the Bacon Slayer’s vote: Green Chile Cheese Steaks. Either way? We’re winning.
Other local fare included this Prickly Pear Pineapple Jelly. I must say that at first glance, I read the source of the jelly as being Remington DeaTH Ranch. That made me giggle a little bit, even though jelly from a death ranch would be anything but funny. At second glance, I realized it was really from Remington DeaF Ranch. Then I laughed even harder at myself.
Someone’s got to amuse me. Might as well be myself.
Remington Deaf Ranch is a great group that helps deaf youth get beyond drug and/or alcohol addictions. Sales of the jelly go to support the organization.
On another note: if there is anything more beautiful than a mason jar full of delicious with a handwritten label, I want to meet it.
Of course, Allison was so kind as to include some locally crafted chai tea to fuel my latte addiction. Now, you may have noticed that all of my OKMH gift boxes have contained a box of chai tea. This is a very good thing. My friends get me. 
Perhaps the coolest gift this time around was this tea/coffee maker. Bacon Slayer had his eyes on it as a sort of French Press system for his coffee. Normally, I am a very giving wife and I’ll share my stuff with my beloved, but in this case I smacked his hand and said “Git!” Coffee & I don’t get along. I can’t have his coffee grounds tainting the integrity of my tea pot. Especially a way cool infuser model such as this one.
Just measure the tea into the pot. (Please take a moment to admire my new nail polish: Revlon Colorstay in Cayenne. Fall has arrived.)
Pour in the boiling water. (OK, so the bag of tea clearly stated to use 208°F water, but I went all the way to 210°F…I’m a rebel.)
Allow the tea time to steep for the specified time stated for optimum flavor. In this case, 5 minutes was recommended, but in reality? I set my tea to steeping while I do other things, and come back to it when I remember that I was making a cup of tea. Could be 5 minutes. Could be 3 hours. Depends on the day.
Here comes the cool part:
Once the tea has steeped sufficiently, pick up the pot, and set it on top of a standard sized mug. The pot has a little trip-lever underneath it, which keeps it closed while steeping, but once you set it upon the mug…
the trip-lever depresses and the tea drains into the mug. How cool is that? I’ll be honest–my boys and I were brewing tea all-the-live-long-day when this puppy arrived. We had so much fun! We were also very well caffeinated that day.
Even Miss Daisy got in on the One Kitchen, Many Hearts fun. She sniffed out a bag of sweet potato-carob pupper treats before I had finished unpacking the box. We did what any good owners would do, and gave her 3 of them. Daisy then proceeded to spend the rest of the evening boring a hole through me with her eyes, waiting for me to cave and give her more treats. Which I most certainly did not! OK, maybe I gave her one more when no one was looking.
Thank you Allison for making me smile! This month was a lot of fun.
I mailed a box of goodies to Kat this time around. Kat bequeathed me the Award for Heaviest Box. To see what I sent her, click on over to TenaciouslyYours to check out the goods.
You can see what the other girls gifted each other here:
♥♥♥
Have you discovered any cool new kitchen gadgets lately?
Do you see a new season as a time to change nail and clothing color palettes?
Awesome box! Love that tea infuser. I think I might have to find one for my brother-in-law, Saint David. I have his name for the family Christmas gift exchange this year, and he’s a big hot tea guy. My mom would love one, too. Guess I’ll be e-mailing Allison soon. I love that she sent fresh Hatch chilies. I’m a hoarder of these when they’re in season and they’re kismet with your cayenne nail polish. We just found prickly pear cactus fruiting in Austin last weekend. Now I wish I’d picked a bucket load of them. I was thinking ‘margarita syrup’ but now that jelly is haunting me. I love our OKMH boxes so very much.
After our banter on the Twitter about those chiles, I was ecstatic to see them in my box! Queso flameado is on deck for tomorrow. Then I’m really going to attack that apple/chile cobbler with some early apples that I picked up today. Mmmm…
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That’s an awfully neat gaget to be wasted on brewing tea…
I’m so glad that you liked everything. When I was in brick and mortar schools, my students LOVED watching me brew my tea. It was probably a delay tactic, they were entranced. And I had been talking to TH about finding that infuser for you, and lo and behold, I found it!
I was so excited about the chiles that I couldn’t help post the pic of them. It was like a hint without being a hint because if I didn’t do that, I would have given the whole secret away. Clearly secret-keeping = not my forte. Hope Miss Daisy enjoys – without stealing them like another coonie I know!
That is so funny because I thought you sent the chiles because of our Twitter discussion, not that they were for me from the get go.
I think The Universe was speaking to you when you sent me that tea infuser – Mads sent me tea in our last box and I still hadn’t sourced one. Hello, daymaker.
See also: I cannot WAIT to see what those Hatches make their way into! And by that, I mean…Make Lisa Proud.
What would we do without Lisa Fain to guide our erstwhile Northern Ways?
I love the tea/coffee maker (& the nailpolish
). I’ll have to let LCB know about the hatch chilies – he’s always game for trying both new foods and new variations of “hot” in his food.