I had thought I had finished with canning since the garden has been tucked in for the winter, and no further harvesting will take place in 2025.
Today I decided I wanted noodles, vegetables, and sweet Thai chili sauce for my lunch. All the sweet Thai chili sauce I had canned has been consumed.
A few hours before lunch I cooked up another batch of sauce, setup the canning equipment once more, and processed four 250 ml jars.
I set aside enough for lunches for three days, which will satisfy my craving.
I always precook my noodles, then refrigerate them, as it reduces the glycemic effect, a good thing. I reheat as needed.
I experimented with my sauce recipe and used liquid stevia as a sweetener. I now know that is is desirable to use half cane sugar, and half liquid stevia for a much better taste experience. Stevia does not interact with acids in the same way as can sugar, and I miss that.
Rainy day here today, we took a morning stroll in the rain, no one else was out and about. We enjoyed our walk.
One more little tidbit of life here. Today I thought I had dispatched the very last fruit fly. Ha! While I was eating my dinner a fruit fly flew right by my face. They are persistent, I will give them that.
Worldly
Weather
5°C
Date: 5:23 PM EST Sunday 23 November 2025
Condition: Light Rainshower
Pressure: 101.2 kPa
Tendency: Rising
Temperature: 4.5°C
Dew point: 3.6°C
Humidity: 94%
Wind: SW 5 km/h
Visibility: 16 km
Quote
“When you encounter difficulties and contradictions, do not try to break them, but bend them with gentleness and time.”
Saint Francis de Sales
1567 – 1622
I am looking forward to the human species rediscovering this, when it will be presented as a new idea.
Julia and I have been seeing fruit flies, too. Yuma used to be relatively mosquito and fruit fly free. Not any more! Good quote!
Joan, you too with the fruit flies! Ours are much bigger this year than usual, I am wondering if there is a certain species spreading from some large corporate produce provider. Maybe we just have a bumper crop this year.
Mosquitoes, I hate them. As a kid I didn’t really notice them much, except while they were biting. But back then, in Ontario, a mosquito bite did not represent the danger of serious debilitating disease, now it does.
We also had a bout of fruit flies maybe a month ago. We kept a vacuum cleaner plugged in at the kitchen to suck them up when we saw them, but the only times we saw them was when they flew by our faces in the living room. It took weeks but finally we just out lived them.
I’ve moved back to regular sugar in my food, but we still keep a container of stevia in the cupboard specifically for a chipotle mayo that DH makes for my sweet potato fries. Regular sugar doesn’t come close to the same flavor.
LOL, Teri, good to know they can be outlived! I too use a hand held vacuum to suck them up, then I drop them into a bowl of soapy water. It is more effective than the fly swatter, although sometimes I revert to the fly swatter, which I keep handy hanging on a cupboard handle all through the harvest season.
The chipotle mayo sounds delicious. The flavours of sugar and stevia are different, depending on the application. I have been favouring ½ sugar, ½ stevia, but decided to experiment and regret it, but the Thai Chili Sauce is good enough that I will eat it all and wait to make the next batch the way I like it.
DH created his own “chipotle” mayo for me, after I fell in love with one at a restaurant. The recipe is really simple: 1 part smoked paprika. 1 part stevia. 3 parts mayonnaise. Mix the paprika and stevia together, then add to the mayo and mix.
You should let it sit for maybe 5-10 minutes for the stevia to melt into the mayo. That way it isn’t grainy.
Thanks for sharing DH’s recipe Teri, it sounds delicious!