Pickle Peppers That Need To Be Picked

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) - I didn't quite pick a peck of peppers, but I did quick pickle a few.

The other day I noticed some of our hot peppers begging to be picked - but I didn't have time to deal with them, I was cooking something else and I didn't want to have cayenne pepper juice on my hands and cutting board or spend time picking seeds out or chasing them around the counter. So, I simply held each pepper by the stem, picked up the kitchen shears and snipped the peppers into rings and into a jar - seeds and all -in seconds. I poured in enough vinegar to cover the pepper rings, and added some salt and sugar.

They're not properly pickled and canned - they wouldn't keep for months at room temperature. But they're fine for a week or so in the fridge, and since they're easy to see on a shelf there, they'll get used quickly - adding a quick hot kick to anything from tacos to sandwiches to scrambled eggs.

And, the kitchen scissors went straight in the dishwasher to cleanse away that hot pepper oil that never touched my hands or the cutting board.

Reported By Phran Novelli, KYW Newsradio