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not sure whether this would take care of the whole bag, but when I make sangria, I toss a pepper in.

Hi~
In southern Italy they would cut them in rounds and put them in a jar with olive oil, let them stand for one month and use them on everything. You'll have a very very spicy hot oil and milder peppers.
(my mouth is watering)

HI! I live in southern New Mexico, and when we have red chile in the fall (like you do in the photo)....We spread it out on a flat surface and sun dry it. When its dried out you can then crush it and use it like you would salt and pepper, great on pizza,in lasagna, and cheese fries. If you take it a step further, you dry it, then boil it, then blend it, then use a colinder to get all the skin and seeds out...After that you can use the blended seedless red sauce for enchiladas and taco sauce! Delicioso! JC

In my house we toss extra peppers into the smoker and smoke them over low heat until they're browning and flopping about. Then we use them in tamales, chili, salsa or if we're not really cooking we'll pile them into ice cube trays or muffin tins and freeze them for later.

I freeze them whole in a yogurt tub. Then whenever I need one, or two, or ten, it's easy to thinly slice or grate using a microplane when they're still frozen.

And because they're relatively small, it only takes 10 min of sitting on the counter for them to thaw.

This would be considered high maintenance but you can make a chunky jelly out of hot peppers. There is a farm in Sonoma that makes pepper jelly and we can't get enough of it. It's amazing on a cracker with cheese or on toast.

I second the pickling idea. A quick white bean salad dressed with leeks and lemon vinaigrette with a few of these tangy numbers sliced into thin rings would be the perfect accompaniment to a summer meal.

If you run out of energy or willpower to do make culinary things out of the peppers, you could always dry them out as decorations....I had a bunch in a bowl in my dining room for a while.

next time ask for "la jiao jiang"

jiang is sauce or paste. ;)

chop them up and blitz them with enough water to make a paste,u can freeze the paste and use in either salsa,curries,marinades..the list is endless!

I would go with the preserving ideas too. I would dry them, personally. Put them in something airtight and use them bits at a time - rather less exotic and lovely than Jckrynitz's suggestion, but it works! If you wanted to use lots of them fresh, tho, chop them up and (take some of the seeds out if you want cos they're the hottest bit) or make your own hot pepper paste!

I have a recipe over at American Madness for a Pineapple Hot Sauce-
http://americanmadness.com/?p=347

It's really tasty, has a nice bit of sweetness before the spiciness. Also works as a hot sauce if you replace the pineapple with vinegar and add a dash of salt.

in my chinese household we used to roast them over a gas fire (straight on the stove) then "pickle" or marinate them with soy sauce, vinegar, sugar and sesame oil... sooo good! its always a surprise hot one or not hot one!

another thing u can do if u like is to split them open and stuff the cavity with ground pork, dried shrimp, shitake mushrooms, minced ginger, soy sauce, and a lil bit of cornstarch and then panfry.

have fun! =)

Thanks for all the suggestions guys! I'm intrigued by the pickling, but I've always held back because I don't want to deal with the "sterilized jar" thing. The roasting/sauce angle sounds good, as it looks like the weather'll be nice this eve for some grilling!