DRIED PEPPERS
OK this shit is pretty simple.
-Get some fuckin' peppers.
-Get some fuckin' cooling racks and some baking pans.
-Wash the peppers, stem them, and halve them length-wise (if they are really hot peppers wear some gloves)
-Put the racks on the pans, put the peppers on the racks
-Turn your oven to like 120º-140º F, put the rack assemblies into the oven.
-Leave the oven propped open a crack with something
-If your oven has a convection setting, use that
So tiny chillies take maybe six hours to dry, but some larger, less hot peppers took a good two days at low heat. I actually think the less hot peppers were a better investment of my time, because you can buy dried hot peppers but not dried tasty hot peppers. And if they aren't too hot they work a lot better on sandwiches in my opinion.
So your goal in drying them is to get a dried pepper. Usually I process them till nearly brittle because my knowledge is all self-acquired so I err on the safe side of dry. You can leave them a little softer, though, as this makes them a bit easier to use on sandwiches and things. Just take a day when you'll be home and leave them going, and don't worry too much if you have to pop out for half an hour because it's not that big of a deal. When drying the bigger peppers, I would usually turn the oven down to as low as possible overnight because I was afraid they'd dry out too much while I was sleeping, but this wasn't a problem in the end.
When they're dry, store them however is convenient. Your storage solution should include, though, some element of air-tightness, darkness, and coolness. Zip-locs should be OK, though I put mine in mason jars and leave them in a disused cupboard.
You can rehydrate them in water and use said water for something tasty, or rehydrate them in something tasty and use that for something tasty. Typically I'll just throw them into dishes that are already using water in the cooking process though. They should grind fairly well in a mortar & pestle or spice/coffee grinder (dry them till brittle is powder is your aim) but don't grind more than you can use in the next little while. Fresh ground is way better, so leave the peppers whole and have a small spice jar with ground peppers that you refill as necessary.
My favorite application right now is on sandwiches. A couple of large pieces of dried hot pepper go amazingly on sandwiches.
Anyways! That's dried peppers!