Stuffed Pepper Casserole

These big beautiful peppers arrived from Full Circle Farm not too long ago. I put them to use by making this simple and tasty casserole. It all started with a stuffed peppers recipe I found somewhere> But it only took one attempt at pepper cleaning and stuffing until I realized they'd taste the same casserole style. I did a bit of modifying and came up with a method more conducive to my tolerance level.

My pepper cutting trick: hold the pepper by the stem, cut straight down, make a quarter turn, slice, repeat. At the end you're left holding all the seeds and crud that is still attached to the stem. Toss that baby and you're pepper is ready to go.

Slice the pepper pieces into one inch wide strips and layer in a small baking pan. The white bits you see are pieces of fennel I had in the refrigerator. I don't normally include fennel in this dish but I was looking for a way to use this stuff up. I hate letting food go to waste so I just add in random ingredients here and there.

In a separate bowl mix together the browned burger, rice, tomato sauce and seasonings. Then spread on top of the peppers. Cook in the oven for about 45 minutes.

When there's about 5 minutes left on the cooking time, sprinkle a generous amount of cheese over the whole mess and return to the oven.



Stuffed Pepper Casserole

Ingredients:
1 lb ground meat
1/2 c. uncooked rice
3 or 4 red bell peppers
14 oz can of tomato sauce
1 Tbs Worcestershire sauce
1/4 tsp. garlic salt
1/4 tsp. onion powder
pepper
1 tsp Italian seasoning
1 cup or more grated cheese

Directions: Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
Brown the meat and cook the rice. In a bowl, mix together the meat, rice, tomato sauce, Worcestershire sauce, garlic salt, onion powder, and pepper.
Slice the peppers into 1 to 2 inch strips. Arrange peppers in a small baking dish (7in X 11in or so).
Layer the meat mixture over the peppers.
Bake for 45 minutes to an hour depending on how soft or firm you prefer your peppers. If the top starts to get over done, cover with aluminum foil. When there is about 5 minutes cooking time left, remove the foil and cover with shredded cheese. Return to oven until cheese has melted.

~AnnMarie

Grated Beets: A Pretty Side Dish for the Holidays

photo by FotoDawg on flickr

Start with some big beautiful beats.



Scrub the beats, drizzle with olive oil, season with salt and pepper and roast until nice and tender.



Once the beets have cooled, slip the skin off and grate them.



Add these magical ingredients to the shredded beets. I usually include more sour cream and vinegar than the recipe calls for. I just keep adding and tasting until it's perfect for my taste buds.




Grated Beets

Ingredients:
2 lbs medium beats, trimmed and scrubbed
1 T. olive oil
Coarse salt and freshly ground pepper
2 T. cider vinegar
1 T. sugar
1/4 c. sour cream 

Directions: Preheat oven to 375 deg. Drizzle beats with oil, season with salt and paper & wrap tightly in aluminum foil. Bake for about 1 hour until fork tender. Remove from oven: let cool. Peel, and grate on the large holes of a box grater into a large bowl. Drizzle with vinegar: sprinkle with sugar. Toss to combine. Fold in sour cream: serve.

Just Another Sunday Dinner: Cauliflower, Pork Chops, and Salad

I don't really have anything exotic or exciting to share, but this is a pretty typical Sunday dinner for us.

It started with some cauliflower.  I know, I know, cauliflower is one of those unglamorous vegetables with a fairly high yuck-factor, but I've been in love with roasted vegetable recipes ever since I found an earth-shattering broccoli recipe.  (I'll take pictures and share it next time I make it.  It will make your heart flutter.)  Roasted broccoli with garlic was so good that when I came across a recipe for roasted cauliflower, and the store had fresh cauliflower THE EXACT SAME WEEK, I knew I was destined to make it.

I poured some olive oil over the cauliflower.

Note to readers: Steve and I have gone through over two liters of olive oil this school year.  Is this unhealthy?

I added whole garlic cloves.  (They're kind of hard to see, but they're there, I promise.)

As far as Steve is concerned, this is the secret ingredient: bacon.  (Or, more accurately, bacon bits.  You know, the real kind.  The hefty chunks of bacon in a ziploc bag you buy at warehouse stores.)

Sprinkle it all with kosher salt, throw it in the oven, and out comes...

this.  And, yup, it tastes as good as it looks (unless you think it looks nasty, in which case it tastes much better than it looks).  Steve and I polished off an entire bunch of cauliflower.  By ourselves.

But, the cauliflower was only a supporting character to the porkchops.  I have a really good recipe for pork chops with a creamed herb sauce, but I wanted to try something sans sauce.  One of my favorite food blogs posted a simple pork chop recipe, I got right on it (this was kind of a week of food blog providence).

I started the pork chops with rosemary...

brown sugar...

cumin and pepper.

Then mixed it all up on a paper plate because I was too lazy to wash a real dish.

I coated the pork chop with the mixture and threw it in a hot frying pan with some olive oil (see, I use it in everything).

A few minutes on each side, and it was done.  I was kind of embarrassed by the blackened parts, but they tasted really good, so now I display this picture with pride.

Tossed a quick salad with dried cranberries, pistachios, and blue cheese.  Mmmmm, mmmmmm, mmmmm.

I love Sundays...