Food, Glorious Food

This was the bounty gathered in one day about a month ago.  A few recipes follow...

From the top right - this big blue trug  holds a mix of banana peppers, Jimmy Nardello frying peppers. green bell peppers,and some others I've forgetten on my old age ;)!  These peppers are all great on the grill, basted with a little olive oil and grilled in a grill basket.  However, there are only so many peppers one can eat like that before getting tired of them.  Here are a few other things I did (and am still doing!).

Stuffed Bell Peppers

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup brown rice
• 1 cup water
• 1 pound lean ground beef
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 onion, chopped
• 6 - 8 green bell peppers depending on sixe of pepper
• 1 (8 ounce) can natural tomato sauce (or fresh home canned if you have it)
• salt and ground black pepper to taste
• 1 (8 ounce) can tomato sauce (or fresh home canned if you have it)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
2. Bring brown rice and water to a boil in a saucepan. Reduce heat to medium-low, cover, and simmer until rice is tender and liquid has been absorbed, 45 to 50 minutes.
3. Cook and stir beef, garlic, and onion in a skillet over medium heat until meat is evenly browned and onion is softened, about 5 minutes.
4. Remove and discard the tops, seeds, and membranes of the bell peppers. Arrange peppers in a baking dish with the hollowed sides facing upward. Slice the bottoms off the peppers if necessary so that they stand upright.
5. Mix the browned beef, cooked rice, 1 can tomato sauce, salt, and pepper in a bowl. Spoon an equal amount of the mixture into each hollowed pepper. Mix the remaining tomato sauce and any in a bowl, and pour over the stuffed peppers.  Sometimes I'll give them a healthy squirt of ketchup on the top!
6. Bake in the preheated oven, about 1 hour. 

If you have many peppers to use, make a larger batch or multiple batches and freeze them for an easy dinner in the winter. 

Roasted Peppers

This is good for all types of peppers and they last for a long time in the refrigerator - if you and your family don't eat them first!  You can also can them, but mine have never lasted long enough to do so.  Just google "canning roasted peppers" and you'll find some recipes.

Ingredients:

Peppers
Olive Oil

Directions:

1.  Cut whole peppers in half length-wise, discarding the seeds and the other membrane-y stuff.  Cover a baking sheet with a rim (about one inch or more deep makes things much easier - I use a roasting pan) with foil for easy clean up.  

2.  Turn on the oven to broil and move the rack to the very top - closest to the broiler.

3.  Lightly coat the peppers with olive oil - put in a big ziploc type bag and shake it around.  Spread the peppers around in the roasting pan and place under the broiler.

4.  Since everyone likes a different degree of roasting on their peppers, start checking at about 5 minutes.  I usually let mine go to 10 or 12 minutes.  

5.  Remove from oven and let cool.  If you prefer to remove the skins, it is easier to remove them when warm (not too hot - but it's hard to get them off when totally cool).  I like the skins on for that extra roasted flavor - plus it's easier than skinning them all!  

6.  Store in a very light amount of olive oil in the fridge until they are gone!  

TIP:

I usually do a lot of peppers at a time so I have an assembly line going of chopping, oiling, placing on a second pan, broiling, removing, etc. etc. etc. until they are all done.  

Such an easy way to use a lot of peppers and certainly beats the grocery store prices (not to mention whatever preservatives they may use!