He CAN Cook!

So, here’s the update on my husband’s dinner last night. It was amazing. Not only did it taste delicious, but the presentation was quite spectacular. He made a recipe for stuffed peppers, but these are not your mother’s stuffed peppers. I don’t know if he did this on purpose, but he chose a variety of colors. And, he placed the tops (with the stems neatly removed) underneath the peppers, so each one appeared to be sitting on it’s own little platform. Very clever. See what I mean about the presentation.

When my daughter and I returned from walking the dog, we found him in the the kitchen, music on, stirring up the filling in a large skillet. Knife, pans, extraneous pieces of onion, cheese and garlic littered the kitchen. My daughter and I escaped to the back patio to do yoga to get out of his way.

Apparently, my husband encountered few problems with the recipe. He did stick his head out at one point to ask if he should just turn the oven on to 350 because it didn’t say on the recipe. I told him to look up at the top because usually you’re supposed to preheat the oven. Other than that….

Here’s the recipe for stuffed peppers. They were really good!

STUFFED PEPPERS

(from “125 Best Ground Meat Recipes” by Ilana Simon)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F

• 1 TBL olive oil
• 1 onion, chopped
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 lb lean ground beef
• 1 can (14 oz) tomato sauce
• 1 ½ cups stewed tomatoes
• 1 TBL tomato paste
• 1 tsp paprika
• 4 drops hot pepper sauce
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
• 2 cups cooked long-grain white rice (1/2 cup uncooked)
• 6 large green bell peppers
• 1 cup shredded Cheddar cheese

1. In a large skillet, heat oil over medium heat. Sauté onion and garlic for 3 minutes or until onions are softened.
2. Add ground beef and brown, breaking up meat, for 7 minutes or until no longer pink.
3. Increase heat to medium-high. Add tomato sauce, stewed tomatoes, tomato paste, paprika and hot pepper sauce. Bring to a boil. Season with salt and pepper. Add cooked rice. Reduce heat to medium-low and simmer, uncovered, stirring occasionally, for 20 minutes or until thickened.
4. Cut tops off green peppers and remove stems. Discard seeds. Place peppers and tops in casserole. Pour in ½ cup water. Cover loosely with waxed paper and microwave on High for 5 minutes or until peppers just begin to soften.
5. Drain water from casserole. With pepper standing upright in casserole, fill each to the top with ground meat and rice mixture, packing lightly as necessary. Sprinkle cheese on each. Bake in preheated over for 30 minutes or until cheese is melted and mixture is bubbling.