Food for Thought - Stuffed Peppers

Look what we found in the garden today! At my house that can only mean one thing…stuffed peppers. I grew up living a rather dull life when it came to food. My mom cooked the same basic meals over and over, and we rarely tried anything new. (That changed after I was married and my brother spent some time out of the country.) Not that I minded much. Food was just not that important to me then (I wish I still felt that way…). I pretty much ate whatever was placed in front of me and then got on with the important things like homework and chasing boys.

There were very few things that I absolutely would not eat. Here is the short list:
1. Cantaloupe.
2. Green beans in tomato sauce.
3. Mush.
4. Franco American Spaghetti.

My kids have way more things on their lists. I even liked liver and onions for crying out loud! In my defense, even the smell of cantaloupe made me ill as a child. I seem to remember eating it when I was very small, but one day my grandpa put something on it…salt, I think. I never could eat it after that. And my mom, seriously, cooked green beans and then poured a can of tomato sauce over them. Disgusting!

Anyway, this is not supposed to be a negative post. Needless to say, I had never heard of stuffed peppers. My sweetie swore by his mother’s recipe and the first time I had them I was hooked. OK, the first time I SMELLED them I was hooked. They remind me of fall and all the happy scents of canning and using the veggies from the garden. My sweetie calls them his comfort food.

I am not a huge green pepper fan, but I love the flavor cooked in. So after they are finished, I simply slip the pepper off and slide it over to my sweetie’s plate. Most of the kids love/tolerate it that way. Sport is our only nay-sayer. If I’m feeling particularly generous I leave a little white rice out for him. Don’t forget the crusty rolls to dunk in the extra sauce. Leave me a comment and let me know what you think!



Stuffed Peppers

Wash:
8 – 10 peppers, then remove lids and ribs

Cook peppers in:
1 cup boiling salted (1 ½ tsp salt) water for 5 min.
Drain and reserve liquid

Combine: 
2 lbs ground beef
1 ½ cups cooked rice
¼ tsp pepper

Fill drained green peppers with this mixture.

Melt: ¼ cup butter

Add: 1 cup sliced onion and sauté until brown.

Then add: 
18 oz ketchup
2 ½ cups tomatoes, cooked or canned
6 whole cloves
liquid from cooked pepper

Stand filled peppers upright in sauce.  Cover and simmer over low heat for 45 minutes.  If peppers are large, make sure hamburger mixture is cooked all the way through before serving.

 As you can see, I had more hamburger than would fit in my peppers, so I simply broke it into meatball-sized pieces and scattered it in the sauce. The kids love it that way and it cooks just fine. Make sure the pieces are smallish so they cook all the way through.