Stuffed Peppers

I made dinner last night for me and a friend, while we attempted (unsuccessfully) to watch some of the Red Sox game on my computer before heading out for a night of dancing. On the menu, stuffed peppers. These are one of my favorite things to make, and eat, and are surprisingly easy. Last night I made several varieties, red and green peppers stuffed with turkey and rice or beans. And, they were delish.

To "prepare" the peppers I cut them in half, remove the seeds, and grill them on a griddle. I start with them cut side down, and then flip them over a few times, until they are too hot to handle - and then they are done. For the bean stuffing I used white beans, diced tomatoes, lemon zest, and salt and pepper to taste. Just mix it all together and spoon into open pepper halves. For the turkey stuffing I cooked the ground turkey and some fresh basil in a pan. When the turkey was cooked I added some tomato sauce, diced tomatoes and brown rice. Again, just spoon this into open peppers. I arranged the peppers in a glass baking pan, with some sauce at the bottom, and baked them for about 30 minutes at 350 degrees. Usually I add some shredded cheese on top, but yesterday I used some grated parmesan and it was even better I think.

An Easter Feast for one!

After the weekend from hell, I decided I would indeed cook an Easter dinner. Luckily I found an open grocery store and picked up some essential ingredients, and at about 7pm I began cooking.

Nothing too fancy, I had some steak tips marinaded already. My mom taught me a trick with these - if you buy your meat ahead of time and freeze it, put the meat and marinade in a ziploc bag and freeze it together. The meat will marinade as it thaws, before you cook it - saving you a step! I also had some zucchini and yellow squash, which I just cut up and threw into a pan with some evoo, and then some frozen green beans - talk about fancy. I bought some potatoes, and made mashed potatoes. I tried something new with these, and put in some grated parmesan cheese, and in fact they were delicious. I bought some pillsbury crescent rolls, and ate about 154 of them!

Last, but not least, I made a carrot cake. I blame Mel for making me crave this. It started off as Carrot Cake Cupcakes, but - I don't seem to have any cupcake pans, is this possible?! So it turned into a Carrot Bundt Cake, and I'd say it came out very well. I followed the same recipe as the cupcakes, but I cooked it a little longer - about 15 minutes at 400 degrees and then maybe 35 or 40 at 350 degrees. I wish I'd used less walnuts though, I'm not a huge fan. I used my hand food chopper with the carrots, and of course I prepared my bundt pan with lots of Baker's Joy! I used a little bit less sugar than the recipe called for the frosting, and I think it came out great - there's a ton left over. I'm going to go dig in with a spoon!