Cheesy Stuffed Peppers

I made a cheesy version of stuffed peppers which is in my Pfaltzgraf (sp) casserole dish in the oven now.

I started with seven peppers picked from the garden after a hail storm Monday. I cleaned them, cut the tops off, took the seeds out and boiled them for five minutes.

Then, I steamed (as in my steamer) some Israeli couscous with some garlic salt. Israeli couscous is huge compared to its "standard" cousin.

Next I made a sauce:
- 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil, cold-pressed
- 1 teaspoon garlic salt
- 1 teaspoon four color organic pepper

Heat. Add:
- 1 can plain tomato sauce
- 5 torn basil leaves from the garden
- About 1/2 cup torn homemade bread, stale

Add:
- The couscous (I made one cup dry = hell of a lot prepared)
- About 1 cup shredded cheddar
- About 1/4 cup grated romano
- About 1/8 cup grated parmesan
- 1 tablespoon Italian seasoning
- 2 tomatoes from garden, diced

Stir. Stuff peppers and arrange in casserole dish. Plop extra filling around the peppers. Pour a second can of tomato sauce all around. Cover with lid. (My casserole dish is ceramic)

Bake for 45 minutes at 350 degrees.

Recycling

Today, I had a gigantic chicken breast leftover from dinner with my dad and stepmom at the dinner. It was their version of chicken français ( they call it Frances which makes me laugh). But no matter what you call it, chicken in lemon-butter sauce is one of the delights of the Earth.

I whipped out my Le Creuset pan and dumped some drained canned potato slices, which never works for anything remotely hashbrown-like because they are too wet. But I kept the heat low, used a hearty amount extra virgin olive oil, and kept an eye on them best I could.

Now before I continue, this is NOT a meal of anything remotely gourmet. I don't think I've been to the grocery store for six weeks, so I've been relying on our freezer and pantry reserves. And now those are also depleted.

So recycling this chicken breast into a meal for three is an exercise in cheap utility. And filling bellies.

Okay, starting over:

Ingredients:
- One large chicken breast (cooked)
- 1 cup peas (cooked)
- one can sliced potatoes
- extra virgin olive oil
- one-half teaspoon fresh ground garlic salt

Coat skillet with extra virgin olive oil. Heat on low. Add potatoes. Cook for a short while. Add peas. Cook for a short while, stirring occasionally. Gradual increase heat almost to medium. Add chicken. Add more oil if needed.

Bruschetta pizza

While anemia and a heat wave do not make prime conditions for cooking, herbs and tomatoes ripening in the garden demand attention. And good food.

My garden has yielded five more tomatoes since I made bruschetta last week and my mother decided I needed the first two tomatoes from her garden.

So today my daughter and I made homemade pizza dough. We started with a cup of warm water, two tablespoons of yeast, a dollop of honey and a dollop of blackstrap molasses. We added 1.5 cups unbleached white flour, 3/4 cup wheat flour, and 1/4 cup rye flour. I stirred and kneaded as she went to the garden for a heap of basil. I shredded about six leaves of basil, probably about three tablespoons and we kneaded that into the dough.

While that rose (about an hour), I made about three cups of bruschetta. This required close to 1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil, six small tomatoes chopped, about 1/3 cup chopped basil leaves, 2/3 teaspoon four color peppercorns, 1 teaspoon garlic powder, 1/2 teaspoon garlic salt and about 1/4 cup grated romano cheese.

When the dough was done, I sprinkled a long jelly roll pan with cornmeal. I rolled out the dough on my dishwasher and coated the bottom lightly with cornmeal. Then I dampened my hands with olive oil and patted the bottom of the dough before I put it in the pan and finished spreading it out.

I dumped the bruschetta on, added bites of broccoli, covered with 8 ounces of mozzerella and added some more basil on top for pretty.

It's baking and I'm STARVED.

Vegan stirfry

I didn't get a photo of today's lunch, a simple and plain affair for which a friend joined us.

I heated the Le Creuset skillet with about a tablespoon of extra virgin olive oil, cold-pressed, and a teaspoon of sesame oil, swirled around the pan with my hand. I fried the last serving of homemade seitan. Added a bag of the steam-in-bag spring vegetables with citrus sauce from Aldi.

Had rice cooking (1 cup) in the steamer. Combined it in the skillet (only about half the rice). Heated and stirred. Added about a 1/2 teaspoon four color organic pepper and a teaspoon of garlic salt.

Ginger Pork

Today's experiment is Ginger Pork. I'm expecting company at an unknown time, so I wanted to make something I could keep warm in the oven (with a loaf of homemade bread, of course.)

So in the Le Creuset skillet, I put three large pork chops, about 1" thick each. I put:
- 1 tablespoon of olive oil
- about 3/4 teaspoon four color pepper
- about 1/2 teaspoon fresh ground garlic salt
- about 3/4 teaspoon dried basil
- about 1 tablespoon grated candied ginger
- one tablespoon white grape juice.

I cooked over medium about five minutes each side. When I flipped them, I drizzled
- 1 tablespoon sesame oil

Then I made a sauce of
- one tablespoon white sugar
- one cup white grape juice
- one tablespoon low sodium soy sauce

I poured that into the skillet and put the whole thing in an oven preheated to 300 degrees.

The recipe is inspired by Venir Dîner, C'est Prêt, a French cookbook. I plan to serve with a Dole Spring Fling Salad and my bread. I'm debating whether or not to add cooked baby carrots. I'm thinking yes.

The Intimidating Round Roast

Uggh.

I am faced with a three pound bottom round roast that, thus far, has kicked my ass.

Let me preface this tale.

For most of my adult life, I have been a vegetarian. I probably spent eight years as such. I even spent about six months as a vegan. I do not like to cook meat. I do not feel meat is a daily necessity. I think it general Americans consume too much meat, and too much processed foods, and too much flat out junk. As this blog documents, I do eat meat.

It started toward the end of my pregnancy with the occasional turkey sandwich. I was on a gestational diabetes diet and after several months of eating protein six times a day, the vegetarian options were starting to get old.

Then, when my daughter was 18-months old, I got a high stress job and starting craving bacon cheeseburgers, even though I hate bacon. So once or twice a month I would eat one.

But all this time, I ate vegetarian at home. And occasionally I'd eat a tuna sandwich. I took vegan cooking courses. And, thanks to the gestational diabetes diet, I was very cognizant of mixing our foods to get protein, calcium, green veggies, orange veggies, fruit, etc. That's when my husband starting calling me the nutrition nazi.

I ventured into cooking some meat while working on the manuscript of my second (yet unpublished) novel. I had the main character cooking. And he's French. And they eat anything they can catch. In order to make the scenes work in the novel, I had to test the recipes. So I did. And I tried to put myself in my main character's shoes. And that's how, even today, I force myself to cook meat.

Now, someone I know who is concerned about us brought me some pork and a three-pound bottom round roast that he found on sale. (A $14 roast for $6) He read my blog entry about my last trip to Wegmans and I guess he feared we were too poor to buy meat (due to my recent unemployment).

I called my mother-in-law and asked how to cook it. She said put it in the crockpot with liquid and carrots. I thought I could handle that.

So my daughter peeled carrots, I got some water and some Wegmans vegetable stock, and the roast was WAY too big for the crock pot.

A facebook poll of my friends led to me cutting it. I added a cup of water and a cup of stock and a hearty few grinds of garlic salt. IT FILLED THE CROCK POT. No room for carrots. I sliced them and put them in my skillet, with stock and water, thinking about 30-40 minutes before dinner, I'll put some meat in there and roast in in the oven.

This better taste damn good. Because it took an hour to get this far.

Chicken with cornflake sludge

This is one of those meals that did not do what I intended.

Ah, well. Win some, lose some.

I started with a hint of butter and an equal amount of fresh-squeezed lemon juice, and a teaspoon of fresh rosemary snipped into tiny pieces.

I took some chicken, sliced into tenders, and had my daughter grind some four-color peppercorns and some McCormick garlic salt (packed in France, go figure). Added the chicken and some chicken broth. I cooked the chicken about four minutes on each side, then I coated with eggs, and "breaded" with crushed cornflakes, made more 50/50 lemon butter sauce and added some olive oil for a "frying" effect and returned everything to the Le Creuset skillet.

The cornflakes fell off.

I added a whole bunch of steamed baby carrots from the freezer, thawed in the microwave, added a few dollops of butter and some more chicken broth and placed the entire skillet in the oven.

Meanwhile, my husband is making cheapo mac and cheese from a box for a second side.

keep your fingers crossed. I'm going to need it.

The result: FABULOUS!!!