Meatless Monday - Cheese stuffed mini sweet peppers

Did you ever see the movie Mermaids with Cher, Bob Hoskins, and Winona Ryder? Cher, playing the mother, only knew how to make appetizers for dinner, she never mastered entrees but would do an assortment of snacks.

That's sort of how I felt tonight (well, not quite like Cher). I had planned to make these for yesterday's party but ran out of time with the clock change and all that.

I have some beautiful mini sweet peppers. No, they are not in season, and no, they are not local. But they are gorgeous to look at and very sweet.

Preheat the oven to 350F

Put the peppers into the microwave for a minute or two on high just to soften them slightly.

Meanwhile mix together 12oz or so of cream cheese, (or goat cheese). I added a little bleu cheese I had left over from the chicken wings yesterday, some herbs de provence, and a little garlic powder. Your imagination is your only limiter here.

With a sharp paring knife make a slit the length of the pepper, and squeeze it gently like one of those old rubber change purses. Pack in some of the cheese, put on cookie sheet.

Repeat until you have as many as  you can get (I managed 20 stuffed peppers).

Into the hot oven for 20 minutes until cheese is oozy and peppers are crisp-tender.

I served it with some steamed green beans and rice. And I have plenty for lunch tomorrow!

Until next time, Eat Well & Keep Digging.





The Gastronomic Gardener
Garden blog http://amidwestgarden.blogspot.com/
Cooking blog http://ihopeyouarehungry.blogspot.com/
Twitter - www.twitter.com/DavidPOffutt
http://www.facebook.com/TheGastronomicGardener

Quick Roasted Vegetables

I found myself with an abundance of produce, but not time to can or blanch even for freezing. I hate for food to go to waste so I picked through and found the fruit that was closest to ending up in the compost bucket without actually having gotten there yet.

I came up with eggplant, peppers, tomatoes. I also threw in some  garlic, onion /celery from the pantry/fridge respectively.  You could do this with almost any vegetable you have on hand. Harder vegetables such as carrots should be sliced thin to quicken the roasting time. Quantities of any one vegetable are not very important.

Preheat oven to 350F. If you want dark carmelization turn oven to 400F

I chopped up the eggplant  (this was two Japanese eggplants)and salted it in a colander. Let it sit for up to an hour. Rinse and set aside.

Chop up everything else and put it on a sheetpan along with the eggplant. A roasting pan  with deeper sides would work fine as well.

Salt, fresh ground pepper, some basil and oregano from the garden and a generous glug of olive oil (up to 1/4 cup) to finish it off.

Put in the oven, for about an hour, stirring occasionally, until all vegetables are tender and starting to carmelize.

Serve hot over rice or pasta, or if cold add to salads, sandwiches, top eggs with it.  Makes a nice room temperature appetizer spread on  toasted bread rounds too!

Eat Well and Keep Digging!

The Gastronomic Gardener
My garden blog http://amidwestgarden.blogspot.com/
My cooking blog http://ihopeyouarehungry.blogspot.com/
Twitter - www.twitter.com/DavidPOffutt
http://www.facebook.com/TheGastronomicGardener

Canning some salsa

Since I have so many tomatoes, I decided to make some salsa.

The recipe is based on one from a colleague of mine. His salsa is always a hit in the office.

Tomato Salsa (Spicy)


Yield – 4 pints

5 cups chopped peeled seed tomatoes
1 ½ cups roasted seeded long green chiles
½ cup finely chopped roasted jalapenos seeded and skinned (per taste)
3 chopped roasted Serrano peppers seeded and skinned (per taste)
4 cups chopped onions
1 cup bottled lemon juice
6 cloves garlic finely chopped
1 TBS ground cumin
1 TBS salt
1 tsp ground black pepper

Here are the ingredients

Did you catch whta I forgot to lay out? That's right, the onions.

Roast the peppers  till they are charred. Place in a paper bag to steam and further loosen the skins.

While the peppers are charring, bring a pot of water to boil to blanch the tomatoes. Plunge the tomatoes a few at a time until the skins loosen, remove from pot and put in colandar. Repeat until done.

Peel, and seed the tomatoes and peppers. Chop them up. Put all ingredients into a large pot, bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for 20 minutes.

Ladle hot salsa into pint jars , leaving 1/2" headspace. Adjust lids and process in a boiling water canner 15  minutes. (at 0-1000 foot altitude). Adjust for your altitude.

After canning stage - allow to rest 5 minutes before removing jars and placing in a dry place.  Follow cooling  and  storage instructions.

We'll see how it is later.

Keep digging and eat well!


The Gastronomic Gardener
My garden blog http://amidwestgarden.blogspot.com/
My cooking blog http://ihopeyouarehungry.blogspot.com/
Twitter - www.twitter.com/DavidPOffutt