Baby Peppers Stuffed with Sausage and Herbs

The first official week of fall was SO HOT this year! We had record highs 5 or 6 days in a row, it was the hottest week of the whole summer, and it wasn't even summer. Kind of ridiculous. It's usually in the low to mid 70s, and we got up to 95 degrees! I'm not complaining. I know it will be cold before I know it, so I tried to enjoy the heat while I could. I decided to enjoy these unseasonable days with a summery stuffed pepper dish full of delicious sausage, in season veggies, and lots of herbs. Enjoyed on the front porch with a glass of Prosecco, it was spot on. And I ended the night with ice cream, obviously!

A recipe in one of the cookbooks I recently checked out of the library inspired this dish. I didn't follow the recipe all that closely, but used it as a guide. The original recipe called for chorizo, but my butcher was out, so I went with their verde sausage which is one of my favorites. I don't know exactly what's in it, but it has herbs and a little heat, and is absolutely delicious. It worked out perfectly and these little stuffed peppers were perfect. I will definitely make these little guys again. And really, and sausage would be delicious, chorizo, verde, Italian, choose your own adventure. 

Baby Peppers Stuffed with Sausage and Herbs
Adapted from Les Marchés Francais: Four Seasons of French Dishes from the Paris Markets by Brian DeFehr and Pauline Boldt
Ingredients

• 10-12 mini bell peppers
• 1/2 medium onion, diced
• 1/2 jalapeno, diced (optional)
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 4 oil packed anchovies, or about 2 teaspoons anchovy paste
• 1 small or 1/2 large zucchini, diced
• 2 Plum tomatoes, chopped
• Shredded kale (optional)
• 2 verde sausages (alternatively Italian sausage or Chorizo are good options)
• Salt
• 1/2 cup minced fresh parsley

Directions
Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Oil a medium baking dish. Cut the tops off the sweet peppers. With a small knife, dig out the seeds and place the now prepped peppers in the baking dish (slice off a thin slice on the bottom of any of the peppers that want to fall over to create a flat surface). 

Preheat a large skillet over medium heat. Once warm, add a couple of tablespoons olive oil and the add the onions along with a little salt. Cook for 8-10 minutes until softened and starting to brown. Add the jalapeno (if using) and garlic and let cook for 1-2 minutes until the garlic is fragrant. Add the anchovies or anchovy paste,  zucchini, chopped tomatoes and kale (if using; I had a little hanging out in my garden and so just threw it in, but it's not needed). If the skillet is looking too dry, add a little bit of water. Let cook for a couple of minutes until everything is getting nice and wilty. Add more salt to taste. 

Remove the casing from the sausages and crumble into the pan with the onion and zucchini mixture. Cook until the sausage is just about cooked through. Remove from heat and add the minced parsley and stir everything together. (At this point you can add a little bit of shreded of diced cheese; I had a small piece of Manchego floating around the fridge that was perfect for this, but you can just skip it too). 

Use a teaspoon to stuff the mixture into the prepared sweet peppers. Place in preheated oven and bake for 25-30 minutes, until the peppers are fully softened. Remove from oven and top with shredded parmesan cheese if desired. Let cool. Serve warm or at room temperature. 
 

Baked Egg "Muffins"

Now that I am super busy with school, it's a goal of mine to come up with recipes that I can make in large quantities and then freeze for a quick lunch or dinner during the week. Last weekend I looked in my fridge and found some leftover egg yolks that I didn't want to go to waste so I decided to bake them up in a muffin tin for some individual egg "muffins" that I can throw onto an english muffin along with some cheese and ham for a nice breakfast or lunch. Not fancy, but simple and delicious. It works for me!

There is no recipe with this, it is more of an idea. I just whisked together the egg yolks and a few whole eggs with a little milk, salt and pepper. Then just throw in whatever else you want; I did peppers and onions but cheese, or some type of meat would be delicious too. It's kind of like making scrambled eggs but instead of scrambling them in a frying pan, pour them into a (liberally) greased muffin tin and bake. Super easy and very versatile.

One word of caution; you don't want to fill up the muffin tins very full, about halfway is plenty. You can't tell from the pictures, but as they bake the egg really poofs up and you can have a mess on you hands if it all overflows. Once they come out of the oven they collapse and aren't nearly as tall, but mine looked almost like mini soufflés when they were fresh out of the oven.

I bake my little frittatas at 350 degrees for maybe 20-25 minutes. I didn't set a timer, but just kept my eyes on the oven and waited until they all looked set up. Just watch them to make sure they don't overbake. I threw the finished product into the freezer and have been eating them all week, yum!

Roasted Vegetable Pizza

Just a quick post today, but it has to do with one of my favorite topics, pizza! I've said it before, but I love pizza and I love making homemade pizza. It is fun to try all different toppings and flavors that you might not be able to get at your local pizza place. Recently I've discovered that one of my favorite ways to top a pizza is with delicious roasted vegetables. This particular pizza has red, orange and yellow peppers along with zucchini and onions. If you are thinking that a pizza with just vegetables sounds boring, think again. Roasting them brings out all their natural sweetness; add a sprinkling of red pepper flakes for some heat and you have a delicious combination of sweet and heat. I can't wait to try different combinations of veggies as the growing season gets under way.

For the pizza dough, I used my go-to pizza crust. Just top with a quick tomato sauce, the vegetables, and a sprinkling of cheese and you will be good to go. I just love roasting vegetables! Just toss together whatever veggies you like with enough olive oil to coat, pepper and plenty of salt. Spread them out on a baking sheet that is covered in foil and sprayed with cooking oil, and pop them into a hot oven, 425 or 450 degrees. Keep on eye on them, flipping them over if needed, and roast until charred and tender. The time will vary depending on the vegetable and the size you cut them into.

This really is the best way to eat vegetables in my opinion. If I make too much to fit on the pizza it never lasts long. I just snack on it the whole time I'm putting the pizza together. It is so good I don't even care that I'm not even hungry anymore!

Ready for the oven

Cheesy and sweet

Dig in!

Southwestern Stuffed Spaghetti Squash

Spaghetti squash is a great thing. It's fun to eat, it's tasty, it's healthy and it is extremely versatile. Since it is not very flavorful on its own, you can pretty much do anything you want with it. You can make it sweet or savory, whatever you feel like. I've done the typical 'spaghetti' by adding a nice tomato sauce and pretending the squash is actually noodles and I've also added butter, brown sugar and cinnamon and eaten my squash for dessert. Recently I've been looking for something new and different to do with my spaghetti squash though. When I saw this southwestern version I knew I had to try it.

This dish combines the cooked spaghetti squash with onions, peppers, corn, beans, cilantro, cheese and lots of cumin and chile powder. The result was a slightly spicy, nicely seasoned light and healthy main dish. And making boats from the squash shell makes a fun presentation (I wasn't thinking and accidentally cut the ends off my squash so the 'boats' were a little unstable, but still fun). You get a lot of food out of one spaghetti squash this way, I got four servings out of the one recipe, and the recipe only uses half the squash so you can play around with the rest of it for fun. The leftovers reheated quite well the next day, they were a quick and delicious lunch. This is one to make again in the future.

Grab a nice spaghetti squash and get it cooking

The rest of the players

All chopped up

Fresh cilantro adds so much to a dish

Start cooking those peppers and onions

Add the spices and then 

throw in the corn, beans and cilantro

Mix it all up

Scrape the flesh out of the squash

Add the squash to the veggie mixture and 

then pile it all in the squash boats, 

don't forget to top with cheese

Place it all under the broiler for a few minutes until the cheese in nice and melty, then eat!

Southwestern Stuffed Spaghetti Squash
From Bev Cooks
Ingredients

• 1 spaghetti squash 
• 2 Tbs. extra-virgin olive oil 
• 1/2 red onion, chopped 
• 3 garlic cloves, minced 
• 1 jalapeno pepper, minced (leave seeds in for more heat) 
• 1 red bell pepper, chopped 
• 1 Tbs. ground cumin 
• 1 Tbs. Mexican oregano (if you have it, I don't and so I just used my regular oregano) 
• 1 Tbs. chili powder 
• 1 can black beans (drained and rinsed) or about 1 cup dried beans, cooked 
• 1 cup frozen corn, thawed 
• coarse salt and freshly ground pepper1/2 cup freshly torn cilantro, plus more for garnish 
• 1 lime 
• 1 cup grated cheddar cheese 

Directions
Start by cooking the spaghetti squash. You can either by roast it on a baking sheet for 50 minutes at 375 degrees or if you're in a hurry, just poke some holes in it with a fork and stick in the microwave for 12-15 minutes, turning every few minutes. Let cool another 30 minutes, then cut in half. Spoon out the seeds, then using a fork, scrape up the flesh.

Heat oil in a medium skillet. Add the onion, garlic, jalapeno pepper and red bell pepper. Saute 2 minutes. Add cumin, Mexican oregano, chili powder and a good pinch of salt and pepper. Saute another minute. Add the beans, corn and cilantro. Stir to combine. Squeeze in the lime juice and give one last stir.

Add in half the squash to the bean mixture and stir to combine. Taste and season accordingly.

Stuff each squash half with the mixture and top with grated cheese. Stick it under the broiler until the cheese melts and gets all brown and bubbly.