Homsesteading Books and Homesteading adventures
• Sunday, July 30, 2006 - The Hummingbirds are coming and a stuffed pepper recipe and sighting red foxes!
Hi
My neighbor gave me a hummingbird feeder and they are here already and, equally exciting, we saw a couple of red foxes playing in our backyard the other day. I have lived in Indiana all my life and this is the FIRST time I saw a couple of foxes together. They are a very rare sight here. I did see ONE fox years ago, but it was a quick glimpse. This time, they played for several minutes and it was a special treat to glimpse them.
The hummingbirds are fascinating and my son and I were prompted to get our our bird book and read more about them. I think he learned quite a bit, though, just by watching them, seeing how they hovered and drank from the feeder and displayed their special talent of flying backwards.
Now, a stuffed pepper recipe, one that does NOT use rice because I have a child who has problems with rice for some reason, it upsets his system. He is the child we adopted from Romania (a long story, but I' m convinced he was meant to be in our life) and, like many children, he doesn't have a LONG list of vegetables he likes but he loves stuffed peppers. It is a very simple recipe:
Take as many peppers as you want to use. I generally use between 6 and 8 peppers and I only use Green peppers most of the time.
Cut off the tops but slice the tops so they can be put BACK on top of the pepper later. Take out the seeds and the bitter (white) part of the pepper. Bring water to boil and boil peppers only a few minutes, just to soften slightly.
Take your favorite spaghetti sauce (yes, I use spaghetti sauce). Mine is usually a homemade or organic premade sauce. I add fresh oregano and basil to taste and some chopped garlic or garlic powder or a touch of garlic salt (organic) and then a touch of sweetener (sugar) to taste...but only a touch - if your tomato sauce is already on the sweet side, this isn't necessary, but it does add a special something. Mix with cooked ground beef (I use 1/2 pound only as we prefer to keep our meat content low) . I don't use much sugar at all.
Put some sauce on the bottom of a pan. Add the peppers and then fill with the meat/sauce combo. It is best if the pan is only large enough to fit in the peppers so they stand upright and don't fall over easily. Put tops back on peppers. Bake at 350 (or the equivalent if you aren't using a stove) till peppers are cooked through and filling is bubbly. With our stove that is usually about 40 minutes or so.
These can also be cooked on a grill, in a cast iron skillet. However, you do need to keep an eye on them and adjust cooking time depending on your grill and the heat of the coals, etc. They are delicious on the grill!
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• Monday, July 31, 2006 - thanks