Stuffed baby peppers

Last weekend ended our CSA. As a thank you, we received 7 pounds of whatever variety of apples they had (which was about 8) and two boxes of potatoes, tomatoes, & baby bell peppers.

I took those baby bell peppers & froze them as an appetizer for the future. Did you hear that echo? Let me say it again - Appetizer Forrrrr the Futurrrrrrrre!!



Here's what happened:

Stuffed baby bell peppers

1 package of cream cheese (1/3 less fat)
1/2 head of garlic (optional)
1/4 cup of sundried tomatoes (or your own oven-dried)
handful of fresh basil or other herbs
a quart or more of baby bell peppers

Preheat oven to 350. Slice one line into the baby bell peppers. This will be where we pipe the filling into the pepper. It makes sense to slice the line where the pepper naturally is face-up. Dig out (if you want) the seeds & ribs of the peppers. (I didn't on the 2nd time making these.)

Mince the garlic, chop the tomatoes into small pieces. Mix into the cream cheese. Place the mixture into a heavy duty quart-size ziploc bag. Snip one of the tips.

Pipe the mixture into each of the peppers. Lay onto a rimmed baking sheet or rimmed dish.

To make now: Bake until the cheese filling looks done - about 15-20 minutes.

To freeze for later: Lay the peppers onto a sheet pan & place in the freezer for about 3 hours. Make sure the peppers don't touch. Then, bag the peppers in a freezer ziploc bag & store for the Futurrrrrrre! I haven't used them since they've been frozen, but I would imagine that you'd bake them for 45-60min at 350 or 375 from frozen.

Yummy!

Tomato overload: oven-roasted, soup, & bolognese.

Our front yard vegetable garden & our friendly farmer from the CSA provided us with a plethora of tomatoes. We almost had tomatoes up to our eyeballs. Here's what we did with them:

First, we tried oven-roasting them. We sliced them, drizzled them with a little olive oil, salt, pepper, & some fresh thyme (or lemon thyme, which we had in our garden). They were laid out on a baking sheet & baked in a 300 degree oven for over an hour.

Full of tomatoey flavor. Great for salads & recipes that call for tomatoes for an extra tomatoey bite!

Second, we created a tomato soup. This is a little harder to recall from memory. It was definitely an on-the-fly, invented recipe. But basically:

Heat 2 tablespoons of olive oil in a medium saucepan. Add 1 or 1/2 chopped sweet onion. Cook until translucent. Add about 4-6 chopped tomatoes, & cook for about 2 minutes. (Feel free to add some of those oven dried tomatoes.) Add 2-4 cups of veggie broth. Season with salt/pepper & some lots of smoked paprika. Puree. Heat over low heat, add whatever herbs you want (e.g. basil, thyme, bay leaf, etc), & add more veggie broth if you need. You get a nice smoky tomato soup from this. You can add a little milk or heavy cream for a well-rounded tasty soup.

Deeelish.

Third, we created a bolognese sauce that was out of this world. This took us all summer to perfect. & Again, this was an on-the-fly, invented recipe. Basically:

Heat 2 tablespoons of olive oil in a medium saucepan. Add 1 or 1/2 chopped sweet onion. Cook until translucent. Add a chopped eggplant & chopped zucchini. Cook for about 4 minutes. Add about 4-6 chopped tomatoes, & cook for about 2 minutes. Add a little crushed red pepper, 1 teaspoon of sugar, a handful or two of fresh basil, some fresh or dried oregano/marjoram. Add 1/4 cup of red wine, such as Chianti. Puree if desired.

In a separate pan, heat a 1 lb. mixture of ground pork, beef, & veal. (Giant grocery stores sells this as "meatloaf mix" - no breadcrumbs or seasoning, though! yay!) If you want to keep some sauce vegetarian, pour only 1/2 of the sauce into the meat mixture. Otherwise, you know what to do.

Let the sauce(s) simmer on the stove for hours. Taste periodically to adjust herbs, sugar, salt, etc.

Let me tell you - this is the best bolognese! We had it with a pasta bake (pasta, ricotta mixed with 2 eggs & some parmigiana, & mozzarella on top). It was great!