Stuffed Peppers with Turkey

This is the 2nd time I have made this recipe, and it still has not ceased to amaze me. There are so many vegetables in here and it is so healthy, but so delicious. I highly reccomend it for those of you trying to be good in the New Year. I knew the boy wouldn't eat it because of the sheer quantity of good for you veggies, but it really is good. My room mate walked in after I finished eating and the first thing out of her mouth, even before "hello" was "what smells so good?!"

The great smell was coming from baked green peppers filled with ground turkey, tomatoes, peppers, onions, garlic, squash and spinach. So great. The one thing I would consider changing next time is to add some fresh basil if I have it available. Also, do not be shy with the seasoning, and maybe get diced tomatoes with seasonings if available.

Oh, and all the work for this one is in the chopping. Take your time and do the prep work before you start cooking, lest you get rushed trying to cook turkey and chop an onion at the same time.
Just as a warning, the peppers leak when cut open. Do so carefully and do not be surprised when your plate floods with yummy juices. Would be great if you have some rice on the plate to soak it all up. Because of the copious number of veggies, I am submitting this recipe to the ARF/5 a day over at sweetnicks. Check out all the other entries on Tuesday.

Stuffed Peppers with Turkey and Vegetables
INGREDIENTS
4 green bell peppers, tops removed, seeded
1 pound ground turkey
2 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 onion, chopped
2-3 cloves of garlic, chopped
1 yellow squash, chopped
1/2 red bell pepper, chopped
1/2 yellow bell pepper, chopped
1 cup fresh spinach
1 (14.5 ounce) can diced tomatoes, drained
1 tablespoon tomato paste
Italian seasoning to taste
salt and pepper to taste
DIRECTIONS
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
Wrap the green bell peppers in aluminum foil, and place in a baking dish. Bake 15 minutes in the preheated oven. Remove from heat.
In a skillet over medium heat, cook the turkey until evenly brown. Set aside. Heat oil in the skillet, and cook onion, garlic, squash, red bell pepper, yellow bell pepper, and spinach until tender.Return turkey to the skillet. Mix in the tomatoes and tomato paste, and season with Italian seasoning, garlic powder, salt, and pepper. Stuff the green peppers with the skillet mixture. Return peppers to the oven, and continue cooking 15 minutes.

Chocolate Chip Shortbread

I didn't feel like cooking. I really didn't. Then we ordered dinner. 1 really bad, flavorless chicken and rice bowl later, I had out my mixing bowl and new 9x13 pan. Suddenly I wanted something home made.

Having just bought a new pan, I had a new recipe to try too (the one on the back of the packaging). It was a Nestle mini morsels shortbread. Basically, a chocolate chip shortbread bar coated in chocolate. DONE.It turned out great. Had to take it out a little early, but that was it. Turned out a nice, dense sweet, but not toothachingly sweet cookie bar. Was buttery, a little crumbly and great with my morning orange juice ;)
Chocolate Chip Shortbread
Ingredients:
1 cup (2 sticks) butter or margarine, softened
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1 large egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
2 cups (12-oz. pkg.) mini chocolate chips, divided (I used extra and used full sized chips)

Directions:
PREHEAT oven to 350° F.
BEAT butter and sugar in large mixer bowl until creamy. Beat in egg and vanilla extract. Gradually beat in flour. Stir in 1 cup mini morsels. Press onto bottom of ungreased 13 x 9-inch baking pan.
BAKE for 30 to 33 minutes or just until top is light brown (mine only took about 27 min). Immediately sprinkle with remaining morsels. Let stand for 5 minutes or until morsels are shiny; spread evenly. Cool completely in pan on wire rack. Cut into squares.

Law School Update, the Triolet (and a recipe quest)

Woohoo hazah they picked me.

I got into many top schools.

Skip college class for Atlantic City.

Woohoo hazah they picked me.

Now don't care if I get a B.

Can skip women's health to play pool.

Woohoo hazah they picked me.
I got into many top schools.

No haiku today. I actually had time enough for a triolet! As noted above, I will hopefully have more time coming up since I no longer have to worry about grades. I have not just been accepted to FL coastal and UMD Law, but more recently GMU and GW Law (the later being #22 in the nation!).

AND BREATHE. siiiiiiigh.

In other news, I have started a quest. I want to recreate a local delicacy called a Berger Cookie. They are soft but dense white cookies with hard, very dark chocolate fudge frosting. I think I know what recipe I wanna try for the frosting, but I am lost for the cookie base. If anyone knows a recipe for a cookie that is a combination poundcake and sugar cookie, I would love to be pointed in the right direction. Thanks for any help you guys can provide!

German Pancake and Sitting on the Porch

When I read about the Blog Party for the month, I was elated. You see, I had just made a German Pancake slathered in warm apples for a potluck I attended, and I wanted a way to share it. Then along came the veggie-friendly Blog Party, and I knew I had found people who could virtual-party with me and enjoy the fruity goodness.

So I had my "bite" (though not an appetizer per se, it is a great "bite" and would work as the dessert bite or even at a brunch party), but I still needed my "sip." Ah the wonders of the food blogging community! I remembered I had recently read about wonderful drinks in copious numbers over at "Oh you tasty little things." Her sparkle ninja drink sounded just right, laced with multiple fruit juices and banana flavored rum. Fruity and appropriate.I ended up changing the Sparkle Ninja drink into what I am dubbing a "Sitting on the Porch" because I used peach juice instead of guava (my supermarket was lacking yet again). The change made it less pink than the original, and far less tropical, but so tasty. It is a drink to sip while sitting on your front porch in a rocking chair on a hot summer day. Seriously. One sip and you are transported to Georgia where the peach you garnish with is fresh and the air is warm. Perfect for working out these winter duldrums. But watch out; don't use the drink to warm you up too much: you can't taste the liquor. It will pack a powerful punch without any rum taste.

The German Pancake (aka Dutch Baby) recipe is from my "Best of the Best" cookbook. I am FINALLY having some luck with that book. The first 3 or 4 recipes I tried from it were either mediocre or bad. I am finally getting to the good ones. In this recipe I LOVED the apple topping. I left the skins on for convenience, but I think it actually made it better, and my friend who normally does not like apple topping or filling said she actually liked this one. I also liked the base and the WOW factor it delivers when you get the puffed up pancake out of the oven, but it does deflate rapidly. It's ok, still tastes good deflated. It tasted to me a little like french toast. Very yummy.

My one complaint was the amount of butter. There was waaaaayyy too much butter. The 6 TBSP in the pan lead to a PUDDLE of butter that got passed on top of the batter and ended up as a PUDDLE of butter on top of the cake. EW. I dabbed it off before anyone else saw it cuz it was nasty. Lesson learned: Don't put tons of butter on pan then expect none of it to end up on top of the batter. I'd suggest using 1 TBSP for the apples and about 3-4 TBSP for the pan next time and see how that goes.

Sitting on the Porch

3 parts lemon lime soda (I may try decreasing this amount next time because there was not even a slight hint of alcohol taste, so you can likely cut back on the mixers a little)

2 parts strawberry nectar

1 part peach juice

1 shot Malibu Banana flavored rum

Combine all ingredients (prefferably all cold). Serve with a slice of peach as a garnish.
German Pancake
Serves 4 (no, it actually serves 6)
7 tablespoons butter, at room temperature (I'd say to use about 4-5 total next time)
2 large apples, peeled, cored, and sliced (I did not peel)
2 tablespoons sugar
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
6 eggs, at room temperature
1 cup milk, at room temperature
1 cup bread flour
1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
Confectioners’ sugar, to serve

1. Preheat the oven to 450° F. Place a large ovenproof skillet in the oven to preheat.
2. Melt 1 tablespoon of butter in a medium skillet over medium heat.
Add the apples and sauté until they are softened, about 5 minutes. Stir in the sugar and a 1/4 teaspoon of cinnamon until the sugar is melted. Remove the skillet from the heat and set it aside.
3. In a large bowl with an electric mixer, beat the eggs until they are light and frothy. Add the milk, flour, vanilla extract, and remaining 1/4 teaspoon of cinnamon. Beat for more 5 minutes. The batter will be thin but very smooth and creamy.
4. Remove the hot skillet from the oven. Add the remaining 6 (next time 3-4) tablespoons of butter, tilting the pan to melt the butter and coat the skillet. Pour the prepared batter into the hot skillet all at once, and immediately place the skillet in the oven.
5. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes, until the pancake is puffed up and golden brown.
6. Remove the pancake from the oven, bringing it to the table in its pan or sliding it onto a serving plate. Once it is out of the oven, the pancake will begin to deflate. Dust it with confectioners’ sugar. Cut it into wedges and transfer them to individual serving plates. Top the wedges with the apple mixture and serve immediately.

Pita and Falafel

Can we just take one moment and look at the tasty mountain that was my homemade pita bread. Oh my goodness. Fresh, soft, vegan friendly and wonderful filled with homemade falafel and some hummus. And I don't normally even like falafels! But how can you say no to these babies?

Aren't they just the cutest?! LOL.

Ok, enough silly talk about the adorableness of my falafel army and pita mountain. I am participating in this month's Taste and Create hosted by For the Love of Food. Each participant is assigned a food blog partner and they choose any dish from their partner’s blog, create it, taste it and write about it. My partner blog was Namratha at finger licking food. I chose to make a Mediterranean dish from the site, the classic pita and falafel. I didn't make hummus because I didn't have tahini or sesame seeds and am not normally a fan of hummus. Then again I normally don't love falafel, yet I LOVED these. I had a small issue with the recipe, but with just a typo fix, both recipes are great.

My Summary: Everyone loved the falafel and pita. Most people just thought the pita was really good store bought pita until I told them. The falafels were nice and dense, crispy on the outside, warm and smooshy on the inside. De-lish

OK, now the tips and changes. The recipe for the pita says you need 2 1/2 cups water, but only lists a use for 1/2 cup of that. I put 2 and 2 together and added the extra 2 cups to the dough. Worked great. I will just include the change in the recipe below. Also, I don't think my oven was hot enough because the pitas ended up needing 2 min on each side, but again I blame that on my oven. By the time I was on my 10th pita, I decided to become adventurous. I sprayed the remainder with olive oil cooking spray and coated with coarse salt and either Italian seasoning or rosemary. Both toppings were good, an extra flavor boost.

Oh, one more thing, for the 1st time EVER, I had yeast problems. I always kind of giggle when I read about people who are afraid of yeast, wondering "why?" Well I guess I shouldn't take easy yeast for granted since I killed my yeast this time. I think my water was too hot so it barely bubbled at all. I proofed a 2nd batch of yeast and all was fine, easy peasy as always. Remember your yeast should look like this after 10 minutes, not a brown soup. If it doesn't look like this, start again.

As for the falafel, I used the canned chickpeas, and needed about a can and a half, drained, to make 2 cups. I too fried my falafels. I ended up using what I estimate to be about 1/3 to 1/2 a cup of bread crumbs to the mix to make it solid enough. I then tried 2 techniques for frying: 1st I followed the idea on Namratha's blog about coating in a watery slurry of cornstarch and water, then rolling in breadcrumbs before frying, then I just rolled the balls in the breadcrumbs without anything else. Both worked fine. I decided to leave out the cornstarch mix just for ease since it had the same results. The trick was to not undercook them. I undercooked the first batch (seen above) and it fell apart a little. Wait till they are dark brown and crispy.

Falafel
Ingredients
2 cups canned chickpeas
1 tsp baking powder
1 onion, chopped (about 1 cup)
4 garlic cloves, chopped
2 tsps cumin powder
2 tsps coriander powder (I omitted because I didn't have it)
1/2 tsp paprika
1/2 tsp dried oregano
1/4 tsp red pepper flakes
2 handfuls fresh parsley (I used dried)
1 handful fresh cilantro (I omitted)
salt and pepper
breadcrumbs for binding (~1/2 cup)

1. Grind chickpeas to a fine, but not smooth paste with all the other ingredients except the breadcrumbs/flour. If it is too loose, add breadcrumbs/flour. It should hold its shape in your hand. Check the seasonings. (I started by using a hand chopper, then an electric mixer- the electric mixer cannot handle the whole chickpeas so start with a chopper or blender)
2. Refrigerate it for a while if you can. It helps to blend the flavours and make the mixture less wet.
3. Make 22-24 balls. Roll in bread crumbs and fry until golden brown (I fried in about 1/2" high canola oil on medium heat, turning occasionally. Don't make it too hot or the outside will burn before they are cooked)

Pita Bread
Ingredients
3 cups AP flour
1 1/2 cups wheat flour
1 TBSP active dry yeast
1 TBSP honey
2 1/2 cups warm water, divided (warm, but NOT hot. should not hurt to put your finger in for a while)
2 tsp salt
2 TBSP olive oil

1. Combine yeast, honey and ½ cup warm water in a small bowl. Cover and let sit 10 min until frothy.
2. Combine flours, yeast mixture, the other 2 cups water, salt and olive oil in the bowl of a food processor and blend until it forms a ball (I stirred with a wooden spoon then kneaded since I do not have a large food processor).
3. Divide dough into 12 even balls. Cover with moist cloth and let sit in a warm place for an hour until it doubles in size.
4. Heat oven to 550 Fahrenheit. Roll each ball into a thin circle. Place 2 at a time on a baking sheet and bake for 1-2 min per side until puffy and light brown. Repeat for the rest of the rounds. Serve warm with hummus and falafel.

Veggies or Chips with Mexican Dip

It is what my mom is known for. "That Mexican Dip." Whenever I had a sleepover in highschool I, and all my friends, would BEG my mom to make her mexican dip. Now that I am on my own I have made that dip my own with a couple variations. There is the original to serve as a dip for tortilla chips or veggies. Then there is the more saucy version which I use on my mexican chicken sandwhich. Finally, for new years I came up with a more sturdy version to use as a filling for veggies. All are delicious and have the same flavors that the boy calls "like really really good taco bell." I will post on the chicken sandwhich version the next time I make it, but for now I will focus on the dips.
Mexican Dip for Filling Veggies
1 package full fat cream cheese, softened
1 small package full fat sour cream
about 3/4 cup mild or medium salsa (didn't measure)
about 1/8 tsp each of paprika, cayenne pepper, ground red pepper and cumin
veggies cut to allow for filling
Ex: larger grape tomatoes: slice a very little bit off the top, slice off the bottom and remove seeds from the bottom side. Sit with the top down and fill what was the bottom
cucumbers: slice cucumbers. use a spoon to remove some of the flesh.
Celery: slice celery across. remove a thin strip from the back so the back is flat and the curve stays facing up

Using a mixer, combine all ingredients except the veggies. Refrigerate. Use a ziploc like a piping bag by filling with dip, cutting off one end and piping the dip into the veggies.

Mexican Dip for Chips
1 Package reduced fat cream cheese or neufchatel cheese, softened
3/4 of a small package of low fat sour cream
about 3/4 cup mild or medium salsa
about 1/8 tsp each of paprika, cayenne pepper, ground red pepper and cumin
shredded cheddar or mexican cheese blend
chopped tomato
shredded lettuce
chopped scallions
Combine cream cheese, sour cream, salsa and spices with a mixer. Spread into pie pan or 8x8 baking dish. Top with lettuce, cheese, tomatoes and scallions. Serve with tortilla chips and cut veggies.

Pizzettes

I hate doing this. I really do. This entry is yet another confession that, while I have many issues with Giada (inc. her uncanny ability to attract male viewers in ways not appropriate for day time television) she makes really good food. Gosh darn you food porn star with a great recipe collection.

For my new years eve party I made a spread of hors dourves and bite size desserts. These were definately in the top 2. They are like mini pizzas. So delicious, yet mature and adorable. Definately a hit. I forgot to get a picture of the plate once I had baked all of them, but it is so fun to see a pretty plate stacked high with baby pizzas.
Tips and changes for next time: I used dry basil instead of fresh because, well, college student budget! To work with it, I put the basil on the cough before the cheese. Also I used shredded mozzerella because I just do not like gorgonzola. I think it worked just fine and made it more generally accepted.

I had an issue with the dough puffing up and the tomatoes sometimes fell off. Once I realized this, I briefly took the trays out 1/2 way through baking, used spoons to scoop up and reattach tomatoes, then rotated the trays and continued baking. Fixed it, no problem. As for the final steps of drizzling with evoo and salt and pepper, the pizzettes are fine without, but the evoo and salt definately add a something special.

Oh, and the dough is easiest to work with when room temp, so let it warm up 1st.

Pizzettes (I got it from the Giada's Family Dinners section of Best of the Best)
serves 8 to 10 people (about 3 pieces per person)
1 ball (12 ounces) purchased pizza dough
5 ounces Gorgonzola cheese, crumbled (I used shredded Mozzerrella)
5 ounces cherry tomatoes, quartered
1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
1⁄3 cup fresh basil leaves, torn into pieces
Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Preheat the oven to 475°F.
Roll out the pizza dough into a ¼-inch-thick round. Using a 2¼- to 2½-inch-diameter cookie cutter, cut out 30 dough circles. Arrange the circles on 2 large, heavy baking sheets.
Sprinkle the cheese over the circles. Top with the tomatoes, pressing them gently into the dough.
Bake until the pizzettes are golden brown, about 10 minutes. Drizzle the pizzettes with the oil, then sprinkle with the basil, salt, and pepper. Arrange the pizzettes on a platter and serve immediately (best when hot, but stayed good all night).