stuffed peppers

SUCCESS!!!  SUCCESS!!!

i made this recipe for stuff peppers tonight and honey and i were both extremely impressed!  when i was browsing through my favorite cookbook i came across a recipe for stuffed peppers and thought, "oooohhhhh!  that actually sounds good!"  but instead of just making that recipe (it cooked in the microwave and ours would have been too small for that), i got online and looked up a million stuffed pepper recipes and this one sounded the best and got rave reviews.  and it didn't look too too difficult.  i really wanted something more than just "good" because honey and i love stuffed peppers but our only experience with them was either eating them in hungary - the real deal - or eating them in the states made my someone using a hungarian recipe.  i had big expectations. 

and honestly...it was, for me, kind of a lot of work (though it wasn't anything challenging) but so so soooo very worth it.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

i made it mostly according to the recipe but with a few changes out of necessity and because i'm lazy.

- i had only bought two giant peppers from the store because i was planning to half the recipe.  then i remembered that i hate fractions (and normally part way through cooking i stop remembering to half things and it's a big disaster) and that it's twice the work (math) for half the food.  so i just cut the peppers in half length wise so i could stuff them more.  and that way you get more meat mixture... which i loved.

- i didn't have any celery.  also, i didn't have any pepper to mix in with the onion and nonexistent celery because of the way i decided to cut them and there was no "waste" or leftovers.  

-i didn't remember to boil the peppers until i was ready to stuff them - whoops - and the oven was already preheated and i was on a time crunch because i actually knew when my christopher would be getting home so i just boiled a bit of water and then rotated the peppers through a few mins each.  they had plenty of time to cook in the oven anyways.

-i thought i had tomato sauce but turns out it was tomato paste.  so i poured that in and added a can and a half of water.  also, all of the reviews said that the recipe was perfect as is but that the sauce was so good they would double it.  so my measurements aren't exact for the sauce (i still just did the one can of tomatoes) but with all of that tomato paste and water it was a great amount of sauce and although it looked like a TON while cooking, it was the perfect proportions for eating.

- i thought i had garlic but actually i'm out.  this made me super sad but in order to not completely miss out, i added garlic salt.  

- the recipe calls for oregano which i learned, i don't have.  but the recipe also called for basil and i happened to have italian seasoning which is oregano, basil and other awesome stuff.  sooo, i was really generous with that.  i tasted the sauce as i went to make sure it wasn't too bland.  i was worried after all the tomato paste and water!

-i was also more generous with the worcestershire sauce... 2 teaspoons instead of 1.5 just because i love that stuff.

- when i did the meat mixture i added the full 1.5 cups cooked rice and i added 1.5 cups of sauce instead of the 1 cup that it called for.  according to my bathroom scale, i used about 1.5lbs of ground beef that i pulled out of the freezer.  what a pleasant surprise when it happens to be the exact amount called for in the recipe!  i also mixed in juuuust a bit of grated parmasan cheese in the meat mixture... not enough that it would be cheesy inside (it was tempting though!) but just enough to keep adding flavors in there.

- i sprayed a 9x13 pan and somewhat covered the bottom with the tomato sauce mixture, then placed the stuffed peppers on top and poured the rest of the sauce over it all.  covered with foil and baked for an hour. sprinkled with mozzarella (all of the recipes suggested sharp cheddar cheese but that seemed off base to me since it had a very european italian feel to me) and let it get melty and browned which only took about 10 mins.  the peppers were excellent but the cheese really made it happen.  those bites were the best!

soooo, all of those extensive notes for myself are to say that this will become a regular for us.  honey said it was the best thing i've made in months.  which, even though this is the first time i've actually cooked in the last 30+ days, i'm pretty sure means this was incredible.  the peppers were enormous and we each ate a whole one because they were just that good.  baby girl liked it too although she wasn't CRAZY about it but probably because she's not a huge fan of meat (unless it's bacon, sausage, hotdog, or anything else loaded with flavor, fat and sodium).  next time i'll have to make even more because apparently they can be frozen after for up to a month.  i would totally do that this time but i'm pretty positive they'll get eaten out of the fridge just fine in the next few days.  two containers of this...

probably won't last long at all.