Whenever I make a meal, I think a lot about the person who gave me the recipe. Most of the time, I'm thinking about my Mom. But not always. For tonight's meal, I give credit to my seminarian friend Shawn.
It was the Summer of 2009, a year before I met Michael. I hadn't the foggiest clue how to cook, and Shawn was just learning himself. One night he called me up and joyfully exclaimed that he had just made stuffed peppers -- and would I like to come over to join him and Matt for dinner?
A bachelorette can't resist free food, so off I went to the guys' apartment.
After dinner, Shawn enthusiastically gave me a copy of the recipe he had printed off the Internet, promising my intimidated countenance that it was easy as ever.
That night, I shoved the paper into my recipe book, hoping that maybe one day I'd have a husband to make it for.
Praise God, Shawn was right. The recipe is easy, and here it is:
1. Cut off and discard the tops of 6 green peppers. Hallow them out and remove all seeds.
2. Boil the green peppers in a pot of water 'till they're as soft as you'd like them to be. This can be for as little as 3 minutes or for as long as 10. When you carefully remove them from the hot water, place a few drops of olive oil inside each one of them.
3. In a skillet with some olive oil, simmer for 5 minutes a diced onion and a chopped clove of garlic until soft and translucent.
4. In a bowl, mix together a 1/2 cup of ketchup, 1/2 teaspoon of Worcestershire sauce, and 1/4 cup of water.
5. Add to the skillet one pound of ground beef (meatloaf mix), a can of diced tomatoes, 3/4 cups of instant brown rice, and 1 teaspoon of dried oregano. Season with salt and pepper, mixing everything well.
For step #6, you've got two options:
If you've got time to kill, then don't worry about cooking the meat mix on the skillet. Instead, place the green peppers into a glass dish, fill the dish with about an inch of water, load the meat mix into the green peppers, top each with the ketchup mix, and plan on cooking them for 45 minutes at 350 degrees.
If you DON'T have any time to waste, then keep the meat mix in the skillet until all meat is cooked and brown. Then load the meat mix into the green peppers, top each with the ketchup mix, and serve.
