Stuffed Banana Peppers

I could eat this meal every day for weeks and be perfectly happy n the summer. The sausage I could switch for seasoned burger too. Since sausage essentially hates me (msg is in most sausage)

ANYWAY,
Tonights dinner was peppers from the garden. My mother in law brought us some hot and mild banana peppers as well as a few bell peppers and a jalapeno!
I started with a recipe many moons ago and have since tweaked it to our liking. Forget bread crumbs and eggs. You will not find them here!

We do use a combination of grill & oven broiling for these. They can be just baked in the oven at 350 degrees for about 30 minutes or until peppers are no longer completely firm. Just add some tomato sauce to the bottom of your baking dish and skip the grill. We prefer our peppers a bit charred though

Recipe:
As many fresh peppers as you want to stuff. (they freeze well!)
1 pound sausage
1 cup Italian blend shredded cheese
1 cup Colby Jack/Mozzarella shredded cheese
4oz Cream cheese
2 TBSP Garlic powder or 2 cloves fresh garlic minced
6 TSP (or as much as you want to dip or drizzle) Pasta/Tomato Sauce
1/2 cup shredded cheese (either kind from above)

Instructions:

1. Fry up your ground sausage making sure you get it into crumbly bits then drain off grease.
2. Turn off heat
3. Add garlic, cream cheese and and 1 cup each of shredded cheeses
4. Mix well
5. Dump into mixing bowl and mix again, then let sit
6. Put on gloves (if your peppers are hot)
7. Prepare your peppers by cutting off the stems and slicing a slit down the top middle of each (you can also, if your peppers are large, just slice in half)
8. Remove seeds and membrane (or for more heat leave the seeds)
9. Once all peppers are prepared, begin placing stuffing mixture inside the sliced peppers. It is okay if the mixture is exposed and not completely encased.
10. Turn on oven broiler.
11. Once peppers are stuffed, place on hot bbq grill for 3-5 minutes until peppers are charred on bottoms.
12. Remove from grill onto an oven safe baking sheet.
13. Top each pepper with a drizzle of tomato sauce and top with a small amount of shredded cheese.
14. Broil until cheese on top is melted and golden brown 
15. Remove from oven and let stand 3 minutes or so before serving.
16. Enjoy!!

We use a few different kinds of peppers every time we make this and every time it is delicious. My favorite to use for me are cubanelle peppers while mike gets the hot peppers. More stuffing in mine. haha

Let me know if you like it and how you tweak yours! Happy eating!

This is all we had left! Add with it on your plate some fresh garden tomatoes & grilled zucchini.
AMAZING!

Legal Wedding

     A few weeks prior to heading off to get our marriage license, we found out the minister for the church we were going to use had left and they did not have a replacement minister. So we asked a good friend of ours to step in and do the honors. He agreed and looked into the process of getting credentialed through Ohio. Not thinking any more about it, we proceeded to make plans to head to the courthouse. On August 23, 2010 Mike took the day off, having just come back from a camping rally in Michigan, and we decided since we were 60 days out from the October 23, 2010 ceremony date, that we would go to the court house and get our marriage license. 

The lady who was filling out our marriage license information inquired about who was presiding over the ceremony. We informed her, and she said that she needed the credential information. Uh oh! We didn’t have that yet! Instead of Mike having to take another day off, Loren requested she list the Mayor of LaGrange and we would give him a call when we walked out. We figured we would have 60 days and could then change it if need be. Upon exiting the courthouse, we phoned the mayor who said, “Well, I am getting ready to go on vacation and have a pretty booked schedule. What are you kids doing tomorrow?” Knowing that Loren’s parents were still camping in Michigan and didn’t want to hurt their feelings, we decided we would not tell anyone since we didn’t need a witness, and set up the time with the mayor for August 24, 2010. 

 

It was very informal and we made one quick phone call the afternoon it was to take place. We had a friend lined up with a camera who had no clue why she was meeting us at city hall and why she was to bring a camera. When she pulled in she was shocked! We found it quite funny. The Mayor proceeded to legally marry us in village hall. When we walked out, the Chief of Police was just pulling in and having some fun handcuffed us together for some pictures too. 

 

Afterwards it was off to a park for some picture taking in Elyria.

 

Our “wedding meal” included pizza and deep fried cheesecake from Village Pizza along with some adult beverages. We did not inform our parents or anyone else until after our October 23, 2010 ceremony with friends and family. When we turned over copies of our marriage license to our moms for genealogy records, that was when the cat was out of the bag.

It honestly did not sink in until we were in the church Oct. 23 surrounded by our friends and family that we truly married.

Thanks for all the love and support over the last 5 years and we look forward to may more years with all of you surrounding us!

Chicken with Mushroom Sauce

We have been eating ALOT of chicken lately. I am sick of it but it is healthier than red meat and I am NOT a fan of fish so chicken it is! Ugh! Sooooo there will be some chicken recipes going up as we try them. If they are good... then they will get posted! So enjoy your month of chicken with us! I will try to post one new recipe a week for chicken.

Ingredients:

4 (6-ounce) skinless, boneless chicken breast halves 

2 teaspoons canola oil

1/2 teaspoon salt, divided

1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

1/4 cup chopped shallots

1 (8-ounce) package presliced mushrooms 

2 minced garlic cloves

1/2 cup dry white wine 

1 1/2 teaspoons all-purpose flour

3/4 cup fat-free, lower-sodium chicken broth

2 tablespoons butter

1 teaspoon minced fresh thyme

Directions:

1. Place each chicken breast half between 2 sheets of heavy-duty plastic wrap, and pound to 1/2-inch thickness using a meat mallet or small heavy skillet.

2. Heat a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add canola oil to pan; swirl to coat. Sprinkle chicken with 1/4 teaspoon salt and pepper. Add chicken to pan; cook 3 minutes on each side or until done. Transfer chicken to a serving platter; keep warm.

3. Add shallots and mushrooms to pan; sauté for 4 minutes or until browned, stirring occasionally. Add garlic; sauté for 1 minute, stirring constantly. Stir in wine, scraping pan to loosen browned bits; bring to a boil. Cook until liquid almost evaporates. Sprinkle mushroom mixture with remaining 1/4 teaspoon salt and flour; cook 30 seconds, stirring frequently. Add broth to pan; bring to a boil. Cook 2 minutes or until slightly thick. Remove pan from heat; add butter and thyme, stirring until butter melts. Serve with chicken.

Chicken with mushroom sauce, mashed potatoes and a salad.

Original recipe found here: http://www.myrecipes.com/recipe/chicken-with-mushroom-sauce-0

Adoption is not failure, but when it does...

This has been a difficult entry to write. I had to wait for emotions to get out of the way and be able to function before I could even focus on this.

The adoption of our little boy to be born the end of January has failed. The birth mom decided to parent. We wish this family and little boy nothing but the best and our prayers are with them as this baby will have a hard journey ahead of him.

In our adoption journey we spent alot of time preparing to accept a baby into our home. We climb numerous piles of paperwork, spend countless hours praying and hoping, do more paperwork, welcome strangers into our home to judge us and inspect our home to make sure it is suitable to house a child, pay lots of $$$$$$ to cover birth mom expenses, yet more paper work, pay massive amounts of money, and then there is long wait period to then have nothing to show for it. I used the time after the phone call saying not to come for unpacking the car. I found it difficult but it helped make it a reality that we were not going to be driving 16.5 hours south to warmer weather and return in 14 days with our own bundle of joy. Everything including our luggage was put in the nursery and I closed the door and waited for hubby to get home. We talked, we cried, we mourned together. Neither of us wanted to make the call to either set of parents. We didn't want to make them grieve. Letting the hopeful friends and family who had supported us and were just as excited as we were was tough as well. IT.WAS.HARD. I wish that upon no one. Ever. When we signed up for this, we recognized it was a possibility she may change her mind, but right up till the end she was 100% on board or so we thought. The agency was even blind sided by her change of heart. The door to the nursery stayed closed for a full week, the adoption account sits empty (no, money does not get returned so we are out everything we had saved) and we are back to waiting and hoping praying for a miracle.

They say a failed adoption is worse than the death of a newborn. I am by no means comparing that, however with a physical death there is a closure that one does not get when there is no baby to bring home to the copious amount of clothes, toys, and baby stuff, to hold, to mourn over.

So where do we go from here...
Well, we are back to square one. We are on a "drop in" or "short list" now. Meaning we will not have a long wait period we are willing to sit on. We will get a call once the birth mom has terminated rights. We will have 10 minutes to discuss and decided yes or no. Then we hurry up, pack the car and go to where ever they tell us we need to be to pick up our baby. We hope it wont be a long wait, but during this time we will be stashing as much as we can back into our adoption account so we can have something ready for when we get that call. If you win the lottery and would like to share, we hope you will remember us and we promise if you donate $40k to our cause we will let you name our baby! For now, we will focus on the silver lining, as always, and continue to put one foot in front of the other. We thank all of you for your continued support, friendship, encouragement, and thoughts. Especially thank you to both sets of our parents and those who gave up their own time to sit with us, pray with & for us, and send positive energy our way as we experienced the worst of our grief and continue to support us while we forge ahead.


 For a better understanding I felt it was easier (I'm being lazy here) and share stina's blog post than for me to reiterate everything said here. It is a long read but well worth the read: Please click here

Winter Minestrone

I had a taste for soup over the weekend since the temps were due to be dropping below 30 degrees this week and today was the day to give this bad boy a try. I bounced between two recipes (both links can be found below the instructions) and added my own twist. I was going to add a nice cup of (gag) cooking wine,you know the really dry stuff that a few friends and family of ours like, but we weren't going to be seeing them soon enough to finish off the rest of the bottle, so we opted to leave it out this round. Next time I will add it and use the rest of the bottle for drain cleaner. So without further ado, here is the deliciousness we had this evening! Enjoy!!

Ingredients

• 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
• 1 onion, diced
• 2 stalks celery, diced
• 1 carrot, peeled and diced
• 3 oz. thinly sliced pancetta, coarsely chopoped
• 4 garlic cloves, minced
• 8 cups total of vegetable broth and turkey broth
• 1 quart crushed tomatoes or tomato purée, or 1 (28-ounce) can
• 3 cups sliced kale (remove and discard tough stems from kale)
• 1-1/2 cups cooked white beans (cannellini, navy, pea), or 1 (15-ounce) can, rinsed and drained
• 1 teaspoon dried rosemary
• 1 teaspoon dried thyme
• 1 cup small pasta (rings, ditalini, alphabets, bowties)
• 2 tablespoons fresh parsley, chopped
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Instructions

1. Heat the oil in a large soup pot over medium heat. Add the onion, celery root, pancetta, carrot, and garlic, and sauté until the vegetables are slightly tender. Add the broth, tomatoes, cabbage, beans, rosemary, and thyme. Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat and simmer until the vegetables are tender, about 30 minutes.

2. Return the soup to a boil. Add the pasta and boil gently until the pasta is tender, about 10 minutes. Add parsley. Season with salt and pepper. Serve hot.

Original recipe From http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/giada-de-laurentiis/winter-minestrone-recipe.html and Recipes from the Root Cellar: 270 Fresh Ways to Enjoy Winter Vegetables by Andrea Chesman (Storey Publishing, 2010). Copyright © 2010 by Andrea Chesman. All rights reserved. Used with permission of the publisher.

Hot & Sour Soup

I wanted soup, Hubby wanted spicy. So hot & sour soup is what it was going to be...

Hot & Sour soup base

Mushrooms - fresh & sliced

Tofu - cubed/diced

1 Egg lightly beaten

Green onions for garnish

Add first two ingredients, bring to boil then drop to medium heat, once mushrooms have shrunk a bit (5 min), add tofu cook for 3 minutes, gently stir and SLOWLY begin drizzling in egg as soup spins from previous stirring (Do not stir and add egg at same time) Cook additional 3 minutes, scoop into individual bowls and garnish with green onions. :) Enjoy! Remember you can always add more spice (I added a few dashes of saracha before scooping into bowls) 

Dill Pickle Soup

Dill Pickle Soup...

Sounds gross, right? Its actually more of a potato soup with a hint of dill pickle! Anyways, I made it to share with Sarah & Melissa. It was quite tasty. Had a bit of a bite to it, but it was good. Its definitely a make again. They aren't fibbing when they said not all pickles are created equal... DEFINITELY spend the cash for the good crunchy Vlasic ones!

 Here is the original recipe:

Dill Pickle Soup

Recipe from: Created by Cathy Pollak for NoblePig.com | Serves: Serves 6-8

Ingredients

• 5-1/2 cups chicken broth
• 1-3/4 pounds russet potatoes, peeled and quartered
• 2 cups chopped carrots (smaller dice)
• 1 cup chopped dill pickles (smaller dice ~ about 3 large whole dills)
• 1/2 cup unsalted butter
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 cup sour cream
• 1/4 cup water
• 2 cups dill pickle juice*
• 1-1/2 teaspoons Old Bay seasoning
• 1/2 teaspoon table salt
• 1/2 teaspoon coarsely ground pepper
• 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper

Garnish (optional)

• sliced dill pickles
• fresh dill
• black pepper

Directions

• In a large pot, combine broth, potatoes, carrots and butter. Bring to a boil and cook until the potatoes are tender. Add pickles and continue to simmer.
• In a medium bowl, stir together flour, sour cream and water, making a paste. Vigorously whisk sour cream mixture (2 Tablespoons at a time) into soup. (This will also break up some of your potatoes which is okay. You might see some initial little balls of flour form but between the whisking and boiling all will disappear. Don't panic.)
• Add pickle juice, Old Bay, salt (*see below), pepper and cayenne. Cook 5 more minutes and remove from heat. Serve immediately.
• *All pickle juice is not created equal. Some is saltier than others. Taste your soup after adding the pickle juice and final seasonings. It's possible you will not need any salt or would prefer more or less.