Meatball Stuffed Peppers

Pete was cleaning off my car during the last snowstorm when he got the idea that he wanted to make stuffed peppers.

And then, hours later, I was eating his idea.

I wish I come up with ideas and just turn them into delicious meals. I can't. I've got the baking thing down pat, but cooking is all Pete. And trust me. I don't mind.

You can pretty much stuff peppers with anything that will fit inside a pepper. This time around, Pete stuffed them with a variation of his mom's meatball recipe. I asked him for the recipe so I could post it on Tasty Thursdays. He told me that I'll only receive the recipe when we exchange marriage vows ... and even then I'm not allowed to broadcast it to all of cyberspace.

Sigh.

I can, however, tell you the stuffed pepper process, and that's gonna have to be enough. 

Gather your ingredients, which will be some variation of peppers, Italian seasoning, garlic, eggs, peccorino romano cheese, bread crumbs, and meat. We used sausage and ground turkey, but you can use pork, beef, whatever your taste buds like.

The first thing you're gonna wanna do is clean the peppers. Wash them to get off all the pesticides and germs from other people grabbing them in the store. Cut the tops off and spoon out the insides. Put them off to the side because we're not ready for them yet.

Measure out the dry ingredients and the garlic. You can use fresh garlic if you have it on hand or the stuff in the jar if you don't. Garlic powder [[my fave spice]] isn't gonna work here. Then again, if you ask Pete, it doesn't really work anywhere. 

Put this to the side.

Cut the casing off the sausage. Now, I'm sure most of you know this, but I'm throwing it out there just in case you don't know this.

Incorporate the dry ingredients with the meat. Mix until blended [[you've gotta use your hands for this one]].

Put the meat to the side because now it's time to season your peppers.

Pete always says, "Season every step of the way." I really thought that was overkill until I started watching the Food Network non-stop and realizing they say the same thing.

So season your peppers with salt, pepper, and red pepper flakes. If there's any excess that accumulates on the bottom, feel free to dump it out. You want to season every step of the way, not overseason every step of the way.

Stuff your peppers.

 and bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes on a foil-lined cookie sheet. In that time, you can prepare anything you're planning to have for a side: salad, pasta, what have you. We, however, used that time to watch the Giants game.

Take your peppers out of the oven, cut them in half, top with a sauce of your choice and a bit of cheese, and serve.

Recipe Contest: Johnsonville Chili Challenge

I honestly had no idea how many recipe contests were out there until I decided to start posting about them on Tasty Thursdays. I'm gonna enter some; I'm gonna have Pete enter some; and you can enter some. Hopefully we'll have a Tasty Thursday victory in 2012!

The latest contest is sponsored by Johnsonville ... and it's a chili cookoff. I love me some chili [[especially from Dinosaur BBQ grill, mmm]] so they should call me in to judge.

To enter, you have to create a chili recipe that features Johnsonville sausage. Snap a picture of it and upload the pic at the Johnsonville Kitchens Facebook page by February 5, 2012, and you'll be entered to win the grand prize of $10k from Sur La Table. I could definitely use that. Even cooler, though, the winner's recipe will be featured on a pack of Johnsonville Italian Sausage.

The top five submissions will be determined as finalists and made by the Johnsonville staff. From there, the grand prize winner will be picked. All entrants will receive an apron and will be entered into the weekly contest to win one of five Le Creuset 3.5 Qt. Oval French Oven cookware.

After you enter your recipe on Facebook, be sure to head over to Tasty Thursdays' Facebook page and "like" us.

Award-Winning Guac

I'm giving myself an award. It's the first Tasty Thursdays Top Recipe award. And I'm giving myself this recipe for guacamole.

See, I would have entered it into the Avocados from Mexico contest that I told you about, except New York residents aren't eligible to enter and, well, I live in New York.

If you live anywhere else, put together your best guac recipe and enter it by January 20.

Now, onto my recipe.

Get together the following ingredients: one lemon [[yes, lemon]], bunch of fresh cilantro, one large tomato, two small onions, two avocados, garlic powder [[yes, garlic powder -- do not substitute this with fresh garlic, it will overpower it]], ground pepper, parmigiano reggiano.

Cube the avocado. It's easier to do it in the skin because then it's not messy. Make sure the cuts are relatively even. This is a chunky guac recipe, so you wanna try to make the pieces uniform. Add the avocado to a serving container.

Chop the onions. Now, a little aside: If you're a glasses wearer, switch to contacts. The contacts block your eyes from the onion mist that makes your eyes water. I can cut onions for days and not shed a tear. Add the onion to wherever you are housing the guac.

Chop the tomato. You want to chop more tomato than onion ... unless you want your guests to have dragon breath. Add the tomato.

Chop the cilantro and add it to the mixture. Stir.

When everything is in a bowl, top it with a layer of garlic powder, a few pinches of pepper, and mix. Shake a bit of parmigiano reggiano on top.

Now, I've got two things to tell you about that. The first is that I'm not crazy about adding salt to whatever I cook. I know you're supposed to season along the way, but I've just always shied away from salt. Not my thing. I use it on four things: baked potatoes, popcorn, corn on the cob, and watermelon. Other than that, my diet doesn't call for adding salt.

Second, I never have queso fresco on hand [[I'm Japanese, Polish and Irish ... queso fresco doesn't come up much]]. So I use parmigiano reggiano and that's a good substitute.

Squeeze half a lemon on top, and you're golden. Well, you're green. Not brown [[which is why you need the lemon; it prevents oxidation]]. And, I much prefer lemon over lime. It brightens it up and gives it a lighter, more citrus feel.

What You'll Need:

• one lemon
• one bunch of fresh cilantro
• one large tomato
• two small onions
• two avocados
• garlic powder
• ground pepper
• parmigiano reggiano

What You'll Do:

• Combine chopped tomato, onions, and avocados. 
• Sprinkle with cilantro, mix. 
• Sprinke with a layer of garlic powder and ground pepper.
• Top with parimigiano reggino and half a lemon.
• Serve.

Sweepstakes: Rachael Vs. Guy Celebrity Cook-Off

I love watching Rachael vs. Guy Celebrity Cook-Off on Food Network, even though it doesn't teach me much other than the fact that "celebrity" is used very loosely.

It is entertaining though. And it also can be a way for you to get a free trip to the Food Network Wine & Food Festival in South Beach.

The grand prize winner gets a three-day trip for two to Miami, including round-trip air and ground transportation, admission to the event, and $500 worth of Rachael Ray and Guy Fieri kitchenware.

Head over to this link by January 29 to enter. And if you win, you can always take me.

Coconut Macaroons

I'm gonna be honest here: I've never made macaroons before. I'm really not sure if I've actually ever eaten a macaroon. But, see, that's the point of Tasty Thursdays. It gives me the chance to find ingredients, find recipes, and test them out.

This is definitely one of those times.

Tropical Traditions gave me a chance to product test some shredded coconut and I figured coconut macaroons were the way to go.

Spoiler alert: We'll have another coconut recipe for you next week. And it won't be something baked [[what it is, though, is a surprise]].

You only need five ingredients, so that's great: sweetened condensed milk, salt, coconut, vanilla, and flour. Aside from the coconut, these are things that you probably have on hand. 

Add the flour and coconut [[which seriously needed a shovel to get out]] into a bowl. Me, I have a gallon tub of coconut, so I measured using that shovel/spoon. You need five-and-a-half cups for this recipe, and I really honestly have no idea how much is in a bag. If anyone knows, let me know.

Add a bit of salt. Not a pinch. The recipe calls for 1/4 teaspoon. And thank goodness for that because I don't get the whole "pinch" thing, especially since I can't take the top off my salt and get in there to pinch it.

Add the sweetened condensed milk, which is something I always think will taste delicious and then I get so disappointed when I realize it isn't all that great.

Mix. I say use your hands. You gotta get in there in order to incorporate everything. And, just a little look into my life: I took this photo twice. The first time, the beads on my bracelet were all the wrong way and you couldn't see them. But then this time, it kinda looks like my hands are feet, so I settled.

Roll into balls. Which gets kinda gross because the mixture gets caked on. I wasn't able to bend properly so the balls weren't uniform. But whatever. There are worse things in life.

How'd they taste? A little dry. It might be because I packed them really tightly because I didn't want them to fall apart. One that wasn't packed as tightly bit the dust ... or, well, turned into dust. Kinda.

What I was thinking about doing was dipping them in melted chocolate, but I didn't have any on hand. Dipping anything in chocolate is equally delicious and helpful. It tends to keep the moisture inside and these need to retain as much moisture as possible [[since they're lacking]].

What You'll Need:

• 2/3 cup flour
• 5 1/2 cups shredded coconut
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 can of sweetened condensed milk
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract [[you could try hazelnut too if you have that on hand, or anise extract]]

What You'll Do:

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
• Mix together the dry ingredients. Add the wet ingredients and blend.
• Mold into balls, put on parchment lined paper.
• Bake for about 15 minutes until they're browned. They will brown more on the bottom, since it's touching the cookie sheet, but I advise against trying to flip them halfway through so they don't get too dark on the bottom. Then you'll end up with two brown spots instead of one. 

Recipe adapted from All Recipes.

Klout: FREE Chili's Gift Card [[Worth $15]]

For a new blog starting out, Tasty Thursdays' Klout score of 28 is pretty good. But as far as earning perks goes, we're not even close.

If you have a Klout score of over 45, you definitely want to log into your account and see if you're able to get in on the Chili's perk. Klout is helping promote the lighter choices menu by giving out $15 Chili's gift cards to qualified influencers. You can then take that gift card to get yourself a free entree.

Sounds delicious.

Currently, there are no "topics" listed in order to narrow down the qualifying field. I'm going to guess that "food" would be one of the keywords, but don't quote me on that. If you're influential about food, let me know if you're able to get in this perk. And, if you do get out to Chili's, let me know what entree you choose.

Recipe Contest: Harris Teeter Healthy Recipe Contest

If you've got a healthy recipe in your box of tricks, enter it in the Harris Teeter Healthy Recipe Contest for a chance at winning the grand prize - -a $1k Harris Teeter gift card.

The grand prize winner wins a $1k gift card, and the next five runners-up win a $250 gift card.

That's a lot of groceries to be won.

If you live in the Harris Teeter zone [[Delaware, Washington DC, Georgia, Maryland, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Virginia]], you're eligible to enter.

Head over to Harris Teeter's Facebook page, upload your healthy recipe, and that's that. The contest goes until February 7, so you have time to try out new recipes, perfect one, and enter it.

If you do enter, head over to Tasty Thursdays' Facebook page and let us know what you entered. I'll be sure to try it and feature it in an upcoming Tasty Thursdays post.

Fingerprint Cookies

There's a story to these cookies. There's always a story. If you've ever been hand delivered something I've baked, you'd know that the baked goods always come with some sort of story.

These were overbaked because ...
I wanted to ...
I tried, but couldn't ...

These thumbprint cookies are no exception.

They're cookies I tried to make for Christmas. I wanted to top them with strawberries and a white chocolate chip and they'd be Santa hats. Trouble was, strawberries are not in season in December in New York. So I bought frozen strawberries, which retain a lot more moisture than I bargained for, and though they tasted good the cookies were one] soggy and two] a pretty terrible representation of Santa hats.

So, instead, I've resorted to making thumbprint cookies with chocolate chips on top. They taste good and can work for any holiday.

First, you need to assemble your ingredients:

Strawberry jelly, vanilla extract, flour, sugar, two eggs, two sticks of margarine, salt, and chocolate chips [[yes, the bag is half full ... clearly, I'm an optimistic that has made these before]].

Mix together the vanilla extract, sugar, egg yolks, margarine and a pinch of salt [[which was camera shy in my photo above]]. You can use a mixer but I don't with these cookies. I've used a mixer with them before and the dough becomes extra moist. That's probably good for other batters, but not this one. I need this one to be a bit thicker in order to mold later on, and super whipped batter just doesn't work for that.

Mix until everything is combined, place the batter in the fridge, uncovered, for at least twenty minutes. You can watch the clock ... or you can be like me and go to the casino [[it's much more fun than clock watching]].

Take the batter out and mold it into balls.

Contrary to popular believe, size doesn't matter.

I'm a fan of smaller, one-bite cookies, but if you'd rather make them a bit bigger, that's fine too. What does matter is the size of the well. I tend to make mine fingerprint cookies and use my index finger to make the well [[hence why I'm not calling them thumbprint cookies]]. You can use your thumb if you want. A deeper well holds the jelly better, but I kinda like the jelly sitting on top of the cookies more than hidden in a well.

I mean, if I'm going through the work of filling every cookie with a quarter teaspoon of jelly, people should see it.

Let's talk filling for a minute. You should definitely use a spoon. It helps your jelly to be better placed and it doesn't look like a crazy person squeezed jelly all over.

Bake for 12 minutes. I prefer my cookies a little "underbaked." For one thing, they come out whiter, which is much better for the Santa hat look I was going for. Second, cookies will bake for a few more minutes once you remove them from heat. So, if you take them out a bit earlier than you normally would, you'll save yourself from burning them.

Top with white chocolate chips. I'm a perfectionist, so each cookie must get three chips per cookie. No more, no less. And I've been placing the chips up always, although, looking at it, those peaks are driving me crazy, so I think I'm gonna start turning the chips upside down from now on.

I wanted to see if I could pop these back in the oven and melt the chips enough to create a candy coating. It sorta worked, but not really. I had a bunch of ugly ones, but only photographed the heart because, well, that's pretty. And now you can make these for Valentine's Day.

Like I said, works for every holiday.

What you'll need:

• Strawberry jelly
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 cups or so of flour [[you can really even get away with 2.5 cups]]
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 2 eggs
• 2 sticks of margarine
• Pinch of salt
• White chocolate chips

What you'll do:

• Mix together the vanilla extract, flour, sugar, egg yolks, margarine, and salt. Place the dough in the fridge for at least twenty minutes [[longer if you're winning at the casino]].
• Form dough balls.
• Place on parchement paper-lined oven sheet.
• Create a well with your fingers.
• Add jelly to the well [[with a spoon ... I can't stress that enough]].
• Bake for 12 minutes at 350.
• Remove from heat and top with strawberries [[if you're going for the Santa look]] or white chocolate chips [[if you're not]].

This recipe is based on this one from Simply Recipes.

Recipe Contest: Guac Off Sponsored By Avocados From Mexico

I make the best guac. Seriously. It's simple and classic. And yet, there's something special about it.

Special enough to win a guac off? I'm gonna find that out.

See, if you head over to the Avocados from Mexico Facebook page and submit a guacamole recipe plus photo by January 20 to enter. Everyone who submits a recipe will be entered to win a $100 gift card to the grocery store of your choice.

The field of entrants will be narrowed down to 10, and those recipes will be posted on Facebook. There will be three grand prize winners in the following categories: most popular, best recipe, and most creative. The winner in each category will win a tablet-style computer and an autographed cookbook from Chef Roberto Santibañez. The seven finalists that don't net the grand prize will win a $200 grocery store gift card and an autographed cookbook from the same chef.

Since I'm going to have to type up my guac recipe anyway, I'll be sure to post it for an upcoming Tasty Thursday post. But for now, perfect your guac and enter.