Stuffed Green Peppers or Stuffed Any Vegetable

I get a loud and honest Yummy out of my son every time I make my stuffed green peppers.  There is nothing that warms my heart more than a long "mmmmm"  or a "yummy" from my kids.  And the sprinkles on top of my sundae is hearing my husband enjoy the meal too. If your family doesn't like green peppers, you can use any vegetable you want.  The really yummy stuff is the "stuffed" part.  That is the part of the meal that gets all the accolades. So if your family doesn't like green peppers, try large hallowed out tomatoes, zucchinis cut lengthwise and hollow out, eggplant cut lengthwise and hollowed out, or red peppers which are high in vitamin C and much sweeter than their green brother the green pepper.  But in the end, if they only eat the inside and a little bit out the outside, it is still a great easy weeknight meal.

Stuffed Green Peppers

Ingredients:

2 cups of rice  (white or brown)
1 package of ground sirloin (about 1.5 pounds more or less) 
1 medium onion
2 cloves of garlic
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
olive oil
1 teaspoon Italian seasoning (dried basil, oregano, thyme, marjoram, rosemary, and sage)
* mommy hint - if you don't have a pre-made Italian seasoning -- just use a couple of dashes of oregano -- or skip this step
 1/4 cup of Parmesan cheese
salt/pepper to taste
14 - 16 oz can of tomato sauce (depending on brand you use size varies, and it doesn't really matter)


Directions:

First step -- start making rice (white or brown your choice).  Now start making the meat part of the inside.  Get your pan hot over a medium flame.  Add olive oil and chopped onion.  Once they are translucent, add chopped garlic.  After a minute and before garlic turns brown, add ground sirloin and brown. Add cinnamon *mommy hint - the cinnamon doesn't add sweetness; it adds a great warmth to the background of the dish.  Add Italian seasonings and salt and pepper. Once meat is cooked, take off stove.  In a large bowl mix meat add rice (just enough so that there is a good ratio of meat to rice -- eyeball it.) Then add tomato sauce and Parmesan cheese.  Once mixed, it is time to stuff your peppers or family prefered veggie.  First prepare your veggie to stuff.  If you are stuffing peppers, cut top off and take out seeds and ribs.  After preparing veggie, stuff them.  Place stuffed pepper like little soldiers in a high sided casserole dish. If you have extra stuffing, place yummy meat and rice mixture around the peppers.  To help keep dish moist, add some water (about a 1/3 cup give or take) to bottom of casserole -- right on top of extra meat and rice mixture.  Sprinkle some Parmesan cheese to top of peppers.  Cover casserole.  Bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes to 1 hour -- depending on how crunchy or soft you want your peppers to be.  I cook them for 45 minutes then take the cover off for the last 15 minutes of cooking -- I like to have a nice crust on the top.

Buon Appetito -- I hope your family enjoys it too.

Minestrone Soup

It has not been a particularly cold winter in Chicago this year.  And we haven't had any Chicago style snow.  I know what you are thinking -- I am cursing all of Chicago to some ugly snow drifts. I am not trying to do that; I am just letting you in on my thought process.  So even though it has not been very soupy outside -- my family was still feeling soup weatherish. I had never made minestrone soup.  I know what you are thinking -- crazy isn't it?  An Italian girl who likes to cook who has never made minestrone soup -- it is odd.  So I thought I would give it a try.  Here is my first attempt at the Italian classic.


Minestrone Soup

4 strips of bacon, coarsely chopped
1 large onion, finely chopped
1 carrots, finely chopped
2-3 carrots cut into chunks
2 celery stalks, finely chopped
2 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
olive oil
1 box of chicken stock (low sodium)
8 cups of water
6 bullion cubes
2 potatoes cut into chucks
one half of a cabbage cut into bite sized pieces
1 bag of fresh baby spinach/ or 1 bunch of Swiss chard
2 zucchini cut into chunks
1 can of diced tomatoes
1 piece of Parmesan cheese rind (this is not needed, but adds a great saltiness to the background)
salt and pepper
2-3 bay leaves
2 cans of cannellini beans, drained and rinsed (one can mashed into a paste)
digitali pasta noodles

Heat a large stockpot, render the fat from the chopped bacon.  When bacon is crispy, add onions, carrots, celery, and some olive oil.  Once veggies are soften, add garlic and let flavors combine for one minute. Then add box of chicken stock, water, bullion, and bay leaves. Add in the rest of the veggies: potatoes, cabbage, spinach/or Swiss chard, zucchini, tomatoes, and one can of beans (mashed with a fork to a thick paste). Salt and pepper to taste.  Add cheese rind if you have one. After about one hour the veggies should be cooked, now it is time to cook the pasta.  Add digitali or any short pasta and cook for the amount of time designated on the box.  Once pasta is cooked, add the second can of drained and rinsed beans to the soup. It is ready to serve.

I have to say that it turned out so well that my husband made me write the recipe down while we were still sitting at the table eating dinner.  He didn't want it to become another one of my "lost meals."  A "lost meal" is a meal I created and didn't write the recipe down, so I cannot recreated it perfectly.  He knows if I didn't write it down then and there, he might never have that version of the soup again.  It has happened to him too often, so now he makes me write recipes down before they become lost too.

Nonna's Moist Pound Cake

My Nonna used to make this pound cake all the time. She made it for holidays and regular days alike.  It was a staple.  She made it in a tube pan, but my mom says that she made everything in a tube pan.  My mom bought me this Wilton long loaf pan for Christmas.  I love it.  One of the highlights of the pound cake is the yummy buttery golden crust on the top of the cake.  This is why I wouldn't suggest using a bunt pan; all the yummy buttery golden crust ends up on the bottom of the cake. That is one of the reasons I love my new pan; it allows for more yummy buttery golden crust. 

Here is the long Wilton loaf pan.








This recipe couldn't be easier.  It is a traditional pound cake: a pound of butter and a pound of sugar.  But it is worth every calorie. The batter is thick.
This pound cake goes great with a cup of coffee. I hope you enjoy it as much as we do in my family.

Nonna's Pound Cake

Ingredients:
1 pound of butter (4 sticks)
1 pound box of powdered sugar
6 eggs (add two at a time)
3 cups of flour
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
1 teaspoon lemon extract
2 teaspoons brandy extract
2 teaspoons rum extract

Directions:
Cream together butter and powdered sugar. Then add two eggs at a time.  Add extracts and flour.  Place batter in a greased large loaf pan, two smaller loaf pans, or a tube pan.  Bake at 325 for 1 hour and 20 minutes (if using one large loaf pan or tube pan).  If using two smaller pan, you might want to start checking it around 45 minutes.

Enjoy your coffee break - you deserve! 

Farro Salad - bye bye pasta salad!

Farro Salad

Farro is related to the common wheat we eat; it is especially popular in Italy. It is an ancient grain called emmer wheat.  Once boiled, it has a chewy firm texture and a nutty flavor.  I have to say I just love it.  The farro I buy takes about 20 minutes to boil. Farro can be used for salads, soups, side dishes, or as a main entree.

Since I started making farro, it is my new go-to for a cold salad instead of making a pasta salad. It is always a hit.  I also make it for myself and the kids for weekday lunches.  I make a bowl of it, store it in the frig, and it is a great side to a sandwich or it can be a lunch in itself.  It is nice to have on hand if a fellow mommy stops by; it is easy to pull out and lunch is ready.

So depending on what I plan on using it for, that determines what veggies I put in it.  If I am making it as a side to a family meal or a party I can use items that should to be consumed the day I make it or the next day.  If I am making this for myself and the kids for the week, I use veggies that will stand up to a longer stay in the frig. In the recipe below I will note veggies for a long frig stay (Lfs) vs. short frig stay (Sfs). You can create this recipe for your family's likes and needs.

Farro Salad

Ingredients:

1 cup of farro, boiled per directions on bag
shelled and boiled edamame (soybean) - Lfs
Kalamata olives - Lfs
red peppers, chopped - Lfs
carrots, chopped - Lfs
cucumbers, deseeded and chopped - Sfs
cherry tomatoes, whole - Lfs
feta (or any cheese you want -- ricotta salata works well too) - Lfs
baby spinach - Sfs
defrosted, frozen sweet peas - Lfs
zucchini - Sfs

*any veggie you want (make it your own)

Directions:

Boil farro according to directions on bag, drain, and set aside. *mommy hint - if making it to serve right away, you might want to stick it in the frig to cool it down.  While farro is cooking, I start to assemble veggies in a bowl and make my dressing.  So when the farro is cooled, I toss it all together and dress it. It is so yummy -- bye bye pasta salad.

Dressing:
1-2 rounded teaspoon Dijon mustard
salt
pepper
2 Tablespoons red wine vinegar
5-6 Tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

Directions:

Put mustard, vinegar, a bit of salt, and a bit of pepper in a bowl. While mixing with a fork or wire whisk, add oil in slowly.  Taste -- add more salt or pepper if needed.

Make Robots out of Toilet Paper Tubes

What do you do with your leftover toilet paper tubes?  Recycle?  How about re-purpose?  I got this idea from Disney Family Fun magazine; now there robots were more advanced than my kids' robots, but you get the idea.

The kids painted the toilet paper tubes with Do-A-Dot markers.  My son painted his robot's eyes with liquid paper "Wite-out"(the one on the left).  My daughter had me draw a face for her robot (the one on the right). We taped antennas on the robots and curled pipe-cleaners around a pencil to get those crazy arms.  My son decided on his own to grab a paper towel tube out of the recycling bin to make an extension for his robot.  Kids, you have to love watching their brain work.

Anyway, now my son saves leftover toilet paper and paper towel tubes.  He has fun decorating them with his sister, and I love watching them be creative.

Making a card means more than buying one

I was reading (in true mommy form) a free magazine that was sent to my home -- flipping through it kinda reading and kinda looking at the pictures.  Anyway I saw an ad for women clothing that used an Eleanor Roosevelt quote that I had never read before. The quote was," a woman is like a tea bag - you can't tell how strong she is until she gets in hot water."  I liked it so much that it made me pause and reread it.  I thought what a great quote.  I pulled the ad out of the magazine; I didn't know what I was going to do with it, but I knew it was good.

Then a few days later I was chatting with a girlfriend.  She was going through a difficult time. As I listened to her story, I could hear the pain in her voice; I could hear the tears in her heart.  Yet she was so strong.  She had to be for her child. And I thought to myself -- no matter how much pain a mommy is in, when it comes to her baby; she is stronger than she ever thought she could be.  Where does that strength come from?  And then I thought of the Eleanor Roosevelt quote.  I had a use for that quote.

I was going to send my girlfriend a note.
Not an email.
Not a text.
Not a phone call.
A written note sent through the US  Postal System.

I took a plain card and used a scrapbooking edge punch to decorate the sides of the card.  I taped a tea bag on the outside of the card and stamped the words "Thinking of you" on the card.  Then on the inside I wrote Eleanor Roosevelt's beautiful quote and wrote a personal message from me to my girlfriend.

I have to say it turned out as I thought it would; she loved it.  My girlfriend said it was a thoughtful and warm gesture; it was the exact message I was trying to convey to her.  I highly recommend using this quote and idea for a little note to one of your girlfriends.  Or using one of your favorite quotes on a card that you have created; it is the personal touch that I believe means so much more.  Any of us can go to Hallmark and buy a card, any of us can text or email a friend to check in on her when she is feeling down. But making a card -- nothing special -- but the act of making something yourself for someone else says,"you are worth my time and energy."

Making Playdough and Outside Chalk Games

As a stay at home mom, I am always looking for activities to do with the kids.  My kids wake up at 5 am and go to sleep around 7 pm.  This is a long day.  We have made homemade playdough in the past, but this by far is my favorite recipe I have used.  First of all the cooked playdough recipes are far better than the non-cooked recipes.  Here is the best one I have landed on:

Homemade Playdough
2 cup flour
1/2 cup of salt
4 teaspoons cream of tartar
2 cups of warm water
2 teaspoons vegetable oil
food coloring
scented oil (optional)

Put all ingredients in a pot and cook over low heat until it comes together as a smooth ball. If you want you can add some peppermint oil or lemon oil.  Who doesn't like nice smelling things, but you don't have to.  Take it off the heat and take playdough out of pot and let it cool on your counter.  Once cool enough to handle, kneed until smooth.  Cut into four equal parts.  Now the fun part.  Use food coloring to dye each section.  The kids love doing this part.  When storing, I place plastic wrap around each ball and then put each ball into a sealed plastic baggie.  Then I put all the baggies in a Ziplock plastic container.  I  know it seems like a lot of protection for some playdough.  But you can keep this for a long time if you keep it airtight.


Outside Chalk Game

We had a lot of fun with this direction following game. And what kid doesn't need to practice following directions.  Get four or five different colors of chalk.  Make a start box and a finish box across from each other. For example start with blue.  Make a blue circle (big enough for  kids to jump into) jumping distance from start box.  Then continue making a circle path to finish box.  Then do the same with the next color.  Keep trying to intermingle the colors so it is fun for the kids to jump.  Always make sure each color path has a safe jumping distance to the next circle of its color.  Lastly, you sit back and start to call out directions for the kids to follow.  You can make them follow each color path or you can mix up the colors like Twister. Have fun outside.