I’m such a sucker when it comes to mentions of food. When I see photos or video shots of good food, I almost inevitablly end up with a craving for it. I am the person for whom the rule “don’t grocery shop while your hungry” applies.
So it was while I was grocery shopping — hungry — when I saw a magazine photo of a stuffed green pepper.
I’ve never tried to cook a stuff pepper, and with the image in my head, I committed myself — while still in the grocery store — to making some.
Now here comes another sometimes wasteful mistake I tend to make in the grocery store. I think I can just try to whip something up with an ingredient that catches my eye. In the process of learning to cook better, it’s a fun challenge to pull off something new with existing or new-to-me ingredients. For the most part, it’s a good thing, but I’ve sometimes bought myself into a trap of not really knowing what to do with the thing when I get home and letting it sit until it spoils or not understanding enough about how to cook the ingredient and making something inedible.
I’ll write more at another time on how I’m working to remedy that. For now, back to the peppers.
While at the store, I also tossed some Italian sausage and fresh basil into my cart and dreamed of using up some pearl barley in my pantry. Several days later, I managed to actually follow up on my craving and made stuffed red peppers.
Below are the ingredients and portions I used and some notes on how it turned out. Would love suggestions for improvement.
