My First Venture w/ STUFFED PEPPERS

Stuffed Peppers are something I enjoy to eat but have never attempted to make. My motivation sprang from a sale on bell peppers at Harvest. Usually a sale on bell peppers only refers to the green, and if you're lucky the red. I was shocked to read the sign and saw that the $1.99 a pound sale also included the yellow and orange, and they didn't even look old and shriveled! In a perfect world, I would always buy yellow and orange peppers, but since I try to food shop on a budget, I rarely treat myself to these goodies.

At the grocery store I felt like a squirrel collecting nuts for the winter when I put 6 fabulous looking colored peppers into my basket. I headed back to my nest to dig out a stuffed pepper recipe i read months ago in Vegetarian Times magazine.

Quinoa-Stuffed Peppers
This is the recipe I followed but of course I made some modifications to accommodate my pantry but they are purely optional

• I cut the recipe in half to make 6 stuffed pepper halves
• Substituted Barley for Quinoa (i'm not a quinoa hater its just what I had in the pantry!)
• Did not have celery, instead used finely diced squash and green bell pepper
• Used sauteed fresh spinach instead of frozen
• Tip: Muir Glen Fire Roasted Tomatoes w/Adobo seasoning works really great here with the southwestern flavors. If not available use regular fire roasted and add the said amount of cumin

The extra stuffing is wonderful on it's own- I thought of you Riane because the consistency came out to be like a barley risotto!

Porch Monkey

I got these biddies the first week in May, I have waited patiently and now I finally have some delicious porch veggies. The tomatoes are not massive, but are still tasty. Currently waiting for my peppers to turn red (those guys are wayyy to expensive in the grocery store).

Caww out to all crows and followers please share any successful porch/roof/yard crops!

Maine Lobstah

I got a call from my pops this weekend: "Hey Holl, Lobstah's only $3.99 a pound!"

Its moments like this when I realize how much I love being in Maine during the Summer. Where else could you buy a fresh lobster for cheaper than a pound of sliced deli ham?

My personal favorite way to eat lobster is boiled then dipped in fresh butter with a squeeze of lemon juice. Using these butter warmers really makes a difference; you end up using less of it because its not getting cool and coagulated and there's just something about piping hot butter that makes all the difference in taste. In terms of the actual lobster I prefer the younger chicks-their shells are so soft you can crack them with your hand. Sure there's less meat than the honking hard shells but it packs way more flavor and sweetness.

I was skimming the Portland Press Herald this morning and found a great Lobster roll and stew recipe for when you want to jazz it up:

To make the best rolls or stew, let the lobster shine through

Salad on a Budget

"Salad on a Budget"- I'm not implying that salads are particularly expensive to throw together, I just wanted to share with you a few little tips that helped keep some extra cash in my wallet for weekend spending! Here are two ingredients I tweaked to save some cash money:

Feta & Focaccia

My cheap meal plan was pizza and salad, one of my go-to classics. The pizza was spoken for: fire roasted tomatoes, mushrooms, artichokes and mozzarella. For the Salad I had a hankering for a Greek style, but my remaining feta cheese was reserved for a dish that I plan to make tonight. Looking back on previous crow posts I decided to borrow a technique that Emily used back in June to make her Orange Basil Dressing. She added avocado to her dressing to make it more rich and creamy. I figured that I could cut back on feta by crumbling a small amount in the dressing in hopes of it flavoring the whole salad. I must say it turned out quite well.

Now for the Focaccia, this technique isn't nearly as exciting but still a bit clever. I am a huge fan of croutons in my salad, i like the crunch and the heartiness they add. Lately I've been chopping up the heels of bread, tossing it with olive oil, salt, pepper and oregano and popping them in the toaster.

This past shopping trip I poked around the "old bread" section and found a reduced-price chunk of Focaccia and thought wow, this would be great for croutons. Since the Focaccia already has a lot of seasoning and olive oil, all I had to do was chop and toast it and voila- delicious croutons.

Greek Salad Dressing

Whisk together honey, lemon juice, dijon, freshly chopped oregano and crumbled feta

Stream in extra virgin olive oil

Taste before seasoning with salt and pepper (the feta packs a lot of salty goodness).

For the love of Fire Roasted Tomatoes!

Quick note- both Trader Joe's and my local grocery store have caught up to the fire roasted craze by added store-brand fire roasted tomatoes!

No More $3.50 16 oz cans for me :)

Two Eggplant Things from a Devoted Omnivore

My nearest grocery store, Andy's Fruit Ranch, is where I shop the most and I am devoted. It's filled with Balkan imports like cured sausages, healing teas, and tons of cookies and chocolates, as well as Middle-Eastern specialty items like rose water and tahini. And as their name indicates, produce is the specialty. Eggplants (or as I like to call them when I am feeling fancy, aubergines) were on special this week for 39 cents a pound, so I revisited some dishes I made earlier this year.

Baba ghanouj I actually make pretty regularly because of how low maintenance a recipe it is. This is all you need to make it:
Get two large or three medium eggplants. Check their bottoms. The one's with clefts are female and have more seeds in them. Bitter seed removal is a bitch, but there are a bit fewer in the rounded bottom males. Stab the aubergines with a fork a bunch of times, wrap in foil, and then roast them at 425 for an hour plus. The squishier the better. When they're done, top and tail them and peel with your hands as soon as you can handle the heat. De-seed as best as you can and then chop roughly and throw in a bowl. Drain as much liquid as you can from the eggplants. As it settles in the bowl, it will come to top and you can pour it off.
The next part is all about taste. Into the bowl I throw in two large cloves of garlic, minced, and a whole lemon, because I love those things. I also use about a handful and a half of finely chopped parsley. Then it get two tablespoonsish of tahini paste and a healthy drizzle of olive oil. Mix it all up, salt to taste, and there you go. Fresh baba for snacking. Turn down the oven to 350 and make some fresh pita chips in 10 minutes it takes to combine ingredients while you're at it.

Fried eggplant lasagna is as good as it sounds and looks.
I generally have a lot of time on my hands during the day, so I made my own sauce for this, and I also purged the eggplants, which takes about two hours and isn't totally necessary, but enhances the flavors. I won't belabor how to make a lasagna, but suggest putting tons of romano and smoked mozz in there if you can, and also to consider the eggplant in it's floured and fried form.
Slice up two 'plants and lay the slices in stacks on a cutting board, sprinkling each layer with salt. Lay another board or flat something on top, plus about five pound of weight-- a big pot of water on top of a coffee table book on top of a second board works well. Slip a second book under the bottom board and let the pressure squeeze the juice out of the slices and into the sink. Run an errand, and when you come back, you have salty, less bitter slices, that you can then dip in flour and pan fry in olive oil till brown. Eat them right then, or slip them amongst the layers of cheese, sauce, and noodles for a badass, filling lasagna that you can eat for a week. Unless you have boys around. They will kill that shit in a night.