Gourmet Salled

Whoa... where to begin.. a lot has happened since I last checked in. We'll just start with Wednesday.

Our anniversary plans got changed up a bit. The chef became ill and our cooking class was canceled. Thomas and I threw together the meal we were supposed to, but didn't, eat on Tuesday,Lamb with spinach and bearnaise sauce, dropped Eden off at the sitter, hit the grocery store for some appetizers and chocolate cheesecake, and headed back home for a cozy candlelit dinner on our back porch. We talked until well after sunset and then finished Shadowlands before picking up Eden. It was very chill and very nice.

Thursday I was back on track with my cleaning/cooking schedule. Having decided to try the farmer's market this week, I made a plan for Cookie Madness and got all of my supplies. For dinner we had Rice and Beef stuffed peppers. This is a good recipe for anyone who wants to prepare dinner earlier in the day and then just pop it in the oven an hour before dinner.


Rice and Beef Stuffed Peppers
Ingredients
6 large red, green, or yellow bell peppers
2 tbsp olive oil
1 onion, finely chopped
8 oz mushrooms, finely chopped
1/4 cup finely chopped parsley
1 lb lean ground beef
1 cup cooked rice
1/3 cup parmesan or romano cheese
1/4 cup dry bread crumbs
1 jar (26 oz) Classico di Firenze Florentine Spinach & Cheese Pasta Sauce
Salt and black pepper
1 egg, beaten

Directions
1. Cut tops off peppers and set aside. Remove the seeds and membrane from each pepper.
2. In a saucepan, heat oil over medium heat. Add onion, mushrooms, and parsley. Cook until tender, about 6 to 7 minutes. Remove from heat and cool.
3. In a large bowl, combine cooked onion-mushroom mixture with beef, rice, cheese, bread crumbs and 1/4 cup pasta sauce. Season with salt and pepper. Mix in egg.
4. Spread remaining pasta sauce in baking dish. Fill peppers with beef mixture and replace tops. Place peppers in prepared baking dish. Bake, covered, in preheated oven until peppers are tender and meat has cooked through, about 1 hour. Serve peppers topped with sauce.
I halved this recipe- it still made enough to stuff 4 bell peppers (i had an extra pepper). I'll use the leftover veggies and meat in dinner tonight- because i didn't use it Friday....

Friday was all about preparing for Market- and boy was it a lot of work. I ended up baking 30 dozen cookies- 5 jam shortbread, 10 soft chocolate chip, 6 hazelnut caramel cracker bars, 7 vegan chewy chocolate chocolate chip, and 2 decorated sugar cookies. I was up until 1 am and awake at 6 am. When I arrived at the market I wanted to get back into the truck and head home and not try at all. I've made it a point in life to only try things at which I know I will succeed and I was pretty confident this was going to be a big fiasco/failure/all-around-dumb idea.
To be honest, the only reason I did it was because I said I would and I've recently told myself I had to start following through with any plans I make- but why did I have to start with this crazy hair brained idea??? Luckily, it was not a total bomb (although it might have been good for me to utterly fail at something)- I sold a little over half of my stuff and still managed to break even with costs (except for the unused packaging, tablecloth, and chalkboard which I will use for other things). People were very complimentary about my packing and display (in relation to the typical booth there I went above and beyond- but hey- this was ALL about giving it 110% and doing it the way I always imagined), and really liked the cookies. I also got to know some of the vendors that I buy from. I MIGHT do it next weekend- truncating what I bake to match what sold. Apparently I haven't learned my lesson about trying crazy things yet :).