Stuffed Poblano Peppers

Happy Monday!  How was everyone's weekend?  We had a pretty eventful weekend, actually.

This past Friday was the first one in a little while that I haven't had to work past 8:30 so you better believe I took advantage of it!  We actually went out with a few girls from my softball team and had a blast.  We even played Lazer Tag (which I haven't played since I was like 10, so it was nice to act like a kid again!).

Saturday we went out and had dinner at an Indian restaurant, Dakshin.  It's pretty good and we haven't had Indian food in a while so it was nice to fill our bellies! 

Of course, Sunday was football day, and my Philadelphia Eagles showed the Colts and Peyton Manning who was boss!  I love watching the Colts lose, not only because all of my friends are Colts fans, but because I think Peyton Manning is such a goober, hehe.  And the fact that the Eagles beat them made it all the better! 

Anyway, recipe time!  I don't know about you, but I found it quite hard to make this poblano look "sexy"!  The pictures don't do this meal justice because it was absolutely delicious.  The wild combination of flavors just all come together into one well-rounded meal! 

Ingredients:
Adapted from Food & Wine's recipe

Peppers:

2 large poblano peppers
2 tablespoons olive oil, plus more for brushing
salt and pepper, to taste
1 small onion, diced
2 garlic cloves, chopped
1/2 lb. ground beef (I used my homemade ground beef)
8 oz. can of tomato sauce
1/4 cup dried apricots, diced
1/4 cup toasted almonds, chopped
1 tablespoon dried parsley

Walnut Queso:

5 oz. queso fresco
1/2 cup walnuts, chopped
1 tablespoon sugar
1 cup milk

1/2 cup pomegranate seeds

To prepare the peppers, roast them over an open flame on a gas stove (or alternatively, broil them in the oven) until they are charred all over.  Place in a bowl and let cool for about 5 minutes.

Scrape off the charred skin of the peppers.  Cut a slit on the side of each pepper and using kitchen scissors, clip the area about 1/2 inch below the top stem (the part with the seed clusters).  Carefully brush out any seeds.  Lightly brush the outside and inside of the peppers with olive oil.  Season with salt and pepper.

Preheat oven to 375 F.

Heat a large skillet under high heat and add 2 tablespoons of olive oil.  Add onion and garlic and cook until softened, about 4-5 minutes.  Add ground beef and cook until it is no longer pink, about 7-10 minutes.  Drain any excess fat off of the skillet.

Stir in tomato sauce, apricots, almonds, and parsley into the beef mixture.  Season filling with salt and pepper, if needed.  Let cool, slightly.

Carefully stuff the poblanos with the beef mixture and place in baking dish.  Cover with foil and bake for about 5-10 minutes, or until heated through.

While the peppers are baking, you can make the queso sauce.

In a medium saucepan under medium heat, add queso fresco, walnuts, sugar, and milk.  Heat until cheese is melted, about 10 minutes.  Cool slightly and season with salt and pepper.  Using an immersion blender, blend mixture until nice and smooth. 

Transfer the peppers to individual plates and top with queso sauce.  Top with pomegranate seeds and dig in!

 At first, I thought the pomegranate seeds were kind of a pointless garnish, just used for color purposes.  But really, the flavors of the poblano, stuffing, queso, and pomegranate together is just something magical.  It all works, and it's all a party in your mouth.  It is purely delicious.  I just wish the pictures came out better to show how awesome this dish is!  Enjoy guys!

One Big Mouthful: Cheeseburgers

Alright.  This is going to be a semi-tutorial type of post.  This is one of those things I learned a while back... that you don't need fancy equipment to get certain things done in the kitchen.  Case in point... grinding your own meat.

You don't need a special attachment on your Kitchen-Aid Mixer.  You don't need a full-fledged meat grinder.  You don't need to spend a bunch of money on things you don't really need in order to get the job done.  Now, I'm not saying that if you have that spare cash, and like new gadgets, that you shouldn't go get them... by all means, spend away.  But if you're a tight-budgeted college student like myself... you find shortcuts.

So what exactly do you need to grind your own meat at home?  Well... just 3 simple things.  (Most of which are found in EVERY kitchen, or can be borrowed from a friend, parent, or neighbor)

1. Food Processor
2. Freezer 
3. Meat

Sounds simple enough, right?  Well let's do it to it.


Ingredients:
Adapted from Bon Appetit's recipe

1 lb. sirloin, cut into cubes
1 lb. short ribs, meat cut from bone
1 lb. skirt steak, cut into strips
5 strips bacon, chopped
3 ounces bone marrow, chilled (I roasted about 5 soup bones and scooped the marrow out)
1 tablespoon red miso mixed in 1/4 cup water, chilled
1 tablespoon Lea & Perrins Worcestershire sauce 
olive oil, for brushing

optional toppings:

sliced cheddar cheese
challah buns
tomato slices
red onion slices
watercress sprigs
sliced pickles
ketchup

So first, what you'll want to do is spread your 3 meat products and the bacon on a baking sheet or bowl that will fit in your freezer.  Place in freezer for about 30-45 minutes, or until pieces are partially frozen.  This will help your food processor break down the meat easier.

Working in batches, add the meat to your food processor and set on low until you get your preferred grind, maybe about a minute or two.  And voila!  You have your very own ground beef for use in burgers, meatloaf, tacos, you name it!  So let's get to these burgers.

In a large bowl, combine 1 lb. ground beef (I saved the remainder of my ground beef for other uses) and bone marrow.  Add miso mixture and Worcestershire sauce, and stir just to incorporate.  Divide beef into 4 nicely-sized patties.  Generously season each patty with salt and pepper.

Add about 1 tablespoon of olive oil to a large skillet over medium high heat.  Add burgers to skillet and cook for about 5-7 minutes per side, for a nice medium.  About 1 minute before burgers are done, add slices of cheddar cheese and cook until melted.  Remove from heat and let rest for about 2-3 minutes.

Toast your challah buns, if desired, and begin to assemble burgers.  We went with bottom bun, burger, tomato slice, red onion slice, watercress, pickles, ketchup, and top bun.  We had potato chips as a nice and easy side item!

These burgers were awesome!  Juicy, delicious, and well worth the effort to grind our own meat!  These were perfect for eating while watching the football games on Sunday, too!  They could definitely be made to be mini sliders also! 

And by the way, I received a few free coupons for some Lea & Perrins Worcestershire Sauce from Foodbuzz's Tastemaker program and believe that the added flavor of the Worcestershire sauce definitely gave these burgers a great hint of flavor!


And it's Wednesday CSA day...  I'm getting kind of sad because we've only got 2 more pick-ups before the season is over!  But they're definitely loading us up!

 3 ears of popcorn corn (I'm pretty excited about this one!)
1 head of cabbage
1 bunch mizuna (this is new for me and I had to Google it... it's similar to arugula, but less of a peppery taste)
1 bunch of kale greens
2 turnips
2 lbs. red potatoes
2 lbs. apples
1 french baguette

Momma's Lasagna

I wish I had this long story about how my mother made awesome lasagna for us when we were growing up. But no, the name of this dish doesn't come from something my mother made for us. I mean, don't get me wrong, my mom made lasagna... but it was the kind you get in the freezer aisle and there's not much to that except putting it in the oven and letting it cook. No love there, but it fed us and I can't complain.

The real reason behind the name of this was that the whole time we were eating this last night, Andy kept saying... "Wow, this tastes just like my mom's lasagna." Had I ever had Andy's mother's lasagna? No. But I took it as a compliment and so I digress...


Ingredients:
Adapted from Cooking With Michelle's blog

1 lb. ground beef
1 lb. mild italian sausage
salt and pepper to taste
1 teaspoon red pepper flakes (optional)
4 cups sausage marinara
1 box of about 20 or so lasagna noodles, cooked
30 ounces ricotta cheese
1 cup Parmesan cheese, grated
4 cups mozzarella cheese, shredded

In a large skillet, under high heat, cook the beef and sausage until browned. Season with salt and pepper, and if you're feeling extra frisky throw in some red pepper flakes to add the heat.

Add about 2 1/2 cups of marinara to the beef and mix well.

Add 3/4 cup of marinara to the bottom of a rectangular roasting pan. Layer about 4-5 of the cooked lasagna noodles over marinara. Spread 1/3 of the meat mixture on top of the noodles. Then top with 1/3 of the ricotta, 1/2 of the parmesan, and 1 cup of the mozzarella.

Repeat layering twice more. Top the remaining noodles with remaining 3/4 cup of marinara and extra mozzarella cheese.

Cover tightly with foil and preheat oven to 375. Bake until heated all the way through and cheese is bubbly, about an hour or so. Cut into sections and serve!


This was absolutely delicious. It made tons of lasagna and is a great comfort food for any occasion! Enjoy!

Moroccan Style Stuffed Acorn Squash

There's just something about autumn/fall that screams "EAT SQUASH!" I mean, it's readily available, it's cheap, so why not? Acorn squash is good because it doubles as a serving bowl and it goes great with brown sugar and butter. That was Andy's one requirement in me making this dish. The squash HAD to have butter and brown sugar in the cavity while it was baking. And don't tell him this, but it was pretty good idea. Adapted this recipe from The Bitten Word.

Ingredients:

2 acorn squashes, halved and seeded
3/4 lb. ground beef
ground cinnamon and nutmeg
salt and pepper to taste
1 small onion, chopped
4 garlic cloves, minced
1 cup short grain brown rice
2 cups water
1/4 cup raisins
1/4 cup parsley, chopped
2 tablespoons pine nuts, toasted
4 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into 1 tablespoon pats
4 tablespoons brown sugar, or more if you'd like
1 cup beef stock/broth
parmesan cheese to top

You definitely want to start cooking the rice first, unless you have a quick rice like basmati or something. But for me, the brown rice takes about 45 minutes to develop a good texture. Bring the beef stock and rice to a boil, then lower heat to medium and cook for about 25 minutes, covered.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Lay out squash halves on baking sheet. You may have to cut the bottoms just a tad so they lay flat. Add 1 pat of butter and 1 tablespoon of brown sugar to each half. You can add more brown sugar if you'd like, but I found this was good. Bake squash for about 40 minutes, or until tender.

While squash and rice are cooking, you can make your filling. In a large skillet, heat oil under medium high heat. Add ground beef, pinch or two of cinnamon and nutmeg, and salt to taste. Cook until beef is brown, stirring often, about 7 minutes. Using a slotted spoon, transfer the beef to a separate bowl and tent with foil to keep warm. Try to reserve as much oil and juice in the pan as possible.

Add the onion and cook until softened, about 5 minutes. Add garlic and cook until fragrant, less than a minute. Add salt to taste and fold in rice. Mix well. Add 2 cups of water and bring to a boil. Lower heat to medium and cover. Cook for 15 minutes. Turn off heat and let sit for 5 minutes, still leaving it covered. Fluff the rice with a fork and add back in the beef, and mix in the raisins, parsley, and pine nuts.

Scrape out the squash into the beef mixture, leaving enough squash to make a sturdy bowl. Fill each squash shell to your liking, top with parmesan cheese, and bake for about 12-15 minutes longer. Serve hot and enjoy!

This was a great recipe. Full of flavor in every bite, took a little bit of time, but definitely worth it. Great for leftovers for lunch the next day! Enjoy!