Order Up! : Stuffed Peppers

Four peppers of green
Sit empty and clean,
Ready to be stuffed for dinner.
Add some meat sauteed nice
With nutmeg for spice
And-Presto-a surefire winner!

I threw this together last week. I was craving moussaka but had more ingredients for stuffed peppers, so I injected my favorite part of the moussaka--the sweet spices--into the meat for the stuffed peppers. Side effects include: unconditional attraction to whoever cooks this, cancer-fighting abilities, and complete satisfaction. Y'all may thank me when you see me or send me chocolates and gift certificates to Barney's.

Ingredients:
4 large bell peppers
1 onion
1lb ground beef
1/4 tsp nutmeg
some cinnamon
1 can diced tomatoes
rice of your choice
crumbled Feta
grated Parmesan, say, 1/4 to 1/2 a cup

Set oven to 350 degrees


Boil (or microwave) the rice--may want to do that first since the boiling process can be time-consuming.

Also get some water boiling for the peppers--you'll need a fairly large pot for them.

Cut off the tops of the peppers. Keep the tops for dicing but pop off the stem and chuck those. Remove seeds and veins and give those guys a quick wash. If you want to be really fancy, you can sear the bottom and sides of the peppers--more for looks than anything, but it also starts the skin breaking down, thus releasing that signature sweet bell pepper juice. Put the green goblins in the boiling water and let them hang for 10 minutes or so until they get soft but not mushy--they'll need to hold up for the stuffing. Lay the hollowed peppers upright in a pyrex baking dish.

Meanwhile, chop up the onion and get those translucent in a large skillet with some oil (and butter for those of you who want to add a little more flavor) over medium-high heat so that they are smelling up the room with that classic here-comes-dinner smell. Add the extra bit of pepper, diced, that was leftover from the tops. Once everything is cooking nicely, add the ground beef and get that browned to perfection. While it's browning, add the nutmeg and some good dashes of cinnamon--trust me, these spices add magic to the meat. Add the diced tomatoes, cooked rice and shredded parmesan to that mixture, combine well and let that simmer in the skillet until all the flavors have gotten to know eachother like old friends and it starts to smell like the best dinner you've ever made.

Once the meat-veggie-rice mixture o' joy is ready, drain the fat (or keep it if you're into that--fatty) and scoop liberal amounts into each awaiting pepper. Top with feta crumbles and whatever remaining Parmesan you may have. Warning, spillage may occur. Unless your peppers are abnormally giant, there will probably be excess stuffing which I like to enfold between chunks of fresh French bread.

Pop into the oven for about 20-ish minutes or until the cheese has melted.

These make incredible leftovers, too, in case you are single, or the only red meat eater in the apartment or a brown bagger.

Enjoy! You WILL NOT be disappointed or else I will fully reimburse you for the cost of the ingredients.