Thursday, January 9, 2014

Geoffrey Update!

The grandson, Geoffrey, is getting so big!  He turned 2 on October 17th and his momma turned 31 on the same day.  This collage are pictures from his three Christmases.  The far right picture is his first Christmas, bottom left is his second Christmas, and the upper left is Christmas 2013.
This is a very rare moment when Geoff is actually being still.  He is one busy little boy.  Everyone tells me that is typical for boys.  Having only had girls before, this is all new to me!
The kid has great hair!  He also has eyelashes that most women would kill for!  I think he is a pretty cute guy though, I guess we will keep him!

Monday, January 6, 2014

Crocked Stuffed Peppers

I love using my slow cooker, it is so nice to come home from work to a meal that is ready to serve.  I am trying to do better about meal planning this year.  Today is my husband's birthday and he loves stuffed peppers, so I found a couple of recipes for inspiration and this is what I came up with.
Crocked Stuffed Green Peppers

4 large green peppers
1 pound ground turkey
1/3 cup onion, chopped (or 1 teaspoon onion powder or 1 tablespoon dried onion flakes)
1 egg, beaten
1 8 ounce can of tomato sauce
1 8 ounce can of water
1 15 ounce can of diced tomatoes, undrained
1 package of Spanish rice (I used the Rice a roni brand)

Cut tops of peppers and clean out the inside. In a large bowl mix the ground turkey, onion, egg, Spanish rice, tomato sauce and water. Mixture may be a bit runny, but it will be fine. Fill peppers with the meat mixture. If you have extra of the mixture you can spoon it on top of the peppers.

Place a liner in your crockpot, this makes clean up a breeze! Then dump the can of diced tomatoes on the bottom and place stuffed peppers on top. Cook on low around 6-8 hrs.
Just for fun and I have nothing better to do on this freezing day in January, I did an internet search for “green peppers male and female”. Somewhere, sometime I remembered reading that in bell peppers, there are males and females. I have no idea if this is true or not, but here are a few things I found on my quest.

Supposedly, three bottomed bell peppers are male, while four bottomed peppers are female. Three bottomed bell peppers are “sweeter and better for eating,” while four bottomed bell peppers are “firmer and better for cooking”. Some say they don't notice a difference in taste or texture between three bottomed bell peppers and four bottomed bell peppers. Makes total sense to me! Just like the women in my family, “firmer and better for cooking”!!! Female bell peppers have more seeds than males and some advise that you buy “male” bell peppers at the grocery store. I am assuming the thought process on this would be since females have more seeds it causes them to weigh more, and if they are bought by the pound, they would cost more for something that you are going to clean out and toss in the compost anyway!