I'm Addicted to Stuffed Banana Peppers!!

One foodie item I have grown to love since moving to Buffalo, NY, is stuffed banana peppers. YUM! If you've not tried them, then do so. NOW! 

Sorry I only have two photos of the finished product. (Count yourself lucky -- I nearly forgot to take even those before the hubby and I scarfed these down for dinner!)

Here's how to make these yummies. Note: you can serve them up as an appetizer, a side dish, or a main meal. For an appetizer, provide one per person. For a side dish, prepare two per person. For a main meal, you better count on three per person, if not more. Trust me, you can't make too many. They're addictive!!

INGREDIENTS

*8 banana peppers (don't get really small ones; they're harder to stuff)
*4 oz. log of goat cheese
*8 oz. grated cheese (my grocery sells a delicious mix of Asiago, Fontina, Parmesan, and Provolone)

DIRECTIONS

1. On a cutting board, make a slit across the stem-end of the pepper, but don't cut so deeply through the pepper that the stem falls off.

2. From that cut, make a slit the length of the pepper. This slit will allow you to pull the front of the pepper open so that you can remove the seeds and membranes. TIP: banana peppers can run very hot. If you like things tame, you might want to remove *ALL* of the seeds and membranes. If you like things a bit spicy, try leaving the membranes intact. (There's no shame in grabbing a glass of milk, if needed!)

3. Cart your peppers over to the sink. With the tap on low, quickly rinse the inside of each pepper to remove the seeds and membranes. TIP: Don't hang your head directly over the peppers; the fumes can really get you to coughing!

4. Drain the peppers on a paper towel, cut side down, so that you don't transfer any water to your saute skillet.

5. Heat a thin layer of olive oil in your skillet over medium heat. Add the peppers and saute on both sides until they soften. This takes only about five minutes on each side. They should have whitish burn marks on both sides. Gorgeous!

6. Transfer the peppers to a baking dish large enough to accommodate your peppers. I use a 9x11 glass baking dish that I use for brownies.

7. While the peppers cool enough to handle, mix your cheeses together. Mash the log of goat cheese with a fork, then mix in the shredded cheese. Salt and pepper to taste.

8. Distribute the cheese mixture evenly between your peppers. I typically use one hand to open the slit and the other to sprinkle in the cheese.

9. Finally, sprinkle a layer of your shredded cheese over the tops of the stuffed peppers. This cheese will crisp and brown. Delicious!

10. Cook the peppers at 350 degrees for 30 minutes.

VOILA! ENJOY!!

Dishing Up Homemade Ice Cream

After two longs weeks of disgusting, painful bronchitis, I am FINALLY back to feel better. I decided I deserve a treat. 

So tonight I tried a vanilla bean ice cream recipe, to which I decided to add defrosted frozen blueberries. Alas, while the texture was extremely creamy, the taste was too eggy for me and, in general, nothing to get excited about. In one word: BLAH. So I won't share the recipe, but I will share the pics. ;-)

Below I'm slicing the vanilla bean open so that I can add it to 2% milk I will bring to a boil. I'd never cooked with a fresh vanilla bean before. I expected it to have seeds that would spill out, not a sticky inner coating that I had to scrape with a knife!

In this photo I'm whisking egg yolks, granulated sugar, and corn starch together. The finished recipe, which called for 6 tablespoons of sugar, was definitely not sweet enough. I'd have to experiment to see how much more to add to get it closer to the sweetness of commercial ice cream.

Here I'm adding the boiled milk/vanilla bean mixture to the egg yolks.

Below I've put the combined milk/heavy cream/egg yolk mixture back on the stove to thicken. Compare the thinness of the custard at this point to the thickened version in the next photo.

The mixture thickened up after only about five minutes. Tip: stir constantly, over gentle heat, until the mixture coats the back of your spoon.

After popping the mixture into the freezer so it would quickly chill, I whipped a half pint of heavy cream by hand. The recipe called for it to be thickened, yet still thin enough to drip from the whisk. Tip: cover the egg mixture with clear wrap before adding the bowl to the freezer. Press the wrap directly onto the custard so it doesn't form a rubbery skin. 

In the photo below, I'm folding the heavy cream into the cooled custard.

The rest of the work will be done by my ice cream maker. Hard to believe I'll have ice cream in just 25 minutes!

At the end of the 25 minutes, I added plump, defrosted blueberries. Next time I would coat them thinly with sugar before adding them to the frozen custard. It looks yummy, right?!

Here's the bowl my husband kindly scarfed down. Too bad it didn't taste half as good as it looked!