Zucchini Bread and Stuffed Peppers
Do you ever get the feeling that your parents think you're crazy? Our dinner conversation tonight, over stuffed red bell peppers put me firmly in the crazy category in the eyes of my parents. We were talking about books - a safe and interesting topic, on the whole. My sister and I reread books, while my parents are the read-it-once-and-move-on types. Two pairs of eyes widened when I confessed I read the entire Harry Potter series before every new book and movie release as well as whenever I feel like I'm missing a little magic in my life. If you think of how many books and movies are out, and how many times one might feel a little lack of magic, that makes for an awful lot of times I have read the first Harry Potter book, let alone the others.
It's summer and the Olympics and cooking both provide ample reading time, so I thought I would start again around noon today. The reading spree was actually prompted by spare zucchini in the fridge. Don't worry, I'm not crazy. I saw the zucchini and goat cheese pizza on smitten kitchen a while ago, and I knew it was meant to be when local zucchini was on sale in huge bins outside of the grocery at the beginning of the week. We bought yellow and green zucchini, and I made the pizza a few days later. I also made a "normal" pizza, so that the rest of the family wouldn't look at me in disgust when I put the beautiful summery pizza on the table with no other food options. Zucchini isn't the most popular thing in our family. I have no pictures, but both pizzas were absolutely delicious.
After the pizza, we still had extra zucchini. I'm a huge fan of trying out recipes, especially when the zucchini is in danger of going bad if we don't use it. That brings us to today. Today was a zucchini day. I made my first zucchini bread, adding a little extra flour, and it turned out beautifully. The bread needs to cook for about 50 minutes, so I put on some music and started reading on the couch in the sun.
The bread is delicious, and I really like seeing flecks of green next to the chocolate chips. Perhaps another cause to look at me sideways, but zucchini bread is good not only because it is tasty, but also because it is colorful. to be honest, I tend to like all of my bread with as many different things inside as possible. My mom calls it the "ten thousand grain bread," and I think it is fantastic.
I usually limit my cooking to once a day, especially in the heat of the summer. Verging on 7 p.m. no one had even started to think about dinner, and I happened to be in the kitchen at the same time my mom was making chinese salad. She reminded me that no one had eaten and even agreed to do the chopping for the pepper ingredients if I made them. It rained twice today. I suppose two rains meant two times for cooking were inevitable.
When I first suggested making the stuffed peppers a few weeks ago, my mom gave me another crazy look. All previous experience with stuffed peppers for her included rice and hamburger meat and a mediocre result. I assured her that this would include none of those things, and it doesn't.
Given that I didn't have to chop anything, the peppers were incredibly easy to assemble after I found all of the ingredients.
Finding ingredients is a feat in itself, since our kitchen is organized in the "where will I look for it first?" vein. The problem with this system is that not everyone thinks to look in the same place, so it takes pulling everything from the cabinets out on the counter to find anything if you weren't the person who put it away or moved it. This system is also why I take all of the ingredients out before I start.
It's summer and the Olympics and cooking both provide ample reading time, so I thought I would start again around noon today. The reading spree was actually prompted by spare zucchini in the fridge. Don't worry, I'm not crazy. I saw the zucchini and goat cheese pizza on smitten kitchen a while ago, and I knew it was meant to be when local zucchini was on sale in huge bins outside of the grocery at the beginning of the week. We bought yellow and green zucchini, and I made the pizza a few days later. I also made a "normal" pizza, so that the rest of the family wouldn't look at me in disgust when I put the beautiful summery pizza on the table with no other food options. Zucchini isn't the most popular thing in our family. I have no pictures, but both pizzas were absolutely delicious.
After the pizza, we still had extra zucchini. I'm a huge fan of trying out recipes, especially when the zucchini is in danger of going bad if we don't use it. That brings us to today. Today was a zucchini day. I made my first zucchini bread, adding a little extra flour, and it turned out beautifully. The bread needs to cook for about 50 minutes, so I put on some music and started reading on the couch in the sun.
The bread is delicious, and I really like seeing flecks of green next to the chocolate chips. Perhaps another cause to look at me sideways, but zucchini bread is good not only because it is tasty, but also because it is colorful. to be honest, I tend to like all of my bread with as many different things inside as possible. My mom calls it the "ten thousand grain bread," and I think it is fantastic.
I usually limit my cooking to once a day, especially in the heat of the summer. Verging on 7 p.m. no one had even started to think about dinner, and I happened to be in the kitchen at the same time my mom was making chinese salad. She reminded me that no one had eaten and even agreed to do the chopping for the pepper ingredients if I made them. It rained twice today. I suppose two rains meant two times for cooking were inevitable.
When I first suggested making the stuffed peppers a few weeks ago, my mom gave me another crazy look. All previous experience with stuffed peppers for her included rice and hamburger meat and a mediocre result. I assured her that this would include none of those things, and it doesn't.
Given that I didn't have to chop anything, the peppers were incredibly easy to assemble after I found all of the ingredients.
Finding ingredients is a feat in itself, since our kitchen is organized in the "where will I look for it first?" vein. The problem with this system is that not everyone thinks to look in the same place, so it takes pulling everything from the cabinets out on the counter to find anything if you weren't the person who put it away or moved it. This system is also why I take all of the ingredients out before I start.
The timing of the assembly of dinner was perfect. As soon as I finished boiling the water and put the couscous aside, the oven was preheated and I could put the peppers in the oven. In the fifteen minutes of cooking the peppers, I made the stuffing, pulling it off the heat just as the timer went off. Fifteen more minutes of cooking with stuffing inside, and we were ready for dinner. We have come full circle - dinner led to dinner conversation, and the crazy looks my parents gave me over our colorful dinner. My dad even ate the zucchini inside the peppers. I'm still working on my sister. She liked the zucchini pizza - after pulling off all of the zucchini. She complimented and ate the stuffing for the peppers, pulling out all zucchini and most of the tomatoes. Someday she will see the beauty and deliciousness of fruits and vegetables.
Someday.
Now that dinner is over and we are all delightedly stuffed, we are headed downstairs to watch swimming and I am determined to finish the second Harry Potter in the process.
Someday.
Now that dinner is over and we are all delightedly stuffed, we are headed downstairs to watch swimming and I am determined to finish the second Harry Potter in the process.
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