Stuffed Green Peppers

Since my last post had stuffed green peppers, I thought I should write about them.  I tried to come up with a snazzy title, but Stuffed Green Peppers are perfection all on their own.  As someone who rarely has favorites, I can say that this is my favorite summertime food.  Of course, it is a family recipe.  Of course, there are different ways of making it.  Everything is estimated and the flavor changes depending on the quality or type of ingredients used.  Although my green peppers did not do well in the garden, I found a sack of them at the farmer's market for pennies on the pound.  With my bounty of tomatoes, I decided that stuffed green peppers had to be on the menu tonight.

The Basics

The basics are this:  Ground beef, rice, chili powder, tomatoes, onions, salt, pepper, and green peppers.  Mom and I preferred ground chuck in peppers.  A good tip is to watch the sales.  When chuck roasts go on sale, ask the butcher to grind a few roasts up for you.  I did that today.  I could either purchase 80-20 ground beef for $3.99/pound or chuck roast for $3.29/pound.  I like the roast route because I also know what meat is in it, and I can ask the butcher to remove the fat that is hard to the touch.  This usually gives me ground beef that is leaner than most and still is flavorful.

Today, I had a lot of tomatoes that were ripe in the garden.  Granny used Early Girl or Beefsteak tomatoes.  Mom liked Better Boy tomatoes.  Today, I used some Early Girls, Rutgers, Mortgage Lifters, and a few Black Cherry tomatoes.  The tomato ratio is generally a huge tomato to a pound of ground beef, but I used a variety since my tomatoes were pretty small.  (In the winter, when tomatoes are flavorless, I will add a small can of tomato sauce to the mix.)

Tomatoes and a Sugar Baby Watermelon

I prefer using four-lobed peppers, but the bag I received today were a mix of four and three-lobes.  Four lobed peppers rest better in the pan.  My choice was to hand-select four-lobes for 89 cents per pepper or buy a bag of mixed for $3.00.  Since I am my mother's child, I went for the less spendy of the two options.  Still, four-lobes do not roll around.  Wash the peppers, slice them into halves, and remove seeds and the white-pithy ribs.  By doing this step first, you can better select a pan that will fit best.  (By the way, who possesses Granny's granite ware roaster?  Not the big one, but the medium one.  It's perfect for peppers!)

Four-lobed peppers do not fall over!

Okay, here is where the nostalgia comes in: When I make a lot of peppers, I use Granny's big blue bowl.  I believe she got it when she set up house-keeping.  It's made of stoneware and was once heavily glazed in blue.  She used it so much that the glaze along the rim is  completely worn off.  I remember her using it for so many things and I use it for mixing up the stuffing for stuffed green peppers!

Granny's Mixing Bowl of Blue

So, you put everything but the green pepper in.  Ratios again.  To roughly a pound of ground beef, put a chopped medium onion, teaspoon of salt, tablespoon of chili powder, a cup of cooked rice, and maybe a half of teaspoon of black pepper.  Mix it all up.  If the beef does not wish to stick to itself, add an egg.  (I add an egg regardless of how much beef I use, but only one.  It never seems to need more.)  Keep in mind that all of these measurements are guesstimates.

Here is a bit of the history of the family recipe for stuffed green peppers:  Granny learned how to make green peppers from her mother.  Grandma Dora's recipe was identical to her meatloaf recipe except she used rice instead of oats.  Grandma Dora, according to Mom, did not use chili powder.  Granny said that she thought of adding chili powder when she was a young mother, but Mom insisted that she was the one who thought of adding chili powder when she was a teenager.  Neither would tell the other they were in the wrong, but each would simply announce that chili powder was their idea.  In either case, I've never had it without chili powder.....until today.

Family First!  Homemade Chili Powder!

I was out of chili powder, so I made my own.  Basically, I mixed 2 parts cumin, 1 part paprika, 1 part cayenne, 1 part dried oregano, and 1 part garlic powder.  It smells similar!  I've not tried it yet, but will give an opinion in comments when I do.  But that is what is essentially in chili powder!

Stuff the peppers.  I always "garnish" mine with a bit of tomato on top, but do not know why.  I know both Granny and Mom always wanted their peppers "pretty" and would take time to shape them before baking them.

Almost Ready to Bake

Add about an inch of water in the pan.  Cover and bake at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for about 90 minutes.  

Ignore the burned berry stain on the oven bottom!!!

Remove from the oven and uncover.

Pre-browned Peppers

Return to the oven.  The water will cook down a bit more and the tops will brown a bit more.  This will take about 20 minutes.

Granny was a seasonal cook.  I always knew what day it was by what was on the table.  She usually made stuffed green peppers on weekends and would serve them with mashed potatoes, corn on the cob, string beans, tomato slices, and sometimes cornbread sticks or dinner rolls.  I loved having a stuffed pepper as a sandwich the next day.  Just plain white bread and mustard.  The pepper and filling provided the rest.  It's an awesome sandwich!

One thing: No one's stuffed peppers were ever as good as Granny's.  Once I thought it was because she just had the touch for making them, but then she made them while staying with Mom in Lafayette.  I've decided that it must be the water in Middlesboro that made the difference.  While growing up, the water in Middlesboro came from Fern Lake.  The water had a distinctive flavor that I loved.  The peppers were simple perfection.

I never have stuffed green peppers without thinking of Mom and Granny.  We got to select what we wanted for our birthdays while growing up and I always asked for stuffed peppers.

A better picture with more realistic colors!
Some things that I discovered on my own are that you can use different colored peppers and it does not vary the taste much.  Also, cooked peppers freeze fairly well.  To me, stuffed peppers taste like childhood summertime.  When Dalton was here, I tried to make them, but the ingredients were just so-so, and so the peppers were just so-so.  Next time I will make a pepper believer out of him! 

Update: The homemade chili powder is HOT.  I like it, but it really is hot.  For peppers, I like what I grew up with better, but this is not at all a bad substitute!  I think I might use it in my next chili recipe!

Maybe I will write about cornbread next.  It's time.  

The Green Bean Team!

Part of the reason for this blog is to remember my mother and grandmothers.  I also wanted to share stories with my nieces and nephew about our family.  The second reason is to share family recipes.  I've been rather lackadaisical in my writing.  It's not for the lack of wanting to write: It's the lack of pictures.  I like pictures.  I'm just bad at taking them.  My birthday just passed, and to celebrate, I made my favorite birthday meal: Stuffed Green Peppers with all of the fixings, which includes southern-cooked string beans.

There are several good stories that surround string beans.  One of my favorites involves my mother.  Her mother, who we called Granny, worked full time after my mother was old enough to be of help around the house.  My grandmother often cooked in a hurry, but one cannot rush good southern string beans.  Granny would start the beans prior to going to work, and then she counted on Mom to babysit them.

The first time my mother babysat Granny's beans, she let all of the water cook out of them and they burned so badly that they had to be thrown away.  The reason given was that she was enjoying playing with the puppies of her brother's hunting dog.  Mom would lay on her bed with the window open and call, "Here pup!  Here pup!  Woop, woop, woop!"  The puppies would dash from the back door to the front door and so the summer day was whiled away.  That night, a pot of burned beans and worn out puppies.

The second time that my mother burned the beans was due to her not wishing to mow the yard.  She put on her shorts and halter top to mosey outside when she knew the boy down the street was outside.  Then she chatted with him while he sweated and did all of her yard work.  This time, she not only burned the beans but she melted Granny's favorite bean pot.  (Never has this wonderful pot been replaced, and no pot created before or since has been up to the fine bean-cooking standards of that poor melted pot.)

The third time that my mother burned string beans was because the electric burner that melted the pot was now damaged.  Remember, Granny cooked fast, so she would toss food at a pan on the stove, push the button for the hottest setting and fry an egg or boil some water.  Granny never noticed an anomaly.  So Granny put on the beans, warned Mom to watch the new pot of beans, and went to work.  Mom decided that these beans had better be perfectly cooked, so she added extra water and reduced the heat before going outside to tan herself and read.  However, the electric burner now only had one setting - hotter than hot.  Again, the water boiled out and the beans scorched to the point where they were inedible.

Green beans were never cooked when both Granny and Mom were within hearing distance that bantering about burned beans did not occur.

Both Granny and our other grandmother, MeMaw, had gardens and grew green beans.  These beans are not like the ones you find in most farmer's markets or the supermarket.  They were big and had colorful beans that would cook out of them.  The flavor was amazing.  I've heard them called a few names, and actually found seeds to try to grow them, but have not grown them yet.  Granny always grew greasy beans.  Memaw always grew cornfield beans.  Both types could be used for shucking and I've heard both types called "shuck beans" and they are good for cooking, drying or canning.

Cornbread, tomatoes, and green beans were always available when anyone came in to MeMaw's house in the summer.  My sister and I started to believe that we would never want beans again, but I've ordered seeds!  I miss breaking beans with MeMaw on her porch.  MeMaw would wear these "Momma-san" aprons made from feed sacks that had all seen better days.  Beans would be loaded into the apron and we would string and break the beans right into the pot.  I don't know how she did it, but MeMaw's beans were always extremely uniform in size, and she prepped beans fast!

Mom could do this really well too.  Granny and I, on the other hand, never mastered this so our beans were always of varying size.  (At least, we could almost guess who broke them up!)

So how to cook them.  Remember, these are southern beans.  There is no term called "tender-crisp" when it comes to good southern beans.  You cook the stuffing out of them, and they beg for cornbread to go with them!

Okay, so get your fresh green beans.  It's nice to pick them, but the farmer's market is fine.  Most beans you find today are "string-less," but if you can find proper shuck beans, break off the end and pull the strings off before breaking up the beans.  If you have shuck beans and you feel one that is leathery, just shell it out keeping the bean and toss the pod.

Wash them well and put them in a pot.  Add water until it covers the beans for about 2 inches (~5cm) and bring them to a boil.  Boil gently for 5 to 10 minutes and drain well.  Return the beans to the pot and add the same amount of fresh cold water.

This is where you will add seasonings - except we never add salt until the end.  You can add pepper, hotshot, a bit of onion, garlic, and some kind of meat or bone for flavoring.  MeMaw had a smokehouse for many years, so she always used things like a smoked ham hock or ham bone.  If using a ham hock, she would slice it up into rounds about 1/2 inch (1.5cm) thick.  (I think she actually had a bone saw to do this!)  Granny would add salt pork, bacon, or even a smoked chicken/turkey wing.  Really, you can use what you like as long as it will yield awesome flavor.  I had bacon on hand, so used about 6 strips but I could have easily made do with 4.  I also simply added black pepper.  Perhaps a teaspoon or so.  No, it does not look tasty at this point. 

Bring to a boil, cover, and let it simmer.  Keep the beans just under water.  Cook for at least 2 hours, but you can simmer it all day if you have proper shuck beans.  I didn't, so 2 hours was plenty.  After 2 hours, add new potatoes, or peeled potato chunks to the bean pot.  (I had new potatoes, so I scrubbed and cut them and left the skins on.)  Just rinse and drop them in and cover again to cook for another 45 minutes or so.

Uncover and let the liquid start to cook down.  You can turn up the heat but don't let the water cook all of the way out!  When the liquid is cooked down, taste a bean and adjust the salt.  (Different meats will require more or less salt.  My huge pot of beans needed about 1/2 teaspoon of salt!)  Remove the meat/bones and fat.  Strip any meat off the bones and fat to return the meat to the pot.  These beans get better and better for the next three days.  One item is needed: Cornbread.

As to which meat is best to use, generational family feuds have been waged on such an answer, so when you decide what you like, you might wish to keep it to yourself.  (I will say that I do not like bacon as well as other things, but these were still pretty good beans!)

Thanksgiving Dressing

Today was the first Thanksgiving without my mother.  When Mom passed away, I discovered that my nieces and nephew did not know my perspective of family stories.  I suppose I should not be surprised as my sister and I are different people with different memories.  Many of my memories are associated with food, and Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays because of it.  

My mother's dressing recipe was given to her by her mother, who we called Granny.  Granny got it from her mother (Grandma Dora) and so forth.  I love making this dressing because it is not only delicious, but I feel like I'm channeling generations of women before me when I make it. 

Now all of the women in our family are good cooks and they are pretty particular to their way of doing things.  Most of our recipes are not written down and I drove my grandmother crazy to try to capture a few of her recipes to write in my little green cookbook.  It was Thanksgiving 1980 when my grandmother discovered that my mother had not been faithful to her dressing recipe.  

Mom's recipe had the basics: Cornbread, biscuits, toast, celery, onion, sage, pepper, salt, and essence.  However, she changed the ratios.  Granny was sincerely not happy.  My mother pointed out that Granny had changed Grandma Dora's recipe and everyone froze in place as if Grandma Dora would materialize right before us to extract retribution.  My eyes were wide!

Grandma Dora made everything by hand.  The breads, biscuits, cornbread.  She even grew her own sage, celery, and onions.  Grandma Dora was married to a butcher who provided the holiday turkey.  Now, sometime in the mid-1950s, my grandmother switched to tin biscuits.  (She insisted on using only the Pillsbury brand.)  In addition, she used Bunny Bread and purchased her other ingredients at Kroger.  

My mother followed in Granny's footsteps with purchasing the basics at the supermarket.  However, where Granny used 10 tin biscuits, my mother used 15.  Granny used two full pans of cornbread (made from scratch without sugar) and Mom reduced the amount to one and one-half pans.  Mom also used Wonder bread.

After realizing that Grandma Dora had better things to do, my grandmother continued to break up her day-old breads while my mother heavily chopped celery and onions for the dressing.  I silently scribed both recipes so I would not offend either.  As I wrote, each carefully explained the process of dressing-making while emphasizing justification to her own personal version.  

When it is time to remove the essence from the turkey, which is the liquid that gathers as the turkey cooks, the dressing is mixed.  This is my favorite moment.  Once it is well-blended, we hovered around the bowl taking small scoops of raw dressing and chewing slowly.

Granny would question, "Salt?"  Mom and I would chew and nod if it had enough salt.  Granny would taste it and nod her agreement.  Next, Granny would ask, "Sage?"  Mom and I would take another bite and chew slowly pondering the sagely mix.  "Add a bit more," Mom would say.  Granny would taste and nod in agreement, "I think more of the rubbed than the ground sage is needed."  Sage would be added and we would all taste again.

This would continue until the mix was agreeable to all of us.  As Granny went to wash her hands, Mom whispered, "It needs more biscuits!"  Granny shouted, "I heard that and it is perfect!"  Both Granny and Mom possessed excellent hearing.  Sadly, a trait I lack.

We would place the dressing in rounded balls on a cookie sheet and bake it before placing around the turkey for the dinner table.  Simply delicious.

So today, I made my dressing and channeled Mom, Granny, and even Grandma Dora.  I used tin biscuits and white bread, but I could not find Wonder or Bunny breads, so I used White Wheat bread.   Unlike either, I used two small pans of cornbread and twenty Pillsbury biscuits.  I also use an egg and bake it in a casserole dish.  While making adjustments to the seasonings, I wished with all of my heart that the three of them would manifest to complain of my changes.  Unfortunately, they all had better things to do.