Blueberry muffins and stuffed peppers

Stuffed peppers a la kitchen wench.

Blueberry muffins required a trip to

Food City this morning (out of butter)!

I went to make a batch of blueberry muffins this morning and realized I was out of butter.

Drats!

I went across the street to Circle K, but alas, they do not have butter. Whaa?

So a tripping it was to Food City, where they had bell peppers on sale 5/$1.00. This is a steal. I bought 3 and I should have bought all 5 (since I made extra stuffing). So I'll have to go back.

Since peppers were on sale, I decided to make stuffed peppers this morning along with the muffins. I mean, the oven is turned on anyways, right?

For the stuffing I put 1 1/2 bolillo rolls in a food processor and made them into breadcrumbs. Then I added 1 big handful of golden raisins (you can also use regular raisins, the black kind) and a half handful of whole black olives. I would have added a few more, but that's what I had. Then you toss the whole mess with a bit of salt, olive oil and red wine vinegar. After this is incorporated, you stuff your peppers and bake them in a pan with tall enough sides (a brownie pan would work well) since the peppers are tall and they need to be covered so they will steam. In the bottom of your pan, when you have the peppers in there already, add 1/4 cup of red wine vinegar and 1/4 cup water. Bake at 375 for one hour until your peppers start to collapse.

My family has been making these for many years around Easter time. The smell of them baking in my kitchen brings back great family meal memories. They are a good substitute for a salad. When you cut them in half, they are very pretty (you sort of see a cross section of the stuffing). They have sweet and savory flavors. I like them at room temperature. You can eat them as a meal or as a snack. They go well with just about any meat - I would serve them with Italian sausage, baked chicken or steak. Or even fish would work.

The blueberry muffins turned out great, I used the recipe my Mom gave me from the Fanny Farmer Cookbook. http://chamoyada.blogspot.com/2010/01/blueberry-muffins.html

I added the zest of one lemon and put some zulka moreno sugar on top for added browning and yummy factors.

If you're going to turn on the oven anyways (and do it now since it's going to be hot hot hot in Phx soon), make two things at once.

Brought to you by the frugal and green kitchen wench.