Forum Stuffed Peppers

Community Supported Agriculture - What should we do with a bunch of beautiful organically grown green peppers? We made stuffed peppers - yum! This is an old fashioned recipe - one bite and you are back at your parents' dinner table in the 70's wearing the polyester pantsuit your mom sewed for you eating off of avocado green and goldenrod colored dishes.

The recipe we tried is an old Kansas City favorite from the Forum Cafeteria. I might have gone to the Forum Cafeteria  with my grandmother, but I really can't remember it. I do remember the  Colonial Cafeteria at the Wyandotte mall though!

Read a great retrospective article about cafeterias published in the Pitch entitled "Trays of Our Lives." Here is the link: http://www.pitch.com/kansascity/trays-of-our-lives/Content?oid=2189356

We only made a few changes to the original recipe. We used hormone-free ground beef from Dodge City Beef. Also, instead of white rice, we used Bob's Red Mill Wild and Brown Rice. Also, I couldn't follow the directions to "melt shortening" to cook the veggies in. Just. couldn't. do. it. So, olive oil instead.

Forum Stuffed Peppers

By: Forum Cafeteria - originally published in the Kansas City Star

Creole sauce

1 t. shortening

1 large onion, finely chopped

1 t. minced green pepper

¼ t. minced garlic

¼ t. chili powder

1 (16 oz.) can whole tomatoes

3 ¼ c. beef broth, divided

½ t. salt

1/8 t. sugar

1 t. cornstarch

Stuffed Peppers

2 lb. cooked, boneless roast beef*

1 small or medium onion

1/3 c. chopped green pepper

½ c. cubed, cooked, peeled potatoes

½ t. chili powder

1/8 t. salt

1 (16 oz.) can whole tomatoes

1 c. cooked rice

6 whole green peppers

Paprika

For Creole sauce: Melt shortening in skillet over medium heat. Add onion, minced green pepper, garlic and chili powder and cook, stirring frequently, until vegetables are tender. Add tomatoes, 3 cups beef broth, salt and sugar; simmer 1 hour. Dissolve cornstarch in remaining ¼ cup beef broth, then blend into sauce. Cook, stirring frequently, 5 minutes.

Meanwhile; prepare stuffed peppers: Cube beef and onion. Coarsely grind beef, onions, chopped green peppers and potatoes. (If desired, chop ingredients in a food processor.) Place ground meat and vegetables in a large mixing bowl. Add chili powder, salt, tomatoes and cooked rice and mix well.

Cut 6 whole peppers in half horizontally and remove seeds. Place peppers in rapidly boiling water and cook just until peppers are tender but still firm. Spoon stuffing into each pepper half, molding about 4 ounces stuffing into an oval shape. Place stuffed peppers in a single layer in a large, shallow baking dish. Sprinkle with paprika. Bake at 350 degrees about 30 minutes or until browned. Spoon hot Creole sauce over peppers and serve.

*Cooked roast beef from a deli can be used instead of leftover roast. Browned and drained ground beef can also be substituted for diced roast beef. 

Zucchini Muffins with Candy Pecan Topping

Community Supported Agriculture - It's cooled off enough that it's time to bake now. What should we do with all of that great zucchini? Zucchini muffins of course! We've put a healthy spin on the muffin, and then balanced it out with a great topping! Girl math - you "up" the nutritional value of the muffin = you can have a great topping!

For the topping we used broken up pieces of candied pecans. I've given directions for the candied pecans back in June. Look for the recipe Cranberry, Feta, and Pecan Salad-Ann's Salad. 

We used ground whole wheat from our wheat farmers at ACME farms. To loosen up the course flour and make it soft, we added a ripe banana into our recipe. The banana combined with the zucchini and Agave Nectar really add the right amount of moisture that works with the whole wheat flour.

Eggs from our farmer, and whole grated fresh nutmeg are important too!

Baking with Agave Nectar is super easy. It is a liquid so if you are simply substituting Agave nectar for granulated sugar, reduce the Agave Nectar slightly. But, for recipes like this where we are using whole wheat flour instead of white flour, use the equivalent amount of Agave for sugar.
Spray the inside of the measuring cup with cooking spray so the Agave Nectar slides right out of the cup.

Zucchini Muffins with Candy Pecan Topping

3 cups grated farm fresh organic zucchini

2/3 cup melted butter

1 1/3 cup Agave Nectar

1 ripe banana, mashed

2 farm fresh eggs, beaten

2 teaspoons vanilla

2 teaspoons baking soda

Pinch salt

1 1/2 c. all-purpose flour

1 1/2 c. whole wheat flour

2 teaspoons cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon fresh grated nutmeg

Candied pecans for topping

Melt butter in the microwave. Grate zucchini. Combine zucchini, butter, Agave Nectar, and mashed banana. Add the eggs and vanilla and stir to combine.

In a separate bowl, sift together all of the dry ingredients. Combine the dry ingredients with the wet ingredients. Let them sit together and bubble. The moisture softens the dry ingredients and activates the baking soda so that the mixture forms bubbles. This will help the muffins be fluffier, and lighter. 

Divide into muffin tins that have been sprayed with cooking spray and top with broken pieces of candied pecans. Make sure that you center the candy. If it gets too close to the edge, the candy will melt and run onto the muffin tin, and it will be messy (we found this out the hard way!). 

Bake at 350 degrees for 20-25 minutes.