I got up early today and went to Panera Bread for a small coffee and an Asiago cheese bagel, sliced and toasted, and had to contend with an uppity counter girl named “Heather.” It was obvious that Heather did not want to have to work on Saturday morning and made sure everyone knew it, but too damned bad. Is it too much to ask for butter, plastic knife and a napkin for a to-go order? And have them put in a bag without a sneer?

So then I went to Meijer’s and bought: liquid hand soap, Dawn detergent, milk, bread, a gold pineapple which smell divine, toilet paper, (the big honkin’ package of Charmin mega) an Enquirer which shows a collapsed Oprah on the cover, a head of garlic, potato sticks, Liquid Plumber for my slow bathroom sink drain, eggs, and some Glad plastic wrap.

A pineapple, Enquirer, and Liquid Plumber in the same store. Aint America grand??

I came home and filled the birdfeeders. Today’s weather is glorious. After my inside chores I think I’ll go outside and putter around.

I taped 20/20 last night. I’ll have to watch that later. They had a special on the Seven Deadly Sins and were highlighting SLOTH. One segment was supposed to be about lazy teenagers and how you can get them to straighten up their bedrooms. We’ll see about that. Speaking of taping shows, I was soooooo pissed. I had taped The Office and CSI on Thursday, watched the Office Friday morning before work and rewound it because I wanted to watch it again later. When I got home yesterday I HAD TAPED SOMETHING ON BRAVO OVER THE OFFICE AND MOST OF CSI! To make matters WORSE, it was a James Lipton interview with Mr Couch-Hopper Himself: Tom Cruise. Life is sometimes very cruel.

In trouble? Blame it on BIll

Our team raised $5000 for the JDRF on Saturday.
After the run we went back to my sister's house and had lunch.
Then some went shopping and I stayed with Mom.
She was watching a Notre Dame football game, so I
sat in the sun room and read magazines.
This is one of my favorite areas in her house, it faces south
and looks out on a small garden.

 

Stuffed Green Peppers


Four green (or other color) peppers
½ to ¾ pound of ground sirloin
1 cup cooked rice
½ cup chopped fresh parsley
1 clove minced garlic
1 small onion grated with the juice (grate it with a box grater right over the mixing bowl, the onion juice will help keep the meat moist)
1 egg, whisked
½ T salt
1 t black pepper
1 t red pepper flakes
1 jalapeno, finely minced (you can omit this if you don’t like things too spicy)
1 small can tomato sauce

Preheat oven to 375


Whisk all ingredients except the beef and rice in a mixing bowl. Add beef and combine just until blended (too much meat handling and your meat will be tough—just ask Bert)

Grease a baking dish with olive oil.

De-stem and cut the tops (about 1/3) off of each green pepper. Reserve the tops! If you have a wobbly pepper you can take a little slice off the bottom to make it stand up.

Put some rice into each green pepper, then add the meat mixture, packing each pepper tightly. Put a few tablespoons of the tomato sauce over the top, and then put the pepper top back on top of each pepper.

If you have any meat mixture, rice and/or tomato sauce leftover, you can add it to the bottom of the baking dish to cook.

Lightly cover with foil and bake for an hour or until thoroughly cooked. Take the foil off for the last 10 minutes or so.

NOTES:

1. Some people combine the meat and the rice into the peppers but I like to layer them.
---It’s a great meal with just a salad or dinner rolls. Leftovers are good for lunch.

2. You can divide this recipe by half if you want to.

3. Some people like to cut the peppers in half lengthwise instead of cutting them “tall-ways.” They might cook a little faster this way.

Back from a Meeting

I need to go away more often. When I was away for my two day meeting, BP & LP replaced a splintered window in the bedroom, fixed my clothes dryer, cleaned the kitchen, cleaned LP’s bedroom, and vacuumed the living room. The only thing that LP forgot was to clean Nesta’s litter box.
I had a good meeting, the catering was phenomenal, I had two martinis with dinner last night, we had a funny comedian as an after dinner speaker, and the hotel room was nice—it even came with a sleep kit including a relation/mediation CD, lavender linen spray, and earplugs.
When I go into work tomorrow I’ll have to fill out expense report/travel papers which I hate to do.

Note to Tree,
We had door prizes—one of which was a $25 Chili’s gift certificate. When they announced it I started singing, ala Michael Scott, the Chili’s commercial song, “Chiliiiii’s baby back ribs, Chiliiiii’s baby back ribs.” From across the room another woman chimed in with “I’ want my baby back baby back, I want my baby back baby back…” She came over to the table I was sitting at and asked me if I was a nut, or if I just liked The Office. Haha. A friendship was born. But, no, I didn’t win that door prize or anything else.

Monday. Blech

1. Uncle Allen is back staying with us for another four days. But the good news is that I'm going on a two day business trip and leaving this evening.



2. Among LP's school announcements:
Homecoming is this week. Dress up days are the following: Tuesday-1960s (peace, love, and the hippie movement), Wednesday-1970s (groovy disco baby!), Thursday-1980s (retro, big hair, stone washed, leg warmers), Fridays-spirit day (red and blue).


80's=retro? okay.


3. I made kickass stuffed green peppers last night for dinner. Marsh had green peppers on sale yesterday--25 cents apiece. I was giddy, almost Biddy-like, seeing the sale sign--and I didn't even have a coupon!
blu, did you made my hot Italian sausage concoction?