Baked Peppers stuffed with Lamb, Currants and Pine Nuts

The week after vacation hit me like a truck. After two solid weeks of lounging around the beaches of California and huddled around the fireplace in Massachusetts with parents around to help with the kids, reality was brutal. All of a sudden we had to make every meal, clean sticky oatmeal off the floor, negotiate hair washes at bath time and, hardest of all, get four people out the door every morning with packed lunches, pumped milk, and now pureed baby food. Aghhh!

The last few days Ryan and I have dedicated our evenings to trying to figure out how to simplify and streamline the chaos. By the way, don’t have this conversation without one of Ryan’s famous Palomas (tequila, grapefruit and soda). Anyways, we came up with lots of useful strategies which basically involved winning the lottery and then getting a three bedroom, a cleaning lady and a consultant to toilet train Xavier. But in all seriousness, most of our discussion centered on cooking since that’s where I devote a lot of my time and where I feel there is little room for compromise. But even though I love it, it becomes overwhelming at times and the addition of food for Annecy is making me a bit crazed. It may sound minor but I asked Ryan if he could chose more of the meals even though with the way we divide responsibilities, I’m the one cooking them. Sometimes I just don’t have the mental energy to come up with good ideas for dinners for the week. So all this is just to say that he recently suggested stuffed peppers. I think he was fantasizing about our responsibility-free honeymoon in Greece… 

Uninspired by the quick google search, I made up my own easy recipe and it was awesome. Cut off the tops and clean out 6 bell peppers. Steam them for 10 minutes so they are soft and easier to stuff. In the meantime, sauté one onion for as long as you have patience…the more caramelized the better. Add a few gloves of crushed garlic and stir. Add one pound of ground meat (lamb, beef, turkey) and cook through. From here it’s up to you. I added chopped green olives, pine nuts, currants and a bunch of spices including turmeric, harissa, ground coriander and fresh cilantro. I then tossed in a cup of cooked quinoa. Let it cook a bit and then stuff those peppers to a breaking point. I topped a few with feta. Bake at 375 for 30-45 minutes until the pepper gets nice and charred. They pair very well with Palomas!