Out of Nothing at All*

A couple of weeks ago I bought a bag of peppers - one red, one yellow, one orange - at the store because they looked so pretty. And were on sale.

They had been sitting in the fridge ever since, hoping I wouldn't let them ruin and go to waste. Jeffrey and I talked about stir fry, then about stuffed peppers. He liked the idea of stuffing them and reminded me of the leftover boudin we'd grilled a couple of nights before.

So I did and I have to tell you that these peppers were really, really good. Easy, too!

I cooked about 2/3 cup rice in the rice cooker. While that was going, I chopped a piece of an onion that was in the fridge and sauteed it in olive oil. I chopped the boudin (about 3/4 pound, maybe) into small pieces and shredded some white cheddar, not sharp white for any particular reason except that's what was in the fridge already opened. There was spinach in the vegetable crisper so I tore a few leaves and mixed that in, too.

At some point, I preheated the oven to 375 degrees.

I halved the peppers and cleaned out the seeds. I set them aside in a lightly greased casserole dish.

When the rice was done, I tossed it, the sauteed onion, boudin, and most of the cheese together. I reserved about 1/3 cup of the shredded cheese.

That's when I realized I needed something tomato-ey to bind this all together. Luckily, there was a half a jar of basil tomato sauce in the fridge so I spooned out some of that along with a couple of tablespoons of red pepper pesto and mixed that all together.

I filled the peppers with the mixture and baked them for about 30 minutes. I put a few tablespoons of water in the bottom of the pan and I don't know why I did that except it seems like I'd seen a recipe for stuffed peppers where it called for doing that.

So it's not the prettiest dish -

When the peppers were done, I topped them with the remaining cheese. Easy, made from leftovers, and everyone liked it. Win, win, win.

* With apologies to Air Supply.


Have you seen that movie with Hugh Grant and Drew Barrymore, where he's the 80s music has-been? The intro of that movie, the faux 1980s music video that's cheesy beyond befief? I think it was based on this Air Supply video. Solid gold.