Sweet Peppers from My Sweet Hubby. . .

A tribute to my wonderful husband.  Being downsized after almost twenty-four years with the same company will affect everyone differently and for some it might be a big blow to their ego.   He was devastated that day but he has been determined to get back to work as soon as possible.  All of his buddies were telling him to take a few months and relax go on vacation and things like that.  I know some that did just that, they enjoyed their severance to the very end before they began looking for other employment.   That would not do for my husband, he began contacting friends for advice and their contacts to get him started to find a new job.   He has not stopped looking either, he has had several interviews both phone and face to face since this adventure began.   Through all of this he has stayed up beat and positive and he has been a huge help around the house.  The hubbs is not one that can sit still, he reminds me a lot of my Dad in that respect.  He has been doing my grocery shopping for me, yes that is a little scary but he has actually kept our grocery bill down.  There are plenty of men out there that would not dare volunteer to do grocery shopping but not mine.  The hubbs has been a huge help around the house since his displacement.  He has also been cooking more too, that part I am also enjoying.  The hubbs is a great cook.   He has made salsa at least four times this season and his salsa is the best.   Our peppers are really starting to come in now and last night he fixed this amazing pepper dish for our dinner.  He found this recipe online at Italian Food Forever I am going to share this recipe because it was so good.  I fixed some couscous to serve it over.

Fried Sweet Peppers with Balsamic Vinegar

6 large sweet peppers  (we used red, green, and orange)
1/3 cup olive oil
2 garlic cloves (we pressed ours)
1/3 cup balsamic vinegar
1/3 cup fresh parsley (we did not have any so we skipped this part)

Wash and dry your peppers remove your seeds, stems, and membranes
Cut peppers into 1 inch strips

Heat your oil in a large heavy bottomed skillet and add the peppers, stirring well to coat in the oil.  Cook the peppers over medium heat until they begin to soften and brown.   About 10 minutes.
Add the garlic and cook another minute or tow until fragrant.
Add the balsamic vinegar, season with salt and pepper and mix well.
Cook another three to four minutes until the peppers have absorbed all of the vinegar.  Toss with parsley and serve.
We served ours over couscous and it was wonderful.  I see this in my future since our peppers are really coming in now.

My Hubby the Farmer. . .

With no job offers on the table at the present time and lots of backyard just sitting there, my dear sweet hubby has it in his mind to expand our garden.  I am in big trouble!  Our garden is huge now and we can barely keep up with it and now he has decided he wants to grow more peppers and tomatoes.
Our garden has been a huge blessing to us this year, if it were not for the kids the hubbs and I could live out of the garden.   The hubbs and I both have enjoyed our veggies.  I am also very thankful to my brother-in-law for the peppers he started and cultivated so that we could plant them in our garden.  I will share a picture of the peppers that my hubbs picked on Saturday.   He sauted these with some onion for our lunch on Saturday.  I love it when he cooks, there is nothing sexier than a man that knows his way around a kitchen and likes being there.
We had some new peppers this season and they are so good.  I love the orange Popsicle the new ones were:  Jimmy Nordello (long red), Biscayne hybrid,  sweet heat,  and jalapeno.  The jalapeno is the only one that is really hot, the others have a little heat but great flavor.  We used some of these in our salsa.

Pepper Poppers . . .

Our garden has really been producing this year, we have had good rain and lots of sunshine.  I think our tomatoes are going to do well also.  I am looking forward to the hubbs salsa and if you are good I might share his recipe with you, it is super secret don't you know.   He also makes pepper jelly that is so good.  If you have never had pepper jelly you need to try it, you might have seen it at Christmas over cream cheese or Brie with crackers.  It is usually red but it could be green too.  You can buy it in the grocery store and those fancy specialty shops.  Make sure you do not get the mint jelly because they have that too along the same isle.  Pepper jelly is a blend of sweet and hot and it is yummy with cream cheese and crackers.  I told you I do not can, well I fibbed just a bit, we have canned pepper jelly before successfully.  I hope we will get to make some this year.
Our peppers are just starting to come in and the hubbs is already picking them.  We had them stuffed on the grill over the fourth.  Several years ago we picked up a pepper popper grill pan, it has holes to put your peppers in to hold them upright on your grill.   This is a wonderful pan to have if you like stuffed peppers.   For our peppers, the hubbs browns some ground meat and then blends with a block of cream cheese and a taco seasoning packet.  This goes in the fridge to chill just a bit while he cores his peppers.  The cream cheese mixture needs to chill a bit so it will not run out of your peppers or be to mushy.  Once you have your peppers ready stuff them with your mixture, if your peppers are too small to sit up in the popper pan you can stick a long tooth pick through them to help hold them up.  We do this for the jalapeno peppers because they are usually smaller than the other peppers we use.  I like to dip mine in a little sour cream too when I get ready to eat them.  These are wonderful on the grill.

Hubby Fixing Lunch

My hubby is actually quite talented when it comes to cooking.   He used to fix pumpkin cheese cakes for his offices  every year before the Federal government cracked down on what reps could do for their doctors.  Let me tell you they were the very best no bake cheese cakes ever. 
For lunch he fixed cheese steak with fresh peppers.  The steak was frozen but the peppers were the last out of our garden.  I am not a big meat eater and usually not red meat but these were really good.   I love that my hubby sees me struggling with my school work and offers to feed me.  I have been elbow deep writing discussion questions today and have not even thought about eating much less cooking anything. 
Usually his forte is most anything on the grill, however, he fixes a mean breakfast and can whip up some Martha White muffins in a minute.  The muffins are a staple around my house for Big T.