Recipe 1: Chili-Stuffed Peppers

Company's Coming Stews, Chilies & Chowders
Jean Pare, copyrighted 2001

1/2 lb Lean ground beef (used a bit more)
1 Cup Chopped onion (I used red onion)
2 garlic cloves minced (used granulated garlic)

1 Cup water
1/2 Cup brown rice, uncooked (used 1 cup of pre-cooked white rice)
14 oz. can Kidney beans, rinsed and coarsely mashed (used 16 oz. can)
51/2 oz. tomato paste
2 tsp. chili powder (used more)
1 tsp. granulated sugar (oops, never noticed this)
1/2 tsp ground cumin (used cumin seed)
1/2 tsp. salt (none in house so skipped this)

4 large green, red or yellow peppers(used 5, red, yellow & orange)
12 Cups boiling water

3/4 Cup grated cheddar cheese
3/4 Cup grated monterey jack cheese

Scramble fry ground beef, onion and garlic in a large pot or dutch oven until beef is no longer pink.

Add water and brown rice. Stir. Bring to a boil. Cover. Cook for 30 minutes until rice is almost tender. (Since I used pre-cooked rice more or less skipped this step. Found it still needed a bit of water though, and handy to clean out tomato paste can.)

Add beans, tomato paste, chili powder, sugar, cumin and salt. Stir. SImmer, uncovered for about 10 minutes to allow flavours to blend.

Cut pepper in half lengthwise through stem. Remove seeds, leaving stem intact. Blanch in boiling water in a large pot for 2 minutes. Drain. Rinse under cold water. Drain. Blot insides with paper towel. Fill peppers with chili.

Combine both cheese in a small bowl. Sprinkle cheese on peppers. Place on baking sheet. Broil on center rack in oven for about 10 minutes until cheese is melted and peppers are hot. Makes 8 stuffed pepper halves.

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I would definitely make this recipe again. I would definitely keep the increase in chili powder and the red chili flakes that I threw in. The little amount of spices the recipe calls for doesn't give much kick. I didn't need the salt at all, and you definitely didn't need as much cheese as the recipe called for. I added a larger can of kidney beans, and I knew my package of ground beef was bigger than 1/2 pound, thus the addition of the extra pepper. My filling filled the 5 peppers perfectly. I blanched the peppers in two batches, and the first batch I thought I over did, but they ended up being the better batch. Not much cooking gets done in the over. My husband really enjoyed them, and they reheated well the next day. When I took them out of the tupper ware, they were sitting in a pool of water, so I would store them on some paper towel. This one is definitely a keeper, with some experimentation on the spices.