Roasted Red Peppers

One of the most useful skills I acquired this year was roasting red peppers, which was awfully convenient since I also developed a ravenous taste for the same. After paying $3 per bottle at the grocery store a few times, I was amazed to discover how remarkably easy it was to prepare them at home.

This actually isn't the first time in my life I've roasted red peppers. When I was in Italy in the early 80s, I remember roasting them over the burners of our gas range with an Italian friend who then taught me to make pepperonata, a pasta sauce with roasted red peppers as a base. I remember loving the sauce, but regretting the amount of time the tedious roasting process took.

This year I discovered that it's actually incredibly easy to roast peppers under a broiler. It can also be done on a barbecue grill, but that requires going outside, firing up the grill, turning the peppers, etc. The (very brief and simple) step-by-step instructions are below.

1. Wash the red peppers and slice them in quarters. Remove the seeds and membranes.

2. Place the peppers peeling side up so that they are as flat as possible (with as much outside surface facing upward as possible) in a baking pan. Place the pan in the oven, about 4 to 5 inches from the broiler. Broil on high until much of the surface of the peppers is blistered and black. The photo above shows a pepper that is fully roasted, although I actually probably could have left it under the broiler for another minute or so and it would have been easier to peel. On average, the roasting process takes about 10 minutes, so be patient.

3. Remove the peppers from the oven and put them in a sealable (zip top) plastic bag. This allows them to sweat so that the skin comes loose. After 10 minutes or so, remove them from the plastic bag and remove the peelings. The more thoroughly roasted the peelings, the easier it will be to remove the peel.

4. Use the peppers in any variety of dishes. I'll try to post some of my favorites here in the near future. I cook them with a chuck roast and onions to make a lovely goulash. They're also wonderful on salads or sandwiches. Add them to a tomato-based pasta sauce for a real treat.

If you want to make them more like the roasted red peppers you buy already prepared, put them in an airtight container with a little bit of olive oil--just enough to coat them. Then slice them into thin (1/4 inch) strips and enjoy!

Guide to Microwave Cooking

Guide to Microwave Cooking by Cynthia Kanneberg, Ideals Publishing Corporation, October 1978

I'm old enough to remember when most people didn't have microwaves. I don't think my family acquired one until at least late in my high school career. I remember the promise they held for making meal preparation effortless and lightning fast.

We use our microwave many times a day. We warm things up in it. We melt things. We thaw things. We even boil water. But the truth is we never really cook in it, as in prepare an entire meal or even an entire dish. And when I browsed this cookbook, on our shelf since we have no idea when, I could see why. The book includes many tantalizing recipes (orange-almond rice ring, corn and crab soup, for example), but somehow the idea of cooking them in the microwave made them seem cheap and unappetizing. I couldn't even bring myself to try them. Perhaps if the cookbook had also included stove top instructions (defeating the purpose of the book, I realize), I could have been a good sport about it.

So this book has been officially weeded. If you don't share my microwave hang up, let me know and it's yours. It's also available on Amazon for as little as $.01 used, $.89 new. Mine is a mint condition, hardcover copy that is yours for the taking if you act now.

Breakfast Burritos

This is a family favorite breakfast that is also remarkably easy to prepare. We quite often make it on weekend mornings; it's also frequently requested for birthday breakfasts. I wasn't a breakfast burrito fan until I married Bob. He has told me about his breakfast burrito odyssey that started when McDonald's first introduced their product twenty years or so ago. For the record, ours are improved enough over the golden arches variety that Bob can't really stomach fast food burritos anymore (except for the Carl's Jr. offering, which is very good).

We make these with Tortilla Land uncooked flour tortillas, so they need to be prepared before you roll up the finished product. We usually prepare all of the ingredients and then lay them out buffet-style on the island in our kitchen. Everyone makes their own, although the little ones usually need a little help with burrito rolling. The burrito featured in this photo actually ended up being more of an oversized taco because I stuffed it too full to roll it.

One of the great things about this recipe is that you can scale it larger or smaller very easily. It's not at all unusual for Bob to make himself a burrito for breakfast with leftover sausage, bacon, or ham.

Breakfast Burritos
Serves about 8 people
8 cooked tortillas (if you are using pre-cooked tortillas, you might want to warm them in the microwave for a few seconds)
1/4 to 1/2 pound of bulk breakfast sausage (a little goes a long way)
8 eggs (or one egg per person, if you're changing the number of servings)
1-2 cups frozen hash browns, fried until golden brown (this is another ingredient that is easily modified; we've used leftover breakfast potatoes or left the potatoes out all together. It makes a good filler, but the burritos work just fine without them).
1-2 roma tomatoes, diced in about 1/4-inch pieces
1/2 medium-sized yellow onion, diced small
1 cup grated cheddar or jack cheese (we usually prefer a mix)
Salsa to taste (use the salsa of your choice; we've used everything from Pace to fresh pico de gallo).

Brown and drain the sausage. Combine the eggs in a large bowl; break the yolks, but don't whisk the eggs together; you don't want them fully scrambled. Cook the eggs in a large skillet, breaking them into small pieces as you stir them.

Place the ingredients in the order listed. Laying a tortilla flat on a large plate, add filling ingredients until you have about 1/3 cup. Add a teaspoon or so of salsa at the end; this binds the other ingredients together and keeps the burrito from falling apart. Roll the tortilla, folding the ends in and continuting to roll after about the second length-wise fold. Enjoy!