Success

I mentioned earlier that Kesav not only deprived us of his presence, but also his car, ending our weekly Safeway runs. The inconsistency of the food situation caused me to realize how ridiculously convenient dining halls are. One can get a wide variety of well-cooked food just by paying for a meal plan and showing up at pre-arranged times. We, on the otherhand, are usually in a fight for what we can make with what we have, usually with priority to the oldest food. Fortunately, George's parents came into town for a week and graciously gave us food to fill our fridge. Though I guess they kind of have a vested interest in not seeing their son starve.

Their infusion was quite refreshing, as we had a large supply of foods we likely wouldn't have picked for ourselves. In particular, we got several, large bell peppers, which led to our likely final, presentable offering: stuffed bell peppers.

Like all other determinations, this recipe was picked because we got pretty close to the ingredient list. Unfortunately, I've learned that most stuffed peppers recipes call for ground beef as the meat, with the pork sausage here being unusual. We, however, just have chicken. So chicken it was.

Everything came together very nicely. In typical fashion, we misjudged how long various parts would take, and boiled the bell peppers first, while the stuffing took much longer. Because we had to cleave the recipe down to smaller servings, we approximated measurements, and came out to a fairly solid stuffing when the cheese was thrown in:


After thrown into the bell peppers with cheese and tomato sauce to top, and a 30 minute bake:


And it came out great. The stuffing was as dense as it looked, but tasted great, even with the chicken substitution. My only regret is that we only have white rice, which doesn't come out as crunchy or hard as long-grain, but everything mixed together well anyways.

So with a menu based heavily on ripening surplus and constant shortage, we manage fairly well. I'll be heading home Saturday morning, so our culinary adventure has ended. I would write about it here more, but I think I'll do a more extended cover of the summer in my main blog (shameless plug!). I, however, would cap off cooking as this, especially based on this last meal.

Cheaper, better, and more fun than a meal plan. That's a success.