Wednesday, September 9, 2009

Confessions of a failed domestic goddess

Cooking isn't my thing. I don't like doing it and I'm not good at it. When I'm cooking, the family always knows when dinner's done... when the smoke alarm goes off.

The fact is, I tend to have tunnel vision, seeing only what I'm interested in at the moment. When I'm reading a book the house could fall down around me and I might not notice. My kids have perfected the art of getting my attention, a very loud "Earth to Denise!"

So for 36 years of marriage Dave and I have been going to restaurants. A lot. Not every night, mind you. Way back B.C. (before children) we used to eat out about 4 nights a week. Once the kids came we couldn't do that anymore, so for 20 years or so I managed to slap something on the table most nights.

If that sounds a little haphazard, well, duh! Cooking isn't one of my talents.

Now that the girls are grown and gone, we've kind of worked out a system. Dave and I each manage to make a meal about once a week, and the rest of the time we eat out, order in or have leftovers. Hey, it works for us.

But in the past 36 years I
have managed to find a few, very few, things I'm really good at cooking. Meatloaf is one. And stuffed peppers... ahhh! Made them last night and they were wonderful.

Hey, maybe I'm not such a failure as a domestic goddess after all.

Now if I could just learn to clean.

oOo

Dee's stuffed peppers

1 lb. lean ground beef
1/2 c. chopped onion
Salt/pepper/paprika to taste
1-1/2 c. cooked rice
1 lg. jar spaghetti sauce
6 lg. green peppers
A little cheddar cheese, shredded

Brown ground beef, add chopped onions & cook until clear. In a bowl (or right in your fry pan if it's big enough) mix ground beef with rice, add salt/ pepper/ paprika to taste, and stir in about 1 cup of spaghetti sauce.

Cut tops off peppers and clean out insides. Spray a large casserole or baking dish with non-stick spray and spread a small amount of the spaghetti sauce in the bottom. Stand the peppers up in the dish and loosely fill them with the beef mixture. Top with a little cheese if desired and pour the remainder of the spaghetti sauce over the top.

Cover and bake at 375 for about 50 minutes if they're warm, or about 1 hour 15 minutes if they've been refrigerated first.

Six servings of about 400 calories each.