Potluck.

I hosted a "potluck." Nobody else brought food, except for some chips and dip. I'm okay with this- I love to cook and cooked way too much, but I have to note that people here suck at potlucks. (Although the homemade bean dip was very good.)

I made this stuffed pepper recipe from the Deborah Madison Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone cookbook. I used green peppers from my garden instead of red. I skipped out on the bread crumbs because I don't have a food processor/good way to crumble bread. I love the stuffing a lot. I think next time I try this, I will just cut up the peppers and put them in the mix. No point in stuffing. Makes it too hard to eat.

(I also made a tomato pasta dish that I don't care to elaborate on. It wasn't wonderful. I think I will freeze it though- it would be good in soups.)

For dessert I made strawberry cupcakes using overly ripe strawberries from my health food store. It told me to puree, but again, I have no food processor, so I mashed them up with a potato masher. (I'm not actually sure if it is technically a potato masher. That's just all I've ever used it for. Until yesterday.) I iced the cupcakes with this super simple frosting. The cupcakes ended up tasting almost like strawberry shortbread- the strawberry flavor wasn't entirely throughout the entire cupcake, but it was pretty decent.

Swiss Chard

I have a lot of swiss chard in my garden and had no idea how to cook it. This is a variation of several recipes I found online.

2 tbsp olive oil
large pinch of red pepper flakes
a large teaspoon of pre-cut, ready to go garlic
large bundle of swiss chard (washed and cut into approx. 1 inch strips)
teaspoon of butter
salt

In a large pan, let olive oil, red pepper flakes and garlic sautee for about a minute. Then add swiss chard.

(My swiss chard filled the pan)

Let this sit for about five minutes. Stir. Cover for about five minutes again. Add teaspoon of butter and salt. Stir. Eat.

(I ate mine with the bread I made the other day.)

I am very certain that I used far too many red pepper flakes. I think I seriously underestimate red pepper flakes. I liked the dish, but probably would have liked it more with less red pepper.

Simple Sandwich

I haven't been around my own computer lately with internet access.

Just wanted to show you all this glorious sandwich that I conquered earlier this week:It's made of homemade bread, fresh picked lettuce from my garden and extra sharp white cheddar cheese. I wish I had a tomato, but this simple sandwich was quite good enough for me at the end of a busy day.