SUMMER MEALS POST TWO: STUFFED PEPPERS AND MUSSELS

Two posts in one week. Totally on a roll. See you again in 8 months. Kidding, kidding.

I have some exterior house updates to share eventually - the house is looking waaay different than last summer. But for now we're going to stick with a second post about summer meals. Earlier this week I shared burrito bowls. I had leftover corn and black beans from that meal so decided to add them to rice and stuff them in green peppers cooked on the barbecue. We had mussels as our protein (we're big fans) which I cooked in a covered pot on the stove.

Here's what I did for the stuffed peppers.

I cooked half a cup of basmati rice in the rice cooker for two stuffed peppers. Then I hollowed out the peppers (I used green but you can use any kind of bell pepper). When the rice was done I mixed in some corn and black beans, black pepper, cayenne pepper, cumin... I can't remember if I used a couple of other spices. I think I might have added a little cinnamon and garlic powder? I mean really you can't go wrong no matter what you add. Then I added a couple of spoonfuls of salsa and some shredded cheese on top. Hubby put them right on the barbecue for 10 minutes or so. I toyed with the idea of making the stuffed peppers a meal by themselves and adding some sausage, but I decided I was in the mood for mussels.

Now for our secret mussel recipe - world famous. Just kidding, but I do have a little cousin who loves our mussels and requests them when she comes to visit. :)

We do the same thing every time - I add crushed garlic to a pot (5 or 6 cloves), chopped green onions, and sliced hot peppers (jalapenos etc). The hot peppers make the dish - trust me!! Use lots and lots of them - you can't go wrong. I pour in a quarter or a third of a bottle of white wine (I buy the cheapest wine at the liquor store for cooking). When I made them this week for the first time I bought non-alcoholic wine at the grocery store because I was feeling too lazy to make an extra trip to the liquor store. I didn't notice a big difference, to be honest.

Now, I'm not a chef so take this with a grain of salt (hehe), but I usually throw out the raw muscles that are open and won't close. I must have seen this on the Food Network at some point or something. I think it's basically the same as not eating the ones that aren't open once they're cooked. The idea is that the raw ones that don't close are already dead so you don't want to eat them. I don't know.

I cook them on high just until the shells all open. It doesn't take long. 10 minutes max! Just in time for your stuffed peppers to grill on the BBQ!

Enjoy, my friends!