Things have been busy in my neck of the woods. On Sunday Sweetie and I decided to take some cars for test drives. We have been looking at cars in parking lots and as we drive around for about a year, knowing that our beloved Toyota 4Runner is getter older and might need to be replaced. Sweetie has also done lots and lots of research on recent car statistics and I even spent time reading about different ones in a magazine and Consumer Reports and online at Edwards (or is it Edmunds?) so that I had a small amount of knowledge for the search. The last time we actually did the test driving dance was about 22 years ago when we bought the Astro van that was put to good use for many years carrying kids to volleyball and soccer games, plus taking us all on trips and some of us on camping trips. That time I was suffering through a head cold and just wanted to buy something and go home.
This time I was excited about trying different cars, but we promised each other that we wouldn't buy anything on Sunday. Silly us, we always buy the same day. Turns out we did this time, too, and are now the happy owners of a Honda Ridgeline, which is a combination of a car and a truck. Sorry no photo yet, but I'll post one tomorrow. It has a car like ride but a truck back window and truck bed for hauling stuff. Will be selling the 4Runner soon, although it seems to be running just fine. I think the idea was to choose a car while we didn't have too so that we could choose what we wanted.
Yesterday was full of doctor's visits, all benign checkups really, and a nice lunch with a friend.
So, finally, today I can tell you about the great stuffed peppers we had for dinner last night. I had the leftover half for lunch today and it may have been even better. The following will serve as a recipe since the amounts can be varied to suit your own taste. The photo up top show the baked pepper and the photo below shows them stuffed, right before I added the cheddar cheese.
Our local farm stand had these lovely peppers for sale this week, plus some small zucchini squash. I cooked barley in veggie broth, adding diced celery, carrot and green onion. While it was cooking I sauteed chopped zucchini and mushrooms in a little olive oil, then added salt, pepper and dried thyme. The cooked barley was mixed with the cooked zucchini mixture, then it was all stuffed in the halved and de-seeded peppers. A sprinkle of chopped parsley and shredded cheddar cheese finished them off. I put them into a baking dish and a small baking dish and added more veggie broth to the bottom. After covering the dishes with heavy duty foil, I put them into a preheated 425 degree F oven and baked them for 20 minutes.
They were outstanding. The pepper was softened, but still kept its shape. The barley mixture was delicious and chewy in a good way. They were amazingly filling and the perfect dinner for a chilly evening.
I've never liked test driving cars, as I'm always afraid I'll crash one, just because it's not mine. You guys sound like you had a great time. (Your car must be the PT Cruiser, if your Sweetie drove the 4Runner. I like the Cruiser, too, but thought the steering was a little low for me. I did test drive one of those that belonged to a friend.)
ReplyDeleteWe bought our car through Costco this last time, and honestly, it was walk in, give them our paperwork, fill out more, walk out. We went in knowing what we wanted, so we bought the same day with little fuss.