"You can make your own pickles?" Yes you can!

Specialist of the psyche often state when one is obsessed with an item, we as humans, tend to subconsciously associate our love of things by " labeling" what is near and dear to us similarly. Hence my first Born's Name Dylan or as we call him " Dill". Nuff said!!

6 pickling cucumbers $3.00
10 cloves of garlic $0.50
10 sprigs of dill $1.00
2 red jalapeno peppers $1.00
2 tbsp. sea salt *
1 cup vinegar *
4 cups water
A large pickling jar, I re-used the old jar I had from when I last bought pickles.

Boil water and vinegar. Cut cucumbers into spears. Take 5 of the 10 garlic and chop finely. Chop up red peppers finely. Place the remaining garlic cloves whole, dill, chopped garlic, and chopped peppers into bottom of jar. Then place the pickles in the jar standing up right on top of the other stuff. Fill with the boiled water and vinegar mixture. Place lid on NOT tightly. Allow too cool for 4 hours, tighten lid, then chill and serve chilled.

So, breaking it down into 3 steps:
1. Chop and slice
2. boil water and vinegar
3. fill jar with items and pickling water.

Stuffed bell peppers, stuffed bell-ies!

One of my very first dishes I learned to cook. Wow, now looking back, had these not gone so well, I probably would have given up cooking all together. I'd be writing a different kind of blog, that's for sure! Perhaps one on my daily struggle as a single gal?


*This is the symbol I use for something you should already have in pantry.

5 yellow bell peppers (green is ok, but the yellow taste more sweet) appx. $5.00 (on sale and in season)
2 cups rice (raw) $1.00
1 can diced tomatoes $1.00
1 small onion $0.30
1 clove garlic $0.03
1 lb ground beef $3.50
1 tsp. garlic salt ( Lawrys is my fav) *
dash of pepper.*
5 slices of mozzarella to place on top of bell pepper. $3.00 (a ball of mozz is about $5.00, this amount won't use the entire ball)

Begin chopping up onion and garlic. Place half of the chopped onion in the pot you will cook the rice in. Saute with some olive oil on medium-high for 3 mts. Add garlic and saute for 2 mts then follow up with 2 cups raw rice. Saute all for about 2 mts. Add 4 cups water. Up the heat to high and bring to boil. Once boiling, cover with lid, bring heat to low and simmer for 20 mts. PLEASE SET TIMER!! Over cooked rice is just wrong. While rice is cooking, take a pan and heat on medium for 2 mts, add ground beef, garlic salt and the other half of the chopped onion. Cook on medium until all the meat is brown.. typically 10 mts or so. While the beef is cooking, prepare the bell peppers. Rinse each one thoroughly. Cut off tops trying to leave a lid to place back on once filled. Take each bell pepper over trash and pull out inner seeds and cartilage. A final upside down pat on your hand will remove most remaining seeds. Place all empty bell peppers in a baking dish big enough to fit, the even make baking dishes just for this dish. This is what I have. This would be a good time to preheat the oven for 350 degrees. Make sure to keep stirring up the meat to integrate the salt and onion flavors. Now, slice mozzarella to fit on top of bell pepper. I use the ball like shaped mozzarella, I find a single slice fits the top of the pepper perfectly. After you sliced your 5 slices, place them aside. Once rice is done, remove lid,, do a nice fluff with a fork and add the cooked beef directly from the pan. Mix meat with rice very well. Spoon in rice mixture into each pepper patting down the rice to fit as much as possible. Once the peppers are filled, top with mozzarella and replace tops on top of cheese. Place baking dish in oven and bake 350 for 35 mts. Cheese should be brown spotted with bubbles :)
This recipe is extremely easy. It consist of 5 steps really
1. cook rice
2. cook beef
3. prepare bell peppers
4. mix rice w/ beef and fill peppers
5. top w/ cheese and bake