A Holiday and Some Peppers

The kids are off school today so I had some plans, get the oil in my car changed and get to the grocery store then I had planned to spend most of the day playing in the kitchen.  I had baking bread and making cracklins on the list (yes Camilla the day before I read your comment I decided to give them a go).  However, last night Mr, Man got quite a bit of a fever and hadn't quite recovered as of this morning.  When we saw my beautiful wife off to work today Mr. Man and I were sitting on the Sofa watching Phinaas and Ferb after a couple of hours of that we have moved on a bit.  We all had lunch with Kris, Mr. Man feeling better, but not 100% Miss Lu,  and the Neighbor kids are doing what they should do, carving their initials in the freshly laid sidewalk that the city poured today.  OK, seriously, pouring cement on sidewalks all over town on a school holiday is just asking for that.

So plans change, the down side of not being able to blog much lately is that I have missed out on something that I enjoy so much; the up side is that I still cook so I have a camera full of pictures.  So I am going to draw on some stuff from the last couple of weeks.

These two dishes started the last time I was doing my regular produce shopping I had picked up beets, zucchini, Valida onions, cilantro, green beans, fresh basil, limes, pluats and ginger along with some other things.  I know it sounds like a casserole from foodie hell but the fridge was running on empty and I needed some stuff.  When I got to the check out lane I found a bag of Hungarian Chiles in my cart,  my first thought was, "why did I grab these guys?" but then realized that someone must have dropped them in my cart thinking it was theirs.  Scary thought considering what was in my cart...

I was about to give them to the cashier when I thought, "hey nerdy food blogger, take them home and do something different why don't ya?!?"  Sometimes I get in a foodie rut and have to try something new to fix it.  So these little guys came home for dinner twice...  I asked around the house what I should make with the Hungarian chiles and we had a consensus, something for me to eat.  Which is good and bad, good because I can make whatever, bad because nobody else tries it so you all have to trust my opinion.

First dish
Pan Seared Tuna Steaks with Hungarian Chile Slaw
Tuna Steak
Juice from one lime
Grated Zest from on lime
1/3 cup olive oil
1 clove of garlic minced
Salt, Pepper

Let the tuna steaks marinade on the counter for about half an hour.

The slaw
1 cup white wine vinegar
1/3 cup sugar
1 Valida Onion sliced
1 Hungarian Chile sliced thin
2 TBS Chopped Cilantro
Salt and pepper

Put vinegar and sugar in a small sauce pan, heat pan until sugar dissolves set aside and allow to cool to room temperature.  As it cools mix the rest of the ingredients together in a bowl.  Add the vinegar then set aside for a couple of hours.  This can be made a day ahead if you like.

In a lightly oiled pan sear your tuna the way you like it, rareish for me then top with vegetable mixture and serve.

Second Dish
Stuffed Hungarian Chiles
2 Mild Italian Sausages cut up and browned
3/4 cup of bread crumbs
1 egg
1/2 onion diced
Marinara Sauce
Mozzarella Cheese
2 Hungarian Chiles slit from top to bottom seeds removed if you want a little less heat.

Mix the first 4 ingredients together and stuff into the chiles.  Place on indirect heat on the grill and cook for about 20 minutes then top with a little marinara and mozzarella and cook for another 5-10 minutes, serve with warm marinara sauce.

In my opinion both of these meals were great... but I guess you will just have to believe me or try them yourself