Recipe Surprise

I do not have words for the amazingness that just took place in my kitchen. And by "just" I mean, over the course of the past 36 hours.

First:
I had a house-full of guests last night, so a special meal of pork was planned ahead, and the crock-pot slaved all day long so that I didn't have to! When I got home from work rice and veggies were cooked, tossed together, and eaten with the pork in a scrumptious combination of flavors. All guests were happy, and I was proud of my hostessing success.

Second:
Another hostessing opportunity arises tonight with a friend coming over for dinner and a slumber party. The catch: that friend is a vegetarian. I really don't care at all that she is a vegetarian, except when I have to cook for her :)
It's a challenge for me to come up with filling, healthy, non-salad meals for us, but I try. Yesterday I searched online and found a Stuffed Pepper recipe that sounded amazing, so I went out and bought the ingredients.

This morning I browsed over the recipe before heading to work (thank goodness!) and discovered that it called for the peppers to be stuffed, and then set in the crock pot for THREE HOURS to cook! So, unless Ashley and I wanted to eat at 9pm, that was a serious problem. So today on my lunch break, I ran home and started cooking rice, chopping vegetables, opening cans, dicing cheese, mincing garlic, and cleaning the crock pot.

At the end of my 45 minutes at home I had 3 perfectly stuffed peppers in the crock pot with a wonderful base of tomato sauce surrounding them as they brewed on their low setting.

The recipe allowed for many opportunities to test the combination of flavors and examine how they stimulate your palate (aka, sample the crap out of it) and considering how much I enjoyed that part, I am very much looking forward to dinner tonight.

I'll let you know how they turn out...