Cooking Fiasco

I'm finally (somewhat) settled into my apartment again after being gone for a month, so I decided last night was the perfect night to refresh my culinary skills. One of my favorite new meals is stuffed peppers, thanks to Bethenny Frankel. Yes, the woman from Real Housewives of New York and other Bravo TV shows. I admit, I got sucked into the Real Housewives craze, and it is one of my guilty pleasures that I love TiVo-ing for snowy nights where I refuse to leave my apartment.

Her recipe is relatively simple, fast, and delicious! I've tried other recipes of hers from her website, but this is by far my favorite. I've changed my own version up a little bit, but here is her actual recipe:

• 6 peppers (cut off top and bottom and use them)
• 1 pound turkey meat
• 1 cup quinoa (cooked)
• ½ large onion
• 2 cups jarred tomato sauce
• 1.5 tsp garlic salt
• 2 tsp tabasco
• 2.5 tsp worcestershire sauce
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp pepper
• 1 tsp chili powder
• 2 tsp fresh thyme
• 1/3 cup feta cheese
• 2 tablespoon toasted pine nuts
• Parsley for garnish

Preheat oven to 400 degrees Cook for 30 minutes Prep Time 30 minutes

1. Cook quinoa per directions. Add one cup grain to 2 cups water. Boil, then simmer until water is gone
2. Crumble turkey meat with wooden spoon over medium heat.
3. While turkey meat is cooking, chop the tops and bottoms of peppers into pieces and combine with chopped onion, garlic salt and tomato sauce. Saute over medium heat and add remaining ingredients except the feta and pine nuts
4. Combine the above with cooked turkey, quinoa, pine nuts and feta cheese (save a small amount of feta to sprinkle on top later on)
5. Remove the inside of the peppers. Portion the mixture into each of the peppers and place them on a baking sheet. Top with feta cheese. Bake for 30 minutes.

Now, I use mixed Mexican cheese (like the kind you would use for tacos) instead of feta; leave out the pine nuts, thyme, tabasco, and Worcestershire sauce; and half the time I don't actually stuff it into a pepper. It tastes just as yummy if you put it in a casserole dish and bake it!

This supposedly easy dish has been a go-to of mine since moving in by myself. However, last night's dinner could not have been more of a fiasco if I tried. I couldn't open my tomato sauce, burned my meat, and overcooked the veggies. The quinoa however turned out perfect! :)

Voila! Not the actual recipe, but close enough!

Once that was in the oven, I decided to reward myself with some wine -- BAD idea. I cut myself on my corkscrew (it's cheap and doesn't really work properly), spilled wine all over myself and my floor, AND burned myself on one of the pans.

All in all, last night was a disaster. Will it stop me from cooking this delicious dish again? No. But I will be investing in a better corkscrew, and I will always open my tomato sauce BEFORE everything is done cooking!

If you decide to try this recipe, let me know how you like it!!