Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band

So, I know I talked a big game the other day about considering giving up meat.  I meant that.  BUT, it doesn't change the fact that our freezer is full of frozen meat of various kinds, and I'm not the type to let things go to waste.  Since we had some ground beef and sausage, I decided to make one of my newest favorite meals: grilled and stuffed bell peppers.  Yeah, we've all had stuffed bell peppers before, but something about these are just incredible- a total crowd-pleaser every time they've hit my table. (Bonus for those of you out there with dietary restrictions: it's gluten- and lactose-free!)

I got the recipe from Mr. FBI back during football season when he and Mrs. FBI came over to watch an A&M game.  He brought these as his contribution to our spread and accidentally left the recipe here.  Beyond that, I'm not sure who to credit these to, as the original print out doesn't say who wrote it.  Mr. FBI is an amazing cook, but I'm pretty sure he isn't the one who wrote this.  Regardless, it's time to share it with my readers! 

  

Grilled Stuffed Peppers

What you'll need:

• 2 T seasoning blend of your choice (I've been using a mix of lemon pepper and a little seasoning salt, but use whatever you have on hand- Mrs. Dash or any other pre-mixed blend of spices will do)
• 1 t salt (unless there's salt in the mix you're using)
• 1/2 C white wine
• 1/2 lb breakfast sausage
• 1/2 lb ground lean beef
• 1 C cooked rice
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 egg, beaten
• 1/2 C parsley leaves, minced
• Cayenne pepper
• Ground cumin
• Oil
• 3 bell peppers (recipe recommends green, but I use red) 

Yield: 6 servings

Cook rice according to directions on your package (if you're looking for amazing rice, my absolute FAVORITE brand is Tex-Mati.  Sadly, it's not available here anymore, but you better believe I buy it when I'm in Texas and bring it back on the plane.  It's that good).

While it cooks, start working on the rest of the stuffing.  I tend to start with the breakfast sausage.  I have a hard time finding it NOT in link form, so I buy the links and take them out of the casings on my own. 

Not the most fun (sausage casing grosses me out), but it's also quick and easy.  Here they are post-casing (note the gross casings in the background):

Next, grab your ground beef:



Mince two cloves of garlic (or use the pre-minced stuff in a jar to save time, like I did):

Scramble your egg in a small bowl:

Mix your seasoning blend in a bowl (or mix your own blend like I did as seen here):

Add your wine to it.  HOWEVER, if you recently severely cut your left pink finger, you may find that using a rabbit wine bottle opener is actually much more difficult than you'd ever imagine, mostly due to the fact that you still won't be able to make a tight fist.  You might end up not being able to remove the cork as easily as you anticipate.  It might only come out of the top about 1/6 of the way.  If that's the case, I don't know how to tell you to get it out.  What I do know to tell you is NOT to try and re-insert the cork screw.  If you do, you'll likely end up with this: 

Yeah, that cork is like a solid inch and a half INSIDE the bottle.  Awesome.  And then, if you try using a meat thermometer to spear it and pull it out, it won't work.  Neither will trying to use the rabbit corkscrew again.  If you try those, this is what will happen to the cork:

So if/when that happens, you might panic for a second, but then just relax and remember that as long as your bottle had foil covering the cork, it's not as gross as it seems and you haven't ruined an entire bottle of wine.  It's okay to go ahead and pour some into the bowl to mix with the seasonings. 

Then go ahead and pour yourself a glass and just decant the rest.  And if you don't have a wine decanter, I'd say it's perfectly okay to use a whiskey decanter.

(Note the Abita Strawberry Harvest behind it!  It's totally Strawberry Harvest time.  YOU'RE WELCOME!!) 

So where were we?  Oh yes.  Now combine the seasoning mixture in a large bowl with the meat mixture and the cooked rice.

Combine and mix it up with your hands until it looks like this:

Then set it in your refrigerator for at least an hour so that the flavors can blend and really come together.  You can kill the time by either cleaning up whatever mess you've already created or by going to the gym and working out.  If you do the latter, I hope you don't have to wait for 15 minutes for a parking spot to open in up in the parking lot that only has 26 spaces (side note: why the f is the parking lot at my gym SO SMALL??? If we lived in D.C., I'd be fine with this and probably feel lucky to have a parking lot at all, but we live IN ARLINGTON.  It's not D.C. but by no means is it the freaking BFE 'burbs.  GET IT TOGETHER, SPORT AND HEALTH.)

So when ample time has passed, return to the kitchen and heat up some oil in a pan over medium/medium-high heat, depending on how your stove settings are.  Mine does well over medium.  This is also a good time to either heat up your grill outside or pull out your grill pan if you're doing this inside, like I did.  Mostly because I was too lazy to go outside and knock the 3-week-old-snow-that-is-now-really-just-ice off the top of our grill. 

Add your meat mixture and let it brown on all sides, which should take about 5-6 minutes.

While the meat is cooking, take your bell peppers and slice them in half and remove any and all seeds and white stuff that is found on the inside of bell peppers.

Remove the meat mixture from the heat.  Spray a little cooking spray on your grill pan and throw your peppers on it, open-side down, over medium-high heat.

They just need to cook for a couple of minutes.  Then flip them over and fill them with stuffing while the back side cooks.



Continue cooking for about 5 minutes or until you see a little charring on the back of the bell pepper.  Then just plate and serve! 

A note about the pictures: I halved the recipe this time (first time to do that and it was successful- made about enough for 3 peppers), so if you make the full one, you'll have at least double the amount of stuffing than pictured.  (This is particularly noticeable in the pan and bowl shots.)  That said, you won't be sad about having more stuffing.  I've always had quite a bit left over, and it's great reheated and eaten just on its own.  Happy eating!!