2023, Food, Media, Nature, Words

Peppered!

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One of my friends, Julie, is a freelance writer. She writes about a wide gamut of topics and she appears on the Eating Well site quite a bit.

Last week she penned a piece about why there aren’t ever green peppers in the multi-pepper packs you find in grocery stores. It’s a great bit (well, I think all her columns are great) and it included some fun facts about green peppers. This is quoted with her permission:

Fun Fact One: Peppers botanically are considered to be fruit, because their seeds are stored inside, but they’re culinarily considered a vegetable, like cucumbers.

Fun Fact Two: You can tell which peppers are male and female just by looking at the outside. “Males have three lobes, and females have four, sometimes five,” Schueller says. “The females produce more seeds, and that tends to make them less sweet. So if you like sweeter peppers, look for fewer lobes.”

Fun Fact Three: The peppers we call chile peppers all have spiciness, measured in Scoville units from mild to very spicy. But bell peppers don’t have any heat, and they ended up being named “bell” because a) they aren’t chile peppers and b) they’re shaped like a bell.

I had no clue that there were female and male peppers – not sure it will make me happy the next time I’m dicing up peppers for some dish.

If you’re making stuffed peppers, what do you like to put in them?

52 thoughts on “Peppered!”

  1. I’ve never stuffed peppers but The Birds and I eat lots of them. Budgies are insensitive to capsaicin so can eat the hottest pepper on the the Scoville scale. The pepper’s guts and seeds are preferred. Nothing gets thrown away.

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  3. Public Service Announcements!

    I’m going down to Rochester today – can bring back eggs if anybody wants them! Let me know by 11 ish.

    Will be doing the Hopkins Raspberry Festival tomorrow and will be seeing Chris. I can pick up any books if anybody wants them. He said that he will have copies of Little Mountain, Big Trouble available,

    AND… Blevins on Sunday. 2 p,m. – at tim’s house

    A baboon weekend for me!

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    3. We had a nice visit; was a good day to sit on the deck. She got the tour of the shed project, and the baby chickens and a guinea almost pooped on her. Missed her by *that much*!

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  5. We don’t stuff peppers, either. We grow Joe Parker New Mexico Chile peppers. Ours turn red and I make enchilada sauce out of them. Our favorite sweet pepper are Spanish Giants, which get enormous and red. . Unfortunately there has been a seed shortage for the last couple of years, so this year I started a sweet variety named Margaret’s Pepper from Jung’s, which also turns red. Green peppers are bitter. We prefer red varieties.

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  7. I stuffed peppers once, maybe 20 years ago, and assume I used some sort of ground meat and rice mixture. But I’m not a fan of green peppers anyway. I don’t dislike them, I just don’t go out of my way to eat them or buy them.

    Chris in Owatonna

    **BSP** As VS mentioned, I’ll be at the Hopkins Raspberry Festival all day tomorrow from 9 am to 4 pm. My booth will be between 6th & 7th Streets on the south side. This is my first official event selling my new book, “Little Mountain, Big Trouble,” so come on over and buy one of the first available copies.

    Reminder: LMBT is a middle-grade adventure, especially suited for readers in the 9-13 age group. However, adults will also enjoy the story about a 12-yr-old boy and his adult mentor when they are matched in the Big Brothers Big Sisters program. As usual, the book is set in MN. The adventure for the Little Brother and Big Brother is climbing Eagle Mountain in the beautiful BWCAW. If I did my job well, you’ll laugh, you’ll cry, and you’ll feel triumphant at the end.

    The weather looks perfect (knock on wood!) so that’s no excuse not to enjoy the market fair along with all the other fantastic Raspberry Festival activities. Food, drink, music, games, kids activities, and FANTASTIC people-watching. Lots of dogs will be out and about with their owners too, if you like hanging out with dogs. **END BSP**

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  8. Husband says he will gladly go the rest of his life without eating another stuffed pepper. His mother used to make them. He will eat Chile rellenos, though. I won’t. I like my peppers in small pieces as parts of salads or other dishes.

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    1. When I was a young married, back when being a vegetarian was still really unusual, one of the few restaurants in our Milwaukee neighborhood that had anything even remotely vegetarian was a Mexican restaurant that served chiles rellenos. I ate A LOT of chiles rellenos during those two years!

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  10. Rise and Shine, Baboons,

    I use the same recipe/non-recipe (means I cook without one and put in whatever I have) for zucchini boats and stuffed peppers. Garlic, onions, probably hamburger or tofu, tomatoes, cooked rice. Sometimes mushrooms, banana peppers, grated carrots, etc. In the summer when it is hot, you can grill these over a slow fire, too.

    OT. Yesterday I did not make it here to write about art. Yes I like it, yes I make it.

    OT. VS—eggs would be wonderful and I can pick them up at Blevins. I will email, too.

    OT. Now I finish weeding. I am covered in bug bites.

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  11. I’ve had stuffed peppers, and they were fine, but I’ve never made them. That just seems like more trouble than they’re worth. I have made Chile relienos a couple of times, but though I like them, they are also more putzy to make than I care for.

    That said, I use a fair amount of peppers of all sorts in my cooking. At today’s farmers’ market I picket up some hot banana peppers, chicory, tomatoes, basil, kale, sweet onions, beans sprouts, radishes and home made tortillas; let the summer feasts commence. I have no idea what I’ll make with it all, but whatever it is, will require a minimum of time at the stove.

    OT – I’ve mentioned before how I detest the smell of patchouli oil, and how two of my friends still use it. Although both of them live nearby, I rarely see one of them. Today, as i entered the farmers’ market I caught a whiff of patchouli. I immediately thought “Jacque” – the one I rarely see – “must be here,” and I looked around, but didn’t see her. As I was finishing up my purchases, there she was, standing right in front of me. She gave me a big hug, and we chatted for a bit. Had to leave the car windows open on my way home, and take a shower when I got there, I really can’t stand that smell.

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      1. I’ve actually wondered over the years if this is like the cilantro conundrum – that some folks are biologically inclined to throw up when they smell patchouli, like some folks taste soap when they eat cilantro?

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        2. Back in Carbondale, the smell of patchouli and pot was everywhere, usually emanating from the crowds of tie-dye clad hippies. While I never wore it myself, I didn’t really mind it, just thought of it as something they’d outgrow, and most of them did. I may even have thought it was an attempt a covering up the pot smoke. Jackie (I misspelled it above) and her husband are essentially two old hippies. They are delightful, friendly, and generous people, and they still both wear patchouli oil. They also have the most incredibly beautiful and lush garden on the West Side, and she makes the most wonderful preserves.

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        3. I’m sure they’re nice folks, but are they aware of how offensive patchouli is to many people and choose to wear it anyway or are they just oblivious?

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        4. To be honest, I really don’t know. I don’t see them that often, so I’ve never made it a point to tell them. Perhaps their other friends don’t find it as obnoxious as I do? I just don’t know. I know them both to be kind and considerate people, so perhaps they are just clueless about this?

          My other friend, Laurie, I see more often, and I have asked her to please not wear it when we’re going to do something together, and she doesn’t. She may just think that I’m an outlier and that others who haven’t told her actually like the smell. I know at least one mutual friend who can’t stand it either, but she has never spoken up.

          I don’t know if our sense of smell changes as we get older. Fifty- five years ago, most women wore some sort of perfume or other fragrance, and a lot of men wore pretty strong after shave lotions. My sense is that there was a lot more fragrance present and acceptable back then. (Of course, smoking indoors was widely acceptable back then, too.)

          It’s only been in the last twenty-five years or so that you see signs in hospitals and other establishments banning fragrances. I know that people like Clyde who have a medical condition that makes them extremely sensitive to smells, and may actually make them sick, but for most of us, it’s not allergies or hyper-sensitivity to smell that makes us object. I think we’ve just become much more aware of how intrusive fragrances can be.

          Back in 2012 I spent a month in a rehab facility within Region’s Hospital after my fall. The night nurses were all African, and they all wore extremely strong fragrances. You could smell them long after they had left the room. I think it was a cultural thing, but still found it objectionable, and I’m pretty sure I wasn’t the only one. The fragrance wasn’t necessarily obnoxious, but it was strong and permeated everything. I wondered why it hadn’t been addressed by their employer.

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      2. For me, the smells of cilantro and patchouli were acquired tastes. I smelled cilantro and thought it was something I might never use. Same with patchouli. In the case of cilantro, a friend used to make cilantro chutney. He encouraged me to try it, just the tiniest speck on a corn chip. I did, and kept trying until I really loved it. I have the recipe for his chutney somewhere but to say it’s a recipe is exaggerating. It was very simple.

        I never really cared for patchouli either but I didn’t hate it. Then I lived next to a woman who made soaps, body oils, and lotions, etc. The smells that wafted over from her place were strong with patchouli. It grew on me. She moved and was replaced with a smoker. Boy, I really miss the smell of patchouli now.

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  12. Our garden tasks this weekend will not involve peppers, as they only will need weeding and watering. The raspberries are ripening and need picking. I also ordered 9 lbs of celery root from an organic farm in Oregon, an I need to peel, chop, blanch and freeze them for soups and stocks this winter. They are hard to grow here and possible to find in the grocery store. I love their taste.

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    1. I love celery root, one of my favorite vegetables. They must be difficult to grow here, too; you don’t see them often at the farmers’ market, and at the co-op they cost an arm and a leg. When I cook them, I usually make them the star of the meal, highlighting their subtle, sweet celery taste.

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        1. I can’t imagine needing enough to justify shipping it in from elsewhere. I also don’t have a basement full of freezers, so no place to store it even if I could somehow muster the energy to do a bunch of pre-prepping it. But I applaud you and Chris, you are truly amazing. Hope he isn’t overdoing it with his healing wrist.

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  13. I’ve always said I don’t like spicy things so therefore I don’t like peppers. Kelly has mostly convinced me green and red pepper are not spicy, and I will grudgingly eat them in stir fry and stuff… but I’m having a hard time convincing my brain it’s OK to eat them.

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  15. July 14 is Bastille Day.
    Here in the United States we “celebrate” with French Fries Day.
    Okay. I get it. We (collectively speaking) are ignorant.
    But playing along with this, I ordered pepper fries from Wendy’s. Expect hot? Forget it.
    Tonight I will be going to Buffalo Wild Wings to watch the Reds v Brewers. My hotness will be satisfied.

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    1. Wes, we talked about your birds today down on the farm. I’m wondering, did birds evolve their resistance to capsicum or did humans lose it? Moot point since we’ll never know but interesting to think about.

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  16. OT – This is a message for Renee. You mentioned a little while ago not wanting to go hear Judy Collins because she didn’t want to see her struggle with old age. Garnet Rogers, a Canadian folk musician who I think most baboons are familiar with, had this to say about her:

    “I’ve been trying to say something about the two shows I did this week with Judy Collins, and I’m running out of superlatives.
    Tuesday we were at the Stone Crop Winery in Morrisburg.
    The weather was lovely, and the staff were wonderful. Great sound, and it was extraordinary to once again, watch a legend at work, still completely engaged with her audience, and still going for those notes fearlessly and hitting them perfectly.
    I got to sing and play my brother’s song, “Northwest Passage” with her, and I kept smiling, wondering what Stan might have thought.
    Wednesday was at the Sergeants’ Mess Hall, Base 31 in Picton, and what a surprise that was. It’s an old somewhat tumbledown WW2 RCAF aerodrome which is in the process of being restored, and repurposed. They’ve converted one barracks into a 160 seat concert venue with full sound and light, and perfect sight lines.
    I’m always surprised when government and arts council funds are wisely used. The place is a model for how the arts can be supported in the community. There are pottery studios, and repair shops and art studios, and all sorts of plans being brought to fruition.
    And again, I got to watch Judy and her accompanist, Russell, at close quarters, and see the deep level of commitment they bring to the work.
    Every show, every night is different, and I’ve never once seen them phone it in, or be less than brilliant. And Judy does it all… a 90 minute set plus encores, standing in 6 inch stiletto heels.
    I mean, really.
    I can barely wait 2 minutes for an elevator.
    And I got to once again sing NW Passage, and play electric guitar on “Who Knows Where the Time Goes?” …a favourite of mine since Pontius was a Pilot.
    Nice work, if you can get it, sometimes.”

    I don’t know if you there’s still time to get tickets, Renee, but it sure sounds like it would be worth the effort.

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    2. It seems like negative information about “celebrities” gets passed along a lot more readily than does positive information. In response to a comment from Priscilla Herdman, Garnet went on to elaborate on Judy’s work ethic:

      “I wish you could see her prepare for a show, Priscilla, speaking of commitment. She arrives at the venue around 2 PM for an 8 PM show and spends an hour and a half at the piano, doing her old scales and exercises, and then goes into Rachmaninoff and Beethoven for a while, and then does sound check, and maybe rehearses a couple of songs she and Russell haven’t done for a while. She leaves the piano alone for the rest of the night, except for maybe a couple of tunes. It is just discipline, and iron will. She is such a sweet, kind woman, and incredibly generous and polite to all the staff and crew. Not a hint of diva syndrome. And in all the years I have spent, opening for various people, she is the only act I have ever worked with who has not only come to watch my set, but she sits on the stage during my sound check and listens intently to the songs. She is a joy.”

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  17. Franklin has a food truck park on Fridays. I made an order off menu asking for the hottest item available. Made up special. If the proprietor follows through, that Hamburger will have my name.

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  18. I have a friend who has digestive trouble with peppers. Once when we were lunching in a restaurant, she ordered a dish and requested no peppers. When the dish arrived and obviously had some, she pointed it out to the server. The server said “Oh, those aren’t peppers! Those are chiles!”

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  19. I’ve made stuffed peppers with steamed brown rice or quinoa, an egg, spices like cumin and chili powder, and whatever veggies I have chopped up very small. (Onions, corn, and black beans work really well, also sun dried tomatoes or chilis or jalapeños.) I steam the rice or quinoa, mix in sautéed veggies and spices, mix in the egg, and mix in a bunch of cheese so everything is mixed well and very cheesy. I halve the peppers the long way – just seems to work better as they don’t sit upright well if they are halved the short way. I oil a baking dish, lay the peppers in the pan, stuff with the rice/quinoa/veggie filling and top it with more cheese. I always look at this as a good excuse to use more cheese. I just bake them until the peppers are soft and the cheese is a little browned. The peppers release water as they cook and they get pretty soft. I don’t like them that way. I like them with a little bit of firmness left so I don’t let it go too long. All of that said, I rarely do something like that anymore. It just seems like too much trouble. I don’t follow a recipe anymore. I just do it. I’m the only one eating it so I don’t really go for perfection. Sometimes I impress myself. Other times I’m glad I live alone.

    OT: Sorry for the delay. I ran up to Two Harbors yesterday and came back today. Lots of driving but I learned a lot. Yes, VS, I would like a dozen eggs. I will see you all at Blevins on Sunday.

    OT2: I can’t draw or paint but I think I have the soul of an artist. I love fiber arts. I used to weave and if I had continued, I might have grown some skill with it. I love crocheting. It’s so easy for me – very zen. I love color combinations. Certain things work better than others, like color in a room and objects that complement one another.

    I would like to try mosaics. I love the way you can use color in a mosaic. I have been given the impression that fine art is what you hang on a wall and craft is everything you can make and use. I love the beauty of some functional pieces (back to form and function) when they have been made with artistry. But I guess I’m more crafter than artist. Music is a fine art but I’m not good enough on my instruments to say I’m an artist. I can only say that music is my number one hobby and that I have had the experience of earning a little cash for it.

    I made a suggestion to a graphics artist once who replied, “Yeah, everybody’s an artist…” I don’t know for sure how they meant that but it wasn’t very encouraging.

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    1. Re your comment to the graphic artist, I think it may be akin to a singer/songwriter being constantly told by well-meaning – but clueless – fans that “there’s a song in that somewhere.” The comment is usually made in the response to the songwriter having related a memorable incident that they’ve recently had. I suppose, after a while you just get sick of hearing it.

      When Hans had his own custom furniture shop and participated in shows with fellow woodworkers, he’d come home and declare that he’d be a rich man if he had a dime for every person who had told him about their grandfather’s woodworking skill. He understood on an intellectual level that they were just trying to make conversation, and saw it as something they had in common, but it got old really quickly.

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