Stuffed Peppers

A few weeks ago, Phil and I cooked dinner with some of our good friends. We decided to make stuffed peppers. If you've ever been to our house for dinner, you know that we put peppers in pretty much EVERY dish we make, but I surprisingly had never had a stuffed pepper. Luckily, our friend Karen had a great recipe she shared with us. We have made them a few times since then and have altered the original recipe a bit to our liking.  I have a feeling this is going to become a popular dish at the Ellerbroek household!

 

First, a little pepper education: All peppers grow on the same vine. The longer they're on the vine, the sweeter they are, which is also what gives them their different colors.  The green ones are most bitter, yellow is mild in flavor, orange is in the middle and red is very sweet.

4 Peppers

1 lb. Ground Turkey (or Ground Beef or Bison)

Breakfast Sausage (optional)

Onion

Garlic

Carrots

Mushrooms

Additional Pepper of Different Color

Seasoning - Salt, Pepper, Oregano, Garlic Salt, etc.

1 cup Brown Rice

8 oz. Tomato Sauce

1 Egg

1 cup Ricotta Cheese

1/2 cup Cottage Cheese

Mozzarella Cheese

 

Preheat oven to 350.

 

Brown the ground turkey. If you choose to, brown two breakfast sausage rounds and mix in with the meat.  

Chop the tops off of the peppers and gut them. Rinse out so the seeds and membrane are gone. Replace tops. Wrap peppers in aluminum foil and place in a baking pan. Place in oven for 15 minutes. Set aside.

 

In a skillet saute onions, garlic, diced carrots, mushrooms, and pepper in butter. Add meat mixture. Season with salt/pepper/oregeno/garlic salt.  

Cook brown rice.

Once the rice is done, mix in a bowl with tomato sauce, egg, ricotta cheese and cottage cheese. Add cooked meat to this mixture and stir up.

 

Stuff peppers with your meat mixture and replace tops. Wrap in aluminum foil and place in baking pan standing up. Bake for 15 minutes.

 

Remove from oven. If you desire, remove pepper top, add a slice of fresh mozzarella cheese on top of the meat mixture. Place in oven with pepper tops and broil for 5 minutes.

 

Remove from oven and top the peppers with the pepper tops to make them look pretty :)

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What’s Brewing?

In attempts to contribute to my wonderful wife Laura’s blog, I wanted to find something to write about that nearly every guy would be interested in reading. And so, you can understand why I chose beer.

But not just writing about beer, but rather the process of home brewing beer. The concept came about during a dinner party we were attending. Midway through the party, with the wine wearing thin, our host Evan invited a few of the guys to try his home brewed creamy dark Stout beer. As has passed around the brown bottles, we all commented on how cool the custom bottle labels and caps looked.

We were almost hooked…..

“How does it taste?” I asked. That question was quickly answered as Evan popped the top of a 22 oz bottle. The smooth pour of the beer was an invitation in and of itself. Lifting the glass for a drink, I inhaled the smell of the natural, homemade beer. I made a mental note of how distinguished the aroma was, which surprised me. The taste did not disappoint.

Evan smiled and offered to show us his inexpensive home brewing starter kit which has was sharing with his friend. He shared with us that the average cost of each beer was less than a dollar. Ok, so maybe now we were hooked.

My tasting wingman, Alan, was more excited than when he talks about sports, so I knew he was digging this relatively unknown concept of home brewing. He had a large grin on his face, and kept saying “This is REALLY good!!!!”. When he ended then night suggesting that we try our own hand at making beer, I thought to myself that it would be a fun thing to do. Alan suggested that a mutual friend, Greg, would also be interested, and that we might be able to share the costs between the three of us.

And here I write today! I will be looking to make additional posts as we step into this new hobby. I hope you will read!

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Pieces

After reading this article about Lee's new condo in Atlanta, I checked out her home décor bo­­utique, Pieces Inc. I am in LOVE! She has some absolutely gorgeous vintage furniture and chic accessories. Here are some of my favorites:

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Permanent Makeup

Last week, the website I designed for Sally Hayes Permanent Makeup went live! Check out the new site here:

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Bridal Showers

Since I really haven't posted at all in the past year, I've decided to go back and recap some of the big events that have happened in our lives. Prior to our wedding, I had two amazing bridal showers thrown for me. The first was in Arizona, hosted by my good friend Stephanie and my aunt Shelly. The theme was "Something Blue" and included Tiffany boxes, giant diamond rings, and lots of blue - check out those blue martinis! The whole evening was absolutely beautiful...

The second shower was in South Dakota and was hosted by my sister Kelli and my sister-in-law Beth. We played lots of fun games, including dividing into three teams, each decorating a wedding cake! Each team got a two round cakes, four cupcakes, frosting, and a bunch of decorations. They could also use anything they could find in the room. I was so impressed with their creations and had a tough time choosing a winner!

 

Thanks to all these ladies for throwing me two amazing bridal showers. I had so much fun and felt so loved by all my family and friends. Thank you all for celebrating with me!

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Curb Appeal

When Philip first toured our current house, which was listed as a foreclosure, he emailed me this photo of it, and I was head over heals in love! It was the yellow stucco, clay-tile roofed house I had always dreamed of living in!

The problem was, when I went to see the house, it looked more like this. Not the curb appeal I had been expecting.

These photos don't fully show just how overgrown it was, as these were taken for the previous house listing before the house sat empty and unmaintained for nine months. It was so overgrown, you couldn't see the gorgeous detail of the house that I first fell in love with. As much as I love huge old trees, because they remind me of the green, tree-lined streets I grew up on in the mid-west, we decided this olive tree had to go. So our first project was to cut down the olive tree. We also moved the lemon tree that was blocking the front window to the side of the house, and replaced it with a palm. We cut down the oleanders on the sides of the front window and replaced with them with airier Mexican bird of paradise shrubs (which unfortunately aren't in bloom right now). We planted a few more flowering shrubs around the palm, filled the bowl in front of the window with an assortment of cactus (Phil's favorite!), and planted some flowering vines on the right side of the house. And we had about 10 tons of granite poured in the front yard, took down the driveway gates and added accent lighting. So, after a few days of hard labor, and the help of my amazing inlaws, we can now see the beautiful house we fell in love with:

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Cake Pedestals

After my post about the mobile cupcakery, my friend Steph offered to pick up some cake pedestals from Costco for me. Here they are...





How adorable are those!?! And the best part... They're only $20 for the pair! Now I just need to find a fantastic cake recipe so I have something to put on them!

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Gorgeous Photos + Adorable Cupcakes = Drooling

Check out these gorgeous photos shot by Jose Villa of the Enjoy Cupcakes mobile cupcakery. These images just make me happy. And hungry...

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For real this time...

Ok, so I think it's time I jump back on the blog bandwagon. Philip and I have been super busy working on our house, so I have tons of projects to post about, complete with before and after pics. And we have also been doing quite a bit of traveling, so I'll have some fun reviews and photos from all those trips! But before I dive into all that, I'm feeling the need to update my blog a bit, including the name. I would love to hear any ideas you come up with, as I'm terrible at naming. Please share your thoughts, and I'm looking forward to sharing what I've been up to for the past year! Cheers!

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I'm BAAAAAAACK!

Hello all! Sorry for the long furlough. Apparently getting married and planning a honeymoon to Europe takes a significant amount of preparation :) Now that I actually have some time to breathe, I can get back to my blogging. Over the next few weeks I'll update you on everything that happened over last six amazing months. Until then, I'll leave you with this passage that's been working on my heart this morning.
Mrs. Ellerbroek :)

John Ashcroft wrote that in order to clean up New York City, "Rudolph Giuliani started by going after the little things. 'I am a firm believer in the theory that "minor" crimes and "quality of life" offenses are all part of the larger picture,' he explains. Among the first elements to go were the 'Squeegee Men,' drug-addicted and shady-looking riffraff who personified New York's rough edge. Armed with a soiled rag and a dirty bottle of watered-down Windex, these men would bully and badger motorists for money.

"Giuliani said, 'We're not going to put up with this anymore,' and he brought this intimidation to an end. He then declared war on graffiti, subway panhandlers, loitering, broken windows, and petty vandalism - minor offenses that would have gone unnoticed in days past while the police force was overwhelmed with homicides and violent crime. But Guiliani had a hunch: If you send out a signal that you won't tolerate these minor offenses, people will get the idea that the major offenses will be treated even more seriously.... It worked. Giuliani has been successful in reducing crime beyond all expectations."

What if we began the same policy concerning the "city" of our hearts? If we declare war on the "minor" sins, surely the major sins won't be able to lodge in our cities and defile the quality of our walk with God.

Live Fearlessly - A Study in the Book of Joshua
Lenya Heitzig and Penny Rose

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