I went on the hunt for the last of Essex County peppers for my annual stash of red peppers which I usually use for my go-to winter meals of red beans and rice and chili. The farmstand near my house has closed (see you next year, and thanks!!) so Harrison and I had to go on a 5 minute drive to hunt for them. They were huge, the size of an evening bag!
In two more months, we will walk haughtily past the scrawny peppers in the grocery store, flown thousands of miles from Chile, picked while hard and green and ripened with artificial gas. People will be paying $3.99 for the privilege. And thanks to Harrison's calculations (we are loving grade 4 math!) I have just saved enough with this trip for a x-mas present worth $108.75.
The XL peppers were 75 cents each - I got 15. They are easily the size of two regular $3.99 peppers without tax. (Probably a good thing we're paying it given the way our food system is taxing the health of our population, not to mention reducing the life expectancies of our kids! We'll need every penny of those McDollars)
15 x .75 was $11.25. I paid for it with the change left in my car. 30 peppers over the winter x $4 is $120.
Time Savings? I'll add some of that too, since washing and chopping, and cutting probably took me a half an hour. They're now air drying for a while before I freeze them in bags, since any water molecules left will form ice crystals - not horrible, but they do reduce the integrity of the peppers as the months go along.
RED BEANS AND RICE MONDAYS
Monday nights are always my favourite. Ever since falling in love HARD with New Orleans in 2005, and subsequently learning that red beans and rice is served unfailingly every Monday, we have adopted this tradition at our house. There are great slow cooked recipies, but here's my super fast one.
Enough rice for the mouths in the house, in a rice cooker, which I ADORE and can't believe I ever lived without one.
In a slow cooker:
1 can of red kidney beans
1 can of crushed tomatoes (or a jar of homemade tomato sauce)
1/2 cup of red lentils
Three cups of what new-Orleanians call "the trinity":
1 cup of frozen chopped onions
1 cup of frozen chopped red peppers
1 cup of frozen chopped celery
Hot sauce to taste
Tony Chachere's Seasoning to taste
For the non-vegans: Add 1 tbsp of butter cascading on top of a scoop of rice, and a scoop of beans. Drizzle some hot sauce over top. My cab driver told me about this trick on the way to the airport home, and it is sinfully good.
For the non-vegetarians: Add some bacon, or pork, or a smoked turkey leg, or some andouille sausage.
Beans and rice combine to form a perfect protein. It is cheap, delicious, shelf-stable and easy.
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