Green Pepper Casserole

I've been having fun cooking recipes from a vegetable cookbook I bought at a charity book sale a few weeks ago. You can read about Danish Tomatoes here, and Carrot Loaf here. I liked both of these recipes.

And now I've found another gem...... Green Pepper Casserole.

The recipes in this 1972 cookbook were "created and perfected by homemakers from Maryland to Texas" and most of them are delightfully simple.

Green Pepper Casserole was created and perfected by Doris C. Mountjoy, Stanford, Kentucky. She uses 1 cup of cooked chopped green peppers to make this recipe.

I, however, homegrown countrygirlified it... I used peppers from my garden that I froze a couple of weeks ago.

Peppers freeze beautifully, and they don't need any special treatment prior to freezing them. No blanching, no curing, nothing special, just dice them up and freeze them! They become soft and lose some crunch, but they retain their taste and can be used in soups, stews, chilis, casseroles, omelets, and lots of other things.

So, a few weeks ago, when I heard it was going to frost, I grabbed up all of the remaining sweet and hot peppers from my garden. I diced them all, green, red, orange, and yellow sweet peppers, and added some minced jalapenos, and then vacuum packed them in two cup portions.When thawed, two cups of diced peppers measure out as one cup. And since they are soft from being frozen, I didn't cook them first, as Doris C. Mountjoy, Stanford, Kentucky suggests. To make Green Pepper Casserole the homegrown countrygirl way, squeeze the excess liquid from the thawed peppers. Combine the peppers with one cup of cracker crumbs (I used saltines).

Add one cup of cheddar cheese, two tablespoons of melted butter, and one 12 ounce can of evaporated milk. Sprinkle with salt and pepper, stir together, pour into a 7x11 buttered casserole dish and bake for 30 minutes at 350 degrees.I'm a little bit embarrassed to admit that I have already made this casserole three times. It's a good versatile dinner side dish. And it goes nicely alongside a cup of soup for lunch. But I think my favorite time to eat this is with breakfast. And this is now going to be one of my "go to" breakfast and brunch recipes, especially on holidays.I had this breakfast for dinner. (I love having "breakfast for dinner!")

GREEN PEPPER CASSEROLE
from Southern Living's "The Vegetable Cookbook" 1972
Recipe by Doris C. Mountjoy, Stanford, Kentucky

1 1/2 cup milk
1 cup cooked chopped green peppers
1 cup cracker crumbs
2 tablespoons butter, melted
1 cup shredded cheddar cheese
salt and pepper to taste

Combine all the ingredients in a greased casserole. Bake at 350 degrees fro about 30 minutes.

Roasted Tomato Vegetable Soup

This past Sunday was a gorgeous day! It felt like autumn blew in on a cool, crisp breeze. It brought beautiful clouds that dwarfed the fields, wisps of burning wood fires, and jacket weather.Trees are only beginning to hint about their color changes but soybeans have turned golden and will be harvested soon. This early autumn weather urges me to finish stacking my firewood. And it reminds me of all the other chores that I still need to get done around here before winter.

But autumn makes me think about fun things, too, like fresh apple cider, smokey campfires, bumpy hayrides, and soup...... this soup.

I love this soup!

When you read how to make this soup it might sound like it's complicated, but this is really a very simple recipe. Three different pans of ingredients are roasted. Then they are combined with some stock in a blender. That's it. Done!

This soup cans well, too. It maintains its flavor and consistency if you home can it. When you open up a jar of this soup it's just as fresh and tasty as the day you made it.

Here's how to prepare this soup:

1) Peel, seed, and chop 5 pounds of tomatoes. Spread them out into a shallow non-reactive pan. Add several cloves of rough chopped garlic. Drizzle with a bit of olive oil. Sprinkle with thyme, fresh ground pepper, and salt. Roast at 300 degrees for a couple of hours. This will yield about 2 quarts of roasted tomatoes, including their liquid. (Don't drain the liquid.)2) Roast, core, and peel 3 or 4 large red (or orange or yellow) peppers. Here's how I do it... I cut the flesh of the peppers into large sections that will lay flat on a baking pan. I place the pan in the oven under the broiler until they become mostly blackened. Then I remove the pan from the oven and I lay a piece of plastic wrap loosely on top of the blackened peppers. I let the peppers rest until they are cool enough to handle, then I rub the skin off of the peppers.3) Peel and roughly cut 4 cups of carrots. Peel and slice 2 cups of onions. (Optional: add a chopped jalapeno.) Combine carrots and onions (and jalapeno, if using) in a shallow baking baking pan. Drizzle with a bit of olive oil and sprinkle with fresh ground pepper and salt. Cover pan and roast at 350 degrees for 1-2 hours, stirring or shaking pan occasionally, until carrots and onions are soft.

4) Puree prepared and cooled ingredients and a quart of vegetable stock, in a blender. This is quite a bit of soup. I have to blend 10-12 batches of it in my standard sized blender to puree all of it. I add a bit of each ingredient (some roasted tomatoes, some roasted and peeled peppers, some roasted carrots and onions, and some vegetable stock) to each batch that I whirl in the blender. Blend ingredients well so that no chunks of vegetables remain. Pour each blended batch into a large stock pot and stir to combine all the batches.

5) Heat soup. Add a pinch of sugar, adjust seasonings to taste, and serve!If canning, fill hot jars, leaving one inch of headspace, and process in a pressure canner at the pressure that is appropriate for your altitude. (Despite the tomatoes, this is a low acid food and can not be processed in a boiling water canner.) I process it for 35 minutes at 11 pounds pressure, the amount of time recommended for the least acidic ingredients, and the pressure required for my elevation. This recipe makes 7-8 pints of soup.ROASTED TOMATO VEGETABLE SOUP

5 pounds tomatoes
several cloves garlic
2 tablespoons of olive oil
thyme
salt and pepper

3-4 red (or orange or yellow) sweet peppers

several large carrots
1-2 onions
2 tablespoons olive oil
salt and pepper

1 quart vegetable stock

more salt and pepper, if needed
a pinch of sugar

1) Peel, seed, and chop 5 pounds of tomatoes. Spread them out into a shallow non-reactive pan. Add several cloves of peeled, rough chopped garlic. Drizzle with a bit of olive oil. Sprinkle with thyme, fresh ground pepper, and salt. Roast at 300 degrees for a couple of hours. This will yield about 2 quarts of roasted tomatoes and their liquid. (Don't drain the liquid.)

2) Roast, core, and peel 3 or 4 large red (or orange or yellow) peppers.

3) Peel and roughly cut 4 cups of carrots. Peel and slice 2 cups of onions. (Optional: add a chopped jalapeno.) Combine carrots and onions (and jalapeno, if using) in a shallow baking baking pan. Drizzle with a bit of olive oil and sprinkle with fresh ground pepper and salt. Cover pan and roast at 350 degrees for 1-2 hours, stirring or shaking pan occasionally, until carrots and onions are soft.

4) Puree prepared and cooled ingredients and a quart of vegetable stock, in a blender. This is quite a bit of soup. I have to blend 10-12 batches of it in my standard sized blender to puree all of it. I add a bit of each ingredient (some roasted tomatoes, some roasted and peeled peppers, some roasted carrots and onions, and some vegetable stock) to each batch that I whirl in the blender. Blend ingredients well so that no chunks of vegetables remain. Pour each blended batch into a large stock pot and stir to combine all the batches.

5) Heat soup. Add a pinch of sugar, adjust seasonings to taste, and serve!

Pickled Roasted Red Peppers

Do you like roasted red peppers? Me too!

In fact, I like them so much I can't bear to only eat them this time of year, when the red peppers are ripe and beautiful. I want to be able to eat them all year long!

Thank goodness roasted red peppers pickle and can well! In fact, pickling them adds even more flavor and more sweetness. The Ball people have a recipe for Pickled Roasted Red Peppers posted on their site. It's a simple recipe. You can make these, even if you're new to canning. You could even leave out the garlic and spices that they include in their recipe. Just don't alter the acids. Since they have been kind enough to share their recipe, I think it's probably alright to share it with you, here. I will reprint it for you at the end of this post... but check out their site anyway, they offer a lot of interesting recipes and information about home canning.

When I can a batch of Pickled Roasted Red Peppers I label them "Roasted Reds." The sweet, slightly vinagery taste adds an extra zing to most sandwiches. I also like to add them to scrambled eggs, omelets, quiches, and frittatas. They are really great on pizza. And they are good tossed into pasta dishes like Vegetable Linguine.

Making home canned Roasted Reds is a great time-saver, too! Opening a jar of already roasted peppers is much faster than roasting a fresh pepper every time you want to add a bit of roasted pepper to a sandwich.

Pickled Roasted Red Peppers
(from www.freshpreserving.com)
Makes about 4 (16 oz) pints

You will need:
 4 large cloves garlic, roasted, removed from skin and mashed
 1-1/2 cups white vinegar
 1-1/2 cups cider vinegar
 1-1/2 cups dry white wine
 1/2 cup water
 1 cup coarsely chopped onion (about 1 large)
 1/2 cup granulated sugar
 2 Tbsp dried oregano
 4 tsp pickling or canning salt
 20 medium sweet red peppers, such as red bell or Shepherd, roasted, peeled, seeded, deveined and cut lengthwise into serving-size pieces
 4 (16 oz) pint glass preserving jars with lids and bands

Directions:
1.) ROAST peppers and garlic cloves over hot coals, on a grill or under the broiler until charred, turning to roast all sides. Once the skin of the peppers wrinkles and chars and garlic has charred spots, remove from heat. Place peppers in a paper bag until cool enough to handle, about 15 minutes, then lift off skins. Cool garlic. Squeeze roasted garlic cloves to remove from peel.
2.) PREPARE boiling water canner. Heat jars and lids in simmering water until ready for use. Do not boil. Set bands aside.
3.) COMBINE roasted garlic, white vinegar, cider vinegar, white wine, water, onion, sugar, oregano and salt in a large stainless steel saucepan. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat, stirring to dissolve sugar. Reduce heat and boil gently for 5 minutes, until garlic and oregano flavors have infused the liquid.
4.) PACK room temperature peppers into hot jars leaving 1/2 inch headspace. Ladle hot pickling liquid into jar to cover peppers leaving 1/2 inch headspace. Remove air bubbles and adjust headspace, if necessary, by adding hot pickling liquid. Wipe rim. Center lid on jar. Apply band until fit is fingertip tight.
5.) PROCESS jars in a boiling water canner for 15 minutes, adjusting for altitude. Remove jars and cool. Check lids for seal after 24 hours. Lid should not flex up and down when center is pressed.