Hump Day

It was another perfect Michigan fall day. We did get a little warmer (67 degrees F. high) after an even colder night time low (41 degrees here in Redford).

I had to laugh. I did email Michelle for her stuffed pepper recipe. She wrote back “I pulled a John on the baseline Betty Crocker recipe and switched out hamburger with sweet Italian (pork) sausage w/not cheddar but a Gouda blend.” I think the sweet red bell pepper instead of the more acidic green helped, too.

I went to Time Out for lunch and then went to Lowe’s again. I got three more bags of mulch for the front garden.

After work, I changed clothes and put down the rest of the mulch. That’s it for now. I’ll top off the rest of the garden come spring.

I had thawed out a pound of hamburger over the weekend I needed to use up, but I still have a bunch of leftovers. So, I decided to make it into a meat pasta sauce and freeze it for later.

I went out and picked the rest of my small green peppers. I also grabbed the rest of the basil and a handful of oregano from the herb garden.

I chopped up a good sized yellow onion the green peppers and four cloves of garlic. I sautéed the onions and peppers, and then browned the hamburger. I added the garlic near the end and seasoned with salt and pepper. I squished a can of whole tomatoes in a separate bowl then added that to the pot. I also put in a small can of tomato sauce and one of tomato paste. I let that get happy and then taste tested. I added a sprinkle of sugar to balance the acid and some red pepper flakes. Perfect! I let that simmer for 30 minutes and then turned it off to cool.

When I cleaned out the fridge for garbage day, I saw I still had about one taco-sized left of taco filling and a little refried beans left.

So, I filled a plate with tortilla chips and topped them with drops of the meat and beans. I piled on fresh chopped onion and jarred jalapeno slices. I covered that with shredded cheddar and microwaved the whole thing. When everything was melted and gooey, I pulled it out and topped that with fresh chopped tomatoes.

It was too ugly to take a photo of, but tastes great! It was a little too spicy for me – I think I should have backed off a bit on the jalapeno slices, LOL!

I watched the Tuesday episode of the Roosevelt’s and then the one form tonight.

At one point, I paused it and put away the pasta sauce. I got two four-cup containers for the freezer.

I went to bed after the shows ended just after 11:00 p.m.