Chicken (or Pork) with Peppers (or Snow Peas) and Cashews

It was providential that Dana was scheduled to guest chef last week, because I had unexpected oral surgery which meant days of living on yogurt and ice cream. #nocomplaints

But hubby wanted to eat real food and he had his eye on the huge jar of cashews we'd bought at Costco.

He decided he wanted  pork with peppers and cashews.
That worked for me (as you'll see below).
The recipe is easy. I had an assortment of colorful little peppers. I stir fried them, stir fried the pork separately, mixed in the sauce and scallions. Served over rice. Sprinkled liberally with cashews! The catch here is the sauce. Ssssh. Don't tell anyone. It's really just pork gravy thinned out with a dash of soy sauce added in.

But, if you recall, I couldn't eat anything that chunky. I had gotten to the point that I could eat something more than gruel, so I settled on pastina. Remember that cute little star pasta from when the kids were babies?


First I mixed my trusty honey mustard in water and shredded in the cooked pork.

Simmer until very soft.

Serve over pastina!  

So yesterday, hubby was eyeing those cashews again. This time we went for chicken with snow peas and cashews.

So easy. Which was good since I'm in deadline mode.

Oh, and my other cheat - I was tired of buying scallions for him and only using half. So I decided to try these. He never noticed the difference!

What's your favorite stir fry?

Fried pepper poppers- garden fresh!

Hello, everybody! The Fresh Pioneer is back with a really fun recipe to use up all the left over peppers in your garden. (what? No leftover peppers?? Well, sometimes my husband eats ours, too, but for some reason... this year I had extra!)

Oooo, pretty peppers!

Mild banana peppers and a little hotter chile de arbol peppers.

In summer, this is what my counter looks like. Complete with little grabby hands.

Grabby and grubby.

OK, so, split the peppers down the center and get out all the seeds. I hear that's where the hot part is. I'm not sure if that's true but I don't want to test it.

So, wash them well and pat dry.

Mix 6 oz of cream cheese 1 tsp minced garlic, 1/2 tsp pepper and a little salt. (The cream cheese is salty, so you don't need much.)

I found this at my local grocery store! Oooh, feeling Southern!!

A friend who lives in Louisiana says she always rolls her batter in cornmeal before frying. I'm gonna try it.

Stuff the peppers with the cream cheese mix.

Mix the batter according to the directions and carefully coat the peppers, making sure the cream cheese doesn't fall out.

Then carefully roll in the corn meal...

Here's an action shot of the peppers getting their battar coating.

Ta-Dah! After frying about four minutes on each side, the batter should be crispy, the pepper slightly cooked (not super soft or slimey, just soft) and the cream cheese soft and melted.

Fresh cukes with cherry tomatoes! A sprig of lemon basil adds a lot of flavor. Over the cukes I usuall squeeze a lime and sprinkle some salt.

Happy summer food! The only part I didn't like was frying over the hot stove, so next time I'll use the fry daddy. Maybe I'll even plug it in outside so it doesn't make the house smell greasy, but even so, this was worth it!!