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<< Previous   of   Next >>   ADVERTISEMENT   CONTACT THE HERALD Melanie Munk, Features Editor munk@heraldnet.com   Published: Monday, February 11, 2008 Stuff yourself with a stuffed pepper By Judyrae Kruse Herald Columnist Forum cooks rarely ever, almost never, fail to nail the "right" recipe when someone asks for something specific. Obviously, though, certain recipes are tougher to track down than others. One example would be the stuffed peppers Gold Bar reader Phill Alger continues to search for. He recently told us, "I had an old stuffed green pepper recipe I got off the back of a Contadina tomato paste or sauce can years ago when I was a bachelor. I've lost the recipe and cannot find another stuffed green pepper recipe that even comes close to this one. "Please, if anyone out there has this recipe, would they mind sharing it? Thank you so much." The bad news, Phill, is that no one -- not yet, at least -- has been able to run this recipe to earth. In fact, frequent Forum helper-outer Carol Wilson of Everett tells us, "I came up empty-handed with the Contadina recipe for stuffed peppers. "I even called the company and talked to someone in their consumer affairs department. I asked if they had a recipe archive. They did have some recipes but, after searching, they no longer had this one." And there's more bad news. Another faithful Forum recipe supplier, Dianne Berst of Marysville, writes, "Regarding Phill Alger's request, I went to my copy of 'Best Recipes From the Backs of Boxes, Bottles, Cans and Jars,' but didn't find anything from Contadina." Now for the good news. Dianne adds, "Since he might be willing to settle for something similar, I hope the book's recipe for skillet stuffed peppers, originally from a popular booklet printed by the A.1. Sauce people, will please him." A second possibility might be this Italian stuffed pepper invention from the folks at Kraft Foods. As is, it's strictly a vegetarian offering, but there's no reason some burger couldn't be added to, uh, beef it up some. Skillet stuffed peppers 1/2 cup converted rice, cooked 3/4 pound ground beef 1/4 cup minced fresh onion 3 tablespoons steak sauce, A.1. preferred 1 teaspoon salt 1/4 teaspoon pepper 1 can (8 ounces) tomato sauce 1 can (12 ounces) whole-kernel corn, drained 6 large green peppers 6 medium carrots, peeled and cut into 1-inch pieces 3 tablespoons butter or margarine 1/2 cup water While rice is cooking, in medium skillet, brown beef until crumbly. Drain. Add onion. Cook until onion is soft. Remove from heat. Mix in steak sauce, salt, pepper, tomato sauce, corn and rice. Cut tops, seeds and membrane from peppers. Discard. Fill peppers with meat and rice mixture. In 10-inch skillet, place peppers and carrots. Add butter or margarine and water. Simmer, covered, 30 to 40 minutes, or until carrots are tender. Makes 6 servings. Italian stuffed green peppers 3 green peppers, cut lengthwise in half 6 cups water 1/2 cup green onion slices 1 clove garlic, minced 1 tablespoon butter or margarine 1 can (8 ounces) tomato sauce 2 cups hot cooked rice 1 1/2 cups shredded Mozzarella cheese, divided 3/4 teaspoon dried oregano leaves Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Remove seeds from peppers. Bring water to boil in Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Add green peppers. Reduce heat to medium-low; simmer 5 minutes or until peppers are crisp-tender. Drain. Cook and stir onions and garlic in butter or margarine in medium skillet until garlic is tender and fragrant. Stir in tomato sauce, rice, 1 cup of the cheese and the oregano; spoon evenly into pepper halves. Place in an 8-by-12-inch baking dish. Bake 20 minutes; top with remaining 1/2 cup cheese and continue baking until cheese is melted. Makes 6 servings, 1 stuffed pepper half each. The next Forum will appear in Wednesday's Food section.

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