Stuffed green peppers with ground beef, brown rice, spinach, and cream cheese

I grew up eating stuffed peppers with the classic ground beef and white rice combo. While that is certainly always a winner, I like to add my own twist to that classic recipe. This version keeps the basic ground beef and rice, but builds upon that combo.

What you'll need:

• Green peppers
• Ground beef
• Can of diced tomatoes or chopped fresh tomatoes
• Bacon
• Cooked brown rice
• Bag of frozen spinach
• Block of cream cheese
• Shredded cheddar cheese
• Chopped onions and garlic
• Fresh or dried herbs like Italian parsley, oregano, thyme
• Freshly ground pepper and kosher or sea salt

In a large frying pan on medium-high heat, brown the ground beef along with the onions. I had a bag of seasoning mix in the freezer that has onion, celery, and peppers, so I used some of that. Season with salt and pepper. After the beef and veggies are browned, add the garlic and cook another minute.

If you are using dried herbs, add them now. Next, add the frozen spinach to the pan. I used a bag of frozen baby spinach leaves. Mix that all up and cook until the spinach is heated through.

Add a block of cream cheese to the pan and mix until the cream cheese has melted. Then throw in a handful of your favorite shredded cheese. I used a sharp cheddar.

If you are using fresh herbs, add them now. I used some fresh parsley and oregano. The last thing to add to this creamy mixture is the rice. I use the 10-minute-in-the-microwave brown rice, but use whatever rice you like.

Taste the beef and rice mixture, and adjust the seasoning as necessary. At this point, the stuffing is done. You can make this mixture ahead of time, or make a double batch and freeze the extra stuffing. This would be great with mushrooms, artichokes, diced eggplant, whatever additional veggies you'd like to pack in there.

Now you're ready to stuff the peppers. Try to get peppers that are similar in size, so they finish cooking at the same time. Cut the tops off and take out the seeds and ribs. If they are unstable in your pan, slice a little off the bottom to even them out, but try not to make any holes. Season the peppers with salt and pepper, then fill them with the stuffing.

Scatter the diced tomatoes all around the peppers at the bottom of your dish. Place a slice of bacon on top of each pepper. If you don't want to add bacon, you can sprinkle with bread crumbs or put the tops of the peppers back on.

Put a lid on the baking dish or cover with foil. Bake at 375 for at least an hour or until the peppers are soft and the bacon is crisp.

Serve this with some fresh, sliced bread and butter, and you've got a hearty, warming plate of comfort food. 

Bleu cheese burgers with bacon

This winter we haven't seen but a handful of days above freezing in this part of Pennsylvania. When the weather dips into the teens and single digits, fire up your grill to get a little bit of summer back in your life. There's nothing better than burgers on the grill to transport you to that warm July evening when it was still light out at 9 pm and flip flops were de rigueur.

You'll need only a few ounces of your favorite crumbled bleu cheese, ground beef, and bacon to top the burgers. Combine the bleu cheese and ground beef, and form into whatever size patties you prefer.

I like to poke a hole in the middle of the patties. They seem not to tighten up and shrink as much. Fire up your grill on high heat. I have a gas grill, so mine gets cranked up to the highest setting. When your grill is hot, put your patties on, and leave them alone for a few minutes. Don't move them or press them or otherwise disturb them. Flip them over when they have some nice grill marks.

After you flip them, top with uncooked bacon and turn down the heat of your grill or move them to the cooler side of your charcoal grill. With a gas grill, you need to be careful of flare-ups from the grease of the bacon, so pay close attention.

I prefer to use a nice peppered slab bacon and cut my own chunks of bacon from the slab. I didn't have any on hand, so a regular sliced bacon works as well. Cook the burgers until they are done to your liking. If you like a crispier bacon, precook the bacon and put it on after the burger has finished cooking.

This is a very rich and flavorful burger. The bleu cheese gets all melty and oozy, a creamy and tangy complement to the smokiness of the grilled burger and saltiness of the bacon. I like to top this burger with a sweet pepper relish to cut through some of the richness, but it'll stand up to any of your favorite condiments.

Only 157 more days until summer!