One mistake after another and all I tried to do was some stuffed peppers

For days I’ve been playing up with an idea to make some stuffed peppers. However, I couldn’t quite decide whether I should do traditional (at least in our family) ones with minced meat and rice cooked in a tomato sauce (similar to these), or should I go for a vegetarian option? If vegetarian, do I feel like Mexican flavoured ones, or am I in a mood for Italian flavours instead? I tried to look for different recipes, but with no real enthusiasm. So, I decided to free-style it!

Yes… me… cooking something I have never done before, without any guidance!

Needless to say, that was a big mistake! Not only that, it was just the first one in a series of mistakes!

I am one of those cooks who can only be in charge of one pot on a stove at one time. Yes, it sounds lame, but it’s unfortunately true. As soon as I have two (or more) pots going, a rice in the first pot is most likely overflowing while an onion in the other pan is burning. For some reason I thought it was a good idea to run three pots at the same time while making my stuffed peppers?!

I am also extremely impatient. And instead of taking one step at a time, and bringing quinoa to boil, cut all the mushrooms, and prepare a tomato sauce while everything else is set aside and cooling down, I believe in multi-tasking (just with no proof I can actually multi-task).

My kitchen was turning into a serious chaos! My stove was covered in quinoa. Mushrooms were getting burnt. This caused the fire alarm to go off. A tomato sauce in the third pot looked like a volcano ready to erupt. The oven started beeping, signaling it reached the set temperature. And I was running around like a headless chicken.

Somehow I collected myself, and gained control over the mess. I stuffed peppers with a mix of quinoa, fried mushrooms and feta. I placed them in an oven-proof dish and added the tomato sauce to it. I put the whole thing in the oven. And hoped for the best. Namely, I had no idea what temperature I should set the oven to. Nor how long should I bake them. And I didn’t even go into the specific oven settings as those are a serious mystery to me.

The final result? The peppers were edible! I am super lucky that Shaun works about 12 hours a day 6 days a week, and comes home tired, hungry, without any desire or motivation for cooking, and with no stamina to argue about my cooking non-skills. Insted, he is very appreciative of having a dinner ready, sometimes he just eats a bit less :).