My Birthday and Awesome Stuffed Peppers

My birthday was last Wednesday and I had a pretty good day despite Ryan working nights.  I got to see him in the morning before I went to work and he went to bed and then again before he went to work and I went to dinner.  At least we were able to go out to dinner on the Friday before.  

But before I get into all the tasty looking pictures of my birthday celebration meals, I wanted share this vegetarian stuffed peppers recipe.  For American Day (American foods served to the local Japanese community as a fundraiser for on base groups and organizations) Ryan's shop made kebabs.  At the end of the day there were a punch of left over peppers.  They were asking who wanted them.  Obviously I could not let them go to waste even if I had no idea what to make.  Naturally stuffed peppers came to mind.  I did them once before with mushroom orzo and they were good, but I was looking to try something different.  

After a quick, and I do mean quick, search, I found this recipe for Mexican-style vegetarian stuffed peppers.  The recipe makes 6, but we only had 5 peppers.  The good news is that there is more filling left in my freezer.  I honestly think it could have filled 7.

Onions and garlic is always a good start.

One thing I liked about this is that it called for brown rice.  Not only was that so simple and easy to find in my pantry, but it already had the healthier option so I didn't even need to sub anything.  I love fun and funky grains, but I really liked that this just stayed simple.  Maybe it was the Mexican aspect that led to just plain rice, rather than the latest and greatest grain of the week (and yes, I do have most of those in my pantry too...I love all of those grains!).

In with the onion and garlic went corn, black beans (so excited that the commissary started carrying the low sodium canned black beans- I always rinse them anyway, but the lower the sodium to start, the better).  The recipe called for tomato puree, which I could not really find, so in went some tomato sauce.  That's like a pureed tomato, right?

Mix in the rice and seasoning and we are good to go!

I love how these look!

But of course I had to top them with cheese.  They were amazing!  I loved them.  Ryan loved them.  It was a major win and he even asked if we could do them again.  No complaints eating the leftovers the next night either.

Moving on the my birthday.  Ryan was not working the Friday night before my birthday so we headed to Marche, which is a French restaurant by the base.

I started off with the marinated raw salmon (think lox with Italian dressing), which was really good.  Mostly because salmon around here is always just really good.

Some rolls for the table.  The set up was too cute!  The rolls were warm and buttery even without the butter on them.

I had a salad also.

The garlic bread here is phenomenal (if you like extreme garlic) so I ordered some, even thought I couldn't eat it all.

Ryan decided to go for something a little different for him and he had the chicken cordon bleu.

For my entree I went with the mushroom soup pot pie.  Yes, mushroom soup does work as a pot pie.  Basically it is a cream of mushroom soup with puff pastry baked on top.  It is awesome!  What can I, the Japanese love their mushrooms.

Ryan had ordered a set meal and it came with dessert.  We both took a bite just to try, but we knew we really wanted to get some desserts from the bakery down the street.

We headed over to La France (do you see a theme here?).  They were getting ready to close so most things were out, but I was able to score the last piece of this chocolate cake.  Just to give you an idea of size, this is sitting in the middle of my salad, not dinner plate at home.  The Japanese desserts are no where near the size of American desserts.  It was really good, but I was not expecting the bottom to be alcohol flavored.  It was a shock, but not entirely bad.

That weekend I tried some of the Japanese goodies that Ryan brought home.  A coworker gave them to him as a thank you gift.  They made a baby shower gift for his wife and she is Japanese, so the custom is to give a thank you gift, which is most often a little baked good.

I have no idea what this was, but it seems to have sweetened butter in the middle.  Don't ask!

On my actual birthday Ryan came home from work as I was heading to work and cooked me breakfast.  For lunch, the girls I work with took me to the Mexican restaurant near the base.  Actually it is Tex Mex, part of a chain and started by an American that now lives in Thailand, and yes, this place does really well in Japan, not just with the Americans, but Japanese too.  I ordered an enchilada lunch special.

That night Ryan had to work, but my friend and I went to dinner.  Her husband was out of town and she lives in the building next to me, so it made for the perfect birthday evening.  We planned to go to an Italian restaurant, but they opened at 6, so at 5:30 we still had some time and she has a baby, and we decided the better option was go to our favorite Chinese place.  Perfect!  Since we like the same things we were able to get two dishes and share.  We were so involved in catching up that I forgot to even take pictures of the food!  But it was good.  We had eggplant and scallops in XO sauce and sweet and sour shrimp.  I even splurged on a beer because she was driving.

After dinner she drove over to a bakery and said she had always wanted to try it.  To which I just laughed.  Why?  Because she took me to La France.  The same bakery Ryan and I went to Friday night and bought me some birthday cake at.  I know the guy working there was thinking that the crazy American must really like cake.

My friend treated me to this lovely dessert.  Again, it's pretty small, which is perfect.  This had a little alcohol in the mousse filling too, but the overall flavor was chocolate hazelnut.  The center was like eating a kinder happy hippo.  It was like nutella with crunchy pieces.  It was amazing!  It was even topped with a mini macaron.

My friend can't have chocolate so she was extremely excited to find that their strawberry tart was chocolate free.  It's so cute!

Then we ate our desserts and spent some time getting caught up on things.  It was nice to have a girls night and just chat.  Even though Ryan didn't get to spend much time with me, it was still a good day.  Plus, I will continue to celebrate my birthday because I am getting ready to go on another trip soon...and Ryan will be joining me.  I have a lot to do to get ready before then, but I think my next post will probably be the start of my travels.  Southeast Asia...here I come!

QUESTIONS:  What did you do for your last birthday?  What are you doing for your next birthday?  If you could go anywhere in Southeast Asia, where would it be?

Some final Passover meals

Here are some of my remaining Passover eats.  We had the pleasure of dining at Joe's (my stepdad) mom's (I hope you followed that) house for dinner.  She is the world's best cook.  She is Egyptian and cooks like she was born to do just that.  If you think you have had good hummus, you really haven't unless you have tried hers.  So, just before Passover ended, we went to her house for some deliciousness.

She made salmon for my sister and I.

Brisket

Kugel and Asparagus

Turkey kabob

Here she is erving up some salad.  She looks so happy to be feeding us.

Yummy artichokes

Homemade matzo crackers, which were really good.

Simple salad with lemon juice for dressing, which is very middle eastern.

My sister was on camera duty (thanks for the nice pics Rach) and since the salt and pepper shakers were so cute, well, here is the picture.

Dessert was fresh watermelon.  Yes, it is getting to that time of year.

Mango slices

Homemade kosher for Passover wine cake.  This was really good and very moist.

That was it for the dinner meal, but I still have some random other Passover food pictures.  Here is some of Joe's mom's mandel bread, which is similar to biscotti and kosher for Passover.  I could actually enjoy this snack year round.

While at TJ's the other day, I picked up some meat-less products to try and savor while at home.  I asked my sister to make me some food while I did other things around the house, and this was what she put together.

The "chicken", hummus, olives and matzo.  Really yummy combo!

Oh does that look good, and if you haven't tried this yes, and you like meatless products, try this.

I really liked this hummus (not as good as Joe's mom's) and I liked that I could taste the artichoke.

Classic with the olives.

My sister went to her local market and picked me up this treat.  This is Micheles Granola which is locally made in Baltimore.  Since it was still Passover, I didn't get a chance to try this yet, but I am really looking forward to it.  Rachel says it is great and cherry chocolate is one of my favorite taste combos.  I will keep you posted, btu in the meantime, check out the link for their website.

I figured at some point in my life I will actually be on my own for Passover, and this cookbook seems like a good addition to my collection of cookbooks because there are so many recipes for foods to eat during this holiday.  I think even some of this I could make year round, like the veggie dishes.

Oh, ok, so I really liked these shoes, and I almost bought them, but my mom thought that my feet would get too gross in them seeing as I live on a super humid island.  Yes, these are an update on your classic jelly shoe.  What do you think?

Now, to end my post, I will leave you with this awesome street sign in Baltimore.  I snapped the picture on my way to visit Joe's sister in her new home, which was beautiful.  But, as it clearly says my name, I needed to take a picture.

At this time I am NYC bound, and I will post about that once I get back.  I still have my end of Passover meal pictures to share and some other goodies, but I swear after that, I will get to all of my adventures in New York.  I am so excited to get to see my aunt Sherie.

QUESTION:  Have you ever seen a road/street named with your name?  Any other things that bear your name?  I think the Ryan Air planes are cool because, well, that is ryan's name.