Yo, dawg
We have a pepper and carrot surplus at the moment, so I’ve been finding ways to integrate them into everything. See: carrot macaroni and cheese, a well-intentioned stab at introducing Vitamin A to the comfort food staple. The recipe I used was all wrong – melting cheese over pasta and calling it macaroni and cheese is for junk food amateurs, and adding oranges to carrots is the way to make babies eat vegetables. I’m perfectly happy eating my veggies even when they don’t taste like candy; I don’t even LIKE most candy. And, I certainly don’t have to disguise them in my m&c; but, without the carrots, I’d be unlikely to make that dish, so I gave it a try.
I ditched the juice in favor of savory seasoning by way of garlic and mustard powder, and built a classic bechamel before adding the carrot puree; also, added a bread crumb topping. The result left me with a curious, grainy sauce that seemed to miss the point of both lovely Granby carrots and cheddar mac & cheese, but as a side dish to my roast, it was fine.
I’m taking a moment to spend more time on the internet tonight to mention that I’ve been spending too much time on the internet. See, tonight, I went back to the carrot-and-pepper crisper this time for stuffed peppers [ground turkey, not unlike what I did to the zucchini previously]. And as I chopped a little red pepper to add to the filling, I found myself thinking, “Yo, dawg. We heard you like peppers, so we put a pepper in your pepper so you could…”