Stuffed Peppers a la Phoenix & Colourful Black Bean Salad

So I'm way overdue on another post on this thing. The slacking off all started a couple of weeks ago now when boyfriend and I went to visit my parents at their place down in Arizona. We thoroughly enjoyed the sunshine, and the relaxation, and the plentiful food and drink. While we were there, we did a few touristy things, as it was boyfriend's first time down there. At one such place, I purchased a cookbook: "Best of the Best from Arizona, selected recipes from Arizona's favorite cookbooks".

We flew into the Bellingham airport on a dreary, rainy, depressing, cloudy, awful day, and immediately wished the plane would turn around and take us right back. Home sweet home. After a few days of being back, I started to flip through the cookbook and came across the two fantastic dishes pictured below.

Colourful Black Bean Salad:  (I made this ahead of time and put in the fridge while I made the stuffed peppers)
2 cans of black beans, drained and rinsed
1 can of corn kernels, drained
1 red bell pepper, chopped
1 bunch of green onions, chopped
1/4 red onion, chopped
3 cloves of garlic, minced
2 tsp fresh basil, chopped
1 1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp pepper
1 tsp sugar
1/3 cup red wine vinegar
1/4 cup olive oil
roma tomatoes

Combine black beans, corn, red pepper, green onion, red onion, garlic, and basil in a bowl and mix well. In a smaller bowl, combine the salt and pepper, sugar, wine vinegar, and olive oil. Whisk until well mixed. Pour over the black bean salad mixture and mix together to coat everything in dressing. Cut the roma tomato top off and about 3/4 of the way up lengthwise. Scoop out seeds to create a little salad bowl, place on plate, and spoon in the salad.


Stuffed Peppers a la Phoenix: (I made a few changes from the recipe, but basically the same)
3/4 pound of ground chicken
1/4 cup green onion, chopped
1 tbsp fresh cilantro, chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
salt and pepper to taste
1 cup shredded monterey jack cheese
4 poblano peppers
1 tbsp fresh parslet, chopped, for garnish

Turn oven on to a high broil, place the 4 poblanos on a baking sheet and into the oven. Once one side has started to blacken, flip over to cook the other side. Once both sides are cooked and blackened/peeling, switch the oven to bake at 350F. Let the poblanos cool off, and start to cook the chicken with the green pepper, cilantro, garlic, and salt and pepper. When the poblanos are cooled off enough to touch, cut off the top and stem area, and peel off the outer layer of skin. Also take a knife and scrape off the sides and take out all the seeds.Once the chicken is no longer pink, stir in half of the cheese. Spoon the filling into the peppers, and place them onto the baking sheet. Sprinkle the rest of the cheese over the top of the peppers and bake until the cheese is melted. Garnish with parsley and serve.

I'm off to look through the pictures from our trip and daydream about sunlight.

Cheers,
-B