Hot and Smoky! Stuffed Italian Peppers, Time for Turkey Tacos! Sun Valley Day Trip

From Oregonlive.com

Hot and Smoky-

It's still in the 100+ degree range and now we're getting lots of smoke for the Oregon fires. Praying for rain! I can imagine how much worse it must be for the local residents! It was in the high 90's today, a little cooler. We're watering and watering and I'm avoiding the smoke as much as possible. I'm keeping the hens cool as can be. I got the BIGGEST EGG EVER yesterday!!!

Almost as big as a duck egg, bet it's a double yolker! 

Rosie, my oldest hen, has been limping the last couple of days, but ran out for treat, so not too bad,  hoping she's okay. Will check her in a few days if she's not better. We've been thinning our peach tree, tons  and tons of fruit! I've been freezing more eggs for winter. I decided to invest in a new "kit lense" for my Canon DSLR, since the other one was being glitchy. Best deal ever, $99.00, new and works great! I know some people like to use phones, but once you try a real camera there's nothing better! So much more to play with and you can get creative with the settings. Got some summer camp style decor up, fan had to go up for the heat in the kitchen! 

Thrifted arrow ($3.00) and print on the left, $4.00! 

 

Stuffed Italian Peppers- 

Last year I froze some of our organic Marconi Giant Italian Frying peppers. It's one of the latter things we harvest due to the size. I froze them after vacuum sealing, along with our organic tomatoes-

I used this recipe but modified a bit A Family Feast   I doubled the filling and sauce since our peppers were much bigger! I didn't fry ours for a healthier version. Freezing the peppers to softened them a bit.  Thawed, the split them and stuffed, then baked. First I thawed the peppers and tomatoes (for the sauce)-

Cooked down our tomatoes for a Marinara sauce, look at the juice!!!

Mixed all the ingredients for the stuffing

Getting ready to go into the oven

Ready to eat! 

I made a garden Fritatta to go with it for dinner, since the peppers had no protein. Made my own version of this Taste of Home.com I skipped the tomatoes and used roasted red peppers. I also re-hydrated some dried homegrown, organic yellow squash-

Time for Turkey Tacos!-

Dave and I love tacos. I make mine a bit healthier, with still tons of flavor! Here's my basic recipe-

Use ground turkey, cook and brown in a skillet with a little oil, drain off excess liquid, add your favorite salsa, Cumin, garlic, salt and pepper to taste. Cook down till done, season as you like, I have added Tabasco before for some heat. Stuff your shells, add grated Cheddar/Jack cheese, Cilantro, olives and hot sauce. Enjoy! Also works for burritos or topping for nachos.  

Sawtooth Mountains 

Sun Valley Day Trip-

Dave and I didn't really have any plans for Fourth of July, but we really wanted to get out and go somewhere. So we decided to take a day trip. We went from Boise through Idaho City and up and over from Lowman/Stanley down into the Sun Valley/Ketchum area. There's a shorter way to get there but it's a pretty boring drive thru the Flatlands mostly. We decided to do the longer route up and then take the troop coming back. We took lots of extra water and snacks and it was such a beautiful drive! As soon as you start getting up into the mountains outside Boise it's green with fresh air and we actually drove through a few rain showers. We saw lots of Pronghorn Antelope, but I couldn't get any shots. We stopped at a place and had lunch at over 6,000 feet looking out onto the mountains- 

Next we went ahead and drove down to the Sun Valley and visited a few different places including Ernest Hemingway's grave. Since Hemingway is such an iconic American author and amazing Idaho figure, we decided to take a brief side. You leave a penny as a thank you to him, others left all kinds of things! 

We drove around for a while and then decided to head home. It's really nice to sleep in our own beds at night! Here's a few photos of our trip and I can tell you that the photos just don't do it justice!

River of No Return valley