A Plethora of Peppers

Plethora is such a great word! n. overabundance; excess. It's one of those words that expresses exactly what you want to say.

I have a plethora of peppers -- banana peppers, green peppers, jalapeno peppers! I am thankful that my bushes are healthy and productive, but what to do with all the peppers? I posed the dilemma to my Facebook friends and got helpful suggestions:
~ share! Yep, done that.
~ pickle them. Yep, done that, too.
~ freeze them. A good idea, but I prefer not to use the freezing method for food preservation. Having experienced the aftermath of Hurricane Fran going 2 weeks without electricity, I am hesitant to rely on methods that require more than sitting on a shelf.

One solution that came to me yesterday morning as I harvested even more peppers was to create a new way of eating them. So my family became taste testers at dinner last night. The reviews were not all rave, but each of us felt the creations had potential.

Hodgepodge

My favorite was the Vegetable Medley, aka Hodgepodge. In a little fresh garlic and olive oil, I lightly sauteed some of the vegetables I harvested that morning -- yellow bell pepper, banana pepper, yellow squash, asparagus beans, tomatoes -- plus baby bella mushrooms, purple onion and vadelia onion. After placing them in a greased casserole dish, I sprinkled a blend of spices (one of those bottles of seasoning herbs from McCormick), about 2 Tbsp flour, and a generous portion of grated extra sharp cheese. I covered it with dough, the storebought kind of flaky biscuits torn apart and layered into a thin upper crust. I baked it at 350 for about an hour.

Unfortunately, there is not a lovely picture of the finished product to share. I visited with a neighbor on the way in from milking and was late getting the casserole out of the oven. The top was overdone and ugly, but the dish definitely deserves another go'round.