What Can I Cook With Lots of Peppers?

Here's a picture of a few of the peppers I grew last summer and fall.

Don't they look great? They ripen unevenly and at their own pace. You can sure tell the difference between them and store-bought ones. I'll definitely be putting in more pepper plants this year.

But what can you do when you have too many peppers?

Fortunately, chopped peppers freeze well. You don't have to blanch them before putting them in your freezer, either.

My favorite dish to cook these days is hashed brown potatoes with chopped peppers. I use to avoid trying this because the potatoes stuck to the pan.

However, with the product called Simply Potatoes Shredded Hashed Browns, by Crystal Farms, which is found in the refrigerator case of the supermarket, I can whip up great hashed browns -- and use very little oil, as well.

Simply Potatoes come pre-grated. All you do is take what you want out of the bag and dump them into the pan.

Here's how. I take 1 tablespoon of olive oil and heat it in a large skillet. When it's hot, I add about 1/4 cup of chopped peppers. (You could also add some chopped onion, if you like). I let the peppers saute for a minute or two, then I add half a bag of the Simply Potatoes. Everything cooks on medium heat. You let your potatoes brown about 5 minutes, and then turn them over with a spatula and cook them on the opposite side.

Half a bag of potatoes makes 2 good-sized servings of hash browns.

That's all there is to it! I never seem to have problems with sticking, and with only 1 T. of oil for two servings, these are considerably less greasy than the hashed browns you'd find at McDonald's or your favorite breakfast spot.

I'm off to make some right now.