Last night the remaining 7 Idol contestants sang songs from the last decade. My question is, why haven’t they been doing this the entire time?? I actually listened to the contestants and asked myself, would I buy their album. Watching a teenager sing songs from the 50’s, 60’s, etc does nothing for me in regards to thinking about them beyond the Idol stage.

With that said nobody really blew me away. There were no bombed performances by any means but nobody gave me goosies either (yes I’m channeling my inner JLo). Jessica and Elise were my favorites of the night by far.

On to the food…

Since the contestants were singing modern songs I’ve been cooking up fun, current snacks for Lyndsey Parker and her Reality  Rocks blog. I was trying to find some inspiration for tonight’s recipe and saw the most beautiful, adorable bag of mini bell peppers at the store. I’ve been completely obsessed with red bell peppers lately and couldn’t resist. They’re sweet with just a hint of spice and perfect for a light dinner or appetizer.

Check out tonight’s recipe featured on Yahoo! Music HERE!

6-8 according to size of peppers

Ingredients

• 1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
• 1/2 cup chopped yellow onion
• 2 garlic cloves
• 1 tsp fresh thyme, chopped
• 3 sweet italian turkey links, lean, casings removed
• 1/2 cup italian bread crumbs
• 1/4 cup shredded parmesan cheese
• 1 egg
• 6 mini bell peppers, seeds and stems removed
• salt and pepper

Heat an outdoor or indoor grill pan over medium high heat.

Heat the olive oil in a large dutch oven over medium high heat. Saute the onions until tender then add the garlic. Cook until fragrant, around 30 seconds.

Add the turkey sausage and thyme and cook until no longer pink. Remove from the heat and slightly cool.

In a large bowl combine the sausage and bread crumbs…

cheese…

then the egg.

Mix until well combined. Taste and adjust seasoning accordingly.

Slice the top of the peppers and reserve for plating. Remove the seeds.

I picked up this handy-dandy little pepper seeder from Sur La Table and finally got to use it!

Stuff the peppers with the turkey mixture.

Grill (stuffed peppers and tops separately) until the skins are slightly charred.

For presentation purposes secure the tops back on the peppers with a toothpick.

We actually ate this for dinner with a tomato and mozzarella salad!! It was the perfect amount of food. Of course I ate two peppers, but only one made it to my plate.

Bon Appétit!