The first taste is with the eyes (staging your food)

My first passion, cooking began as a young married girl 30 years ago. Being a newlywed I found so much pleasure in preparing new dishes for my husband and myself and over the years have continued to grow and learn more and more about food. I have worked as a sous chef in a fine dining establishment as well which had inspired me even more as I learned so many new things. I always found a great need to plating the food so beautifully that I had put so much passion into making. The first taste is with the eyes and it was in a sense staging the food to make it look mouthwatering and appetizing as it tasted.

A beautiful Table setting is a must when serving a delicious meal and you don't have to go nuts, a nice table cloth or place-mats, a small center piece makes it special. I love using white plates because I feel they are classic and never go out of style and are in a sense the canvas. The food itself is is the main attraction anyway so why not show it off.

We don't all have all the time in the world to prepare an elaborate dinner but I know that even take-out can look more appealing when plated pretty and with the table setting.

I think I have always been an "inner stager", after all the whole purpose of staging anything is to make things look appealing to us.

Today's recipe is:

Stuffed roasted red peppers on a bed of Italian style scalloped potatoes.


8 red peppers (cut off tops and reserve,clean, and microwave for 2 min)
1 1/2 cup of cooked brown rice (makes about 3 cups cooked)
1 cup of lean pork
2 cups of tomato sauce
3 large onions,2 cloves garlic (sliced and sauteed in the olive oil for about 15 min and set aside)
1 cup of extra virgin olive oil
1/2 cup of corn
8 red skin potatoes (peeled, sliced half in thick and boiled for 15 min)
sea salt and pepper to taste I add hot chilies too


sautee pork in the same frying pan used for onion mixture then add tomato puree and season to taste, cook for about 20-30 min.
mix pork sauce with cooked rice and corn.
Fill peppers with rice mixture and top off with the tops of the peppers
Arrange boiled potatoes on the bottom of an oven proof pan and layer with the onion, garlic, oil mixture and season to taste.
Arrange all stuffed peppers on top of the potatoes and drizzle with extra virgin olive oil and bake at 375' for about 1 hour.

I like to serve a salad with this meal and thats it. I make extra because the leftovers are great for lunch or a side for dinner the next day.