Thursday, April 14, 2011

Padrons Spice It Up!


 I awoke to this helicopter right outside of my bedroom window this past Sunday morning. Waking up to the very loud propeller, literally right outside of our window was not quiet like gently opening your eyes to the sweet sound of little birds chirping outside.  I jumped up onto the bed, (and stepped on Brian's arm in the process) to look outside.  All I could see at that moment was a crowd of people on the street looking up (not very settling). A few minutes of twisting my neck and smashing my face against the window later, the helicopter moved into view... and I could finally see what was actually happening.  A construction team decided that Sunday morning was the perfect time to drop a helicopter into the middle of our residential airspace, so that they could move a few large air conditioning units from one building to another.  Although a simple notice under my door mentioning the expected disturbance would have been appreciated, I was just glad that it was not a rescue expedition of some sort.  I really do not have pajamas that I would want the city of Cleveland to see me in. 
So with that sudden awakening, I moved into my office/living room to catch up on reading some of my favorite blogs.  There sure are a lot of bloggers out there... Everybody talking about something interesting (or not).  Reading through different sites, I kept getting enticed to click on their favorite blog links.  Before I knew it, not knowing how, or why, an hour later I ended up on random blogger site #45 reading about some girl's confessions of her cohabitational life.  Who could ever miss the Sunday paper, when you have the Internet? It is a never ending Sunday paper.    
Ok so, back to what is important. Cooking!  Nothing like some spicy fresh Padron peppers to add a little heat to our Cleveland overcast skies .


While we were out, we picked up these, at the local produce market. 


These are a bit larger than the Padron peppers that I have had many times before, but just as bright and beautiful. 


I washed them and tossed them in olive oil, a small handful of smashed garlic and salt and pepper.


I put them on a sheet pan and popped them under the broiler, on high, for about 5 minutes.  


When they were done, I spritzed them with a squirt of Meyer lemon juice, and ate them warm. 


Unfortunately, I could live off of these, so they do not last very long with me around. But be warned.  They may not look it, but they can be spicy! This batch was especially spicy, which I love, but they left Brian running for water a few times...and not to mention some stomach troubles the next morning.  I told him to just keep practicing.