Meatless Stuffed Peppers, Paddy Paws, and Raw Meat Snacks

I shouldn't post this before I try the final product, but today I'm throwing caution to the wind.

I arose reasonably early today and made tonight's dinner, which will consist principally of meatless stuffed red bell peppers. Here's how I created this...100% original recipe:

Saute the following in olive oil:

8 ounces baby Bella mushrooms (probably any decent mushrooms would do), finely chopped

1/2 large onion, finely chopped

1 medium-sized yellow crook-neck squash finely chopped

Meanwhile...

Cook 1 cup of quinoa in 2 cups water (boil, then reduce to simmer for 10-15 minutes)

Cut off tops, remove seeds, and parboil four large red peppers (bell peppers) for about 5 minutes in salted water, then remove and drain

After quinoa is cooked...

Mix quinoa with the mushroom/onion/squash mixture and add about 3 ounces of grated mozzarella cheese plus one can of Rotel tomatoes

Heat the above mixture on low until the cheese is melted and mixed through

Stuff the peppers with the mixture and place peppers upright in a lightly-buttered high-sided baking dish (small enough to just accommodate the stuffed peppers standing upright, with a little space between them)

Surround stuffed peppers with remaning quinoa mixture

OK, dinner is ready for the final step tonight, which will be to put the baking dish in the oven at about 350 degrees for fifteen minutes or so...long enough to heat everything through and through and finish cooking the peppers.

I will, of course, probably add some Tabasco sauce to mine, though the Rotel tomatoes might add sufficient zing to make that unnecessary.

After getting that done, I washed all the dishes and ran a load in the dishwasher, then Internetted for awhile, where I was intrigued by a reference to pedi-paws. The pedi-paws reference made me think back to my childhood when I remember my mother making reference to something like that. I queried brothers and sisters via email and quickly got three replies, all of which ultimately reinforced, but corrected, my memory. It was paddy paws and it did, indeed, refer to hands. Upon more recollection, more is coming back to me.

When my mother was in the kitchen cooking something, the ingredients for which I particularly liked, I would sneak a pinch and eat it. I remember one of those times, vaguely, when I snatched a piece of raw round steak (or some sort of raw beef) and she said, "Get your paddy paws out of there! It will give you worms!" I loved raw beef even as a youngster.