Hi there, Jerry and Carol! Hmmm, my first thought was to say to make sure you use ground beef that’s fatty enough. But if you’re using beef with 20% fat, that should be plenty. Then I’m thinking, with a dry filling, maybe it’s the tomato paste? In my stuffed peppers, I usually use tomato sauce, which has more liquid than tomato paste. And also, just want to make sure that you’re using cooked rice. Raw rice will soak up any extra moisture in the stuffing (and make the cooking time much longer). You might want to take a look at a couple of my stuffed pepper recipes on the site and give them a try – or just use as reference to tweak your favorite recipe: Stuffed Green Peppers  and Stove-Top Stuffed Peppers. Thanks so much for writing – let me know how the peppers turn out!