Jalapeno and Bacon Poppers

As usual, its been awhile since I've posted.  Yeah yeah...I know.  I think i'm just going to stop apologizing for the huge gaps in between my posts b/c it seems to be how I've started every one lately.

That being said, here is a quick little recipe that will serve you well for any football tailgates/parties or holiday entertaining you might be doing over the next few weeks or couple of months.  (I DO plan on doing at least one holiday cooking post though!)

These jalapeno bacon poppers are AWESOME and so easy to make, by the way.

Go ahead and pre-heat the oven to 375 degrees.

Now let's get started guttin' those jalapenos. Medium to large sized ones will work best.  Next, I would put on some gloves.  I used to not wear them but after the pickling incident, I always wear gloves when working with peppers.

Slice them in half and using your thumb scrap out the membrane and seeds.

Once you've gotten them all cleaned out, take a small spoon and scoop out a good sized portion of cream cheese.  (You can use either the tub or a block of it.  It doesn't matter.  I just had a block on hand.)

Drag the spoon along the edge of the jalapeno so the cream cheese fills it in.  (This process is not the neatest one in the world and a lot of times I end up helping smoosh the cream cheese into the cavity with my fingers.  But not to worry, soon it will all be covered up with a tasty bacon wrapping and no one will care.)

Speaking of bacon...next, you'll want to slice your bacon strips in half.

Before we wrap these little guys up in their bacon-y blankets, Place a cooling rack on a baking sheet.  This is where they are gonna hang out while in the oven.

Now we wrap!  Now the jalapenos I used were kind of on the large size and needed two halves of a slice of bacon.  Feel free to adjust the bacon coverage for your tastes and jalapeno sizes.

I start with one end in the middle of the filling and the other end normally goes perfectly around it.  If this isn't the case for you, use toothpicks to secure the bacon to the jalapenos.  I would probably do that either way b/c I made them yesterday sans toothpicks and the bacon tended to curl up and or off of the jalapenos.

Once they are all wrapped up, pop them into the oven for 22-27 minutes depending on how crispy you want the bacon and how roasted you want the jalapenos.  I think I did 27 minutes for these guys.  Next time, I might even try it a little longer b/c I am a crispy bacon fanatic!

Let them cool for a few minutes after removing them from the oven.  They will be EXTREMELY HOT!  The roof of my mouth can vouch for that!  They are equally as good hot as they are room temperature!

Here are a few tweak I thought of as I ate the leftovers for lunch today:

- blue cheese crumbles as a filling

- serve with ranch or blue cheese as a dipping sauce

-  some sort of sweet dipping sauce would be good too, but I'd need to think on that one a little more.

Enjoy!

Jalapeno-Bacon Poppers

Ingredients:

jalapenos

cream cheese

bacon

Directions:

Preheat over to 375 degrees.

Slice jalapenos in half, length-wise. 

Using your thumb or a spoon remove the seeds and membranes from inside the jalapenos. 

Smoosh softened cream cheese into each of the jalapeno halves. 

Wrap jalapeno with bacon slices. (Use a toothpick to secure the bacon, if necessary).

Place on a cooling rack on a baking sheet and bake for 22-27 minutes.  If the bacon isn't crispy enough increase the time a little or turn on the broiler.  If you decide to use the broiler at the end, watch them closely.  The broiler will do its job fast!

Serve hot, or  at room temperature.