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.

Canning is Awesome. That’s All There is to It.

I need to preface this with the fact that I'm being lazy and using the post I created for this month's MidtownMontomeryLiving.com, which I'm now a contributing author for their gardening and DIY section.

Now that i've remembered how to log into my blogger account (which yes, I know needs to be self-hosted and use wordpress.org), hopefully I'll be posting more.  I have several recipes that I've taken photos of that I need to blog about.

With that being said, here's "Canning is Awesome. That’s All There is to It."

Last summer, I tried my hand at canning for the first time and I was really quite pleased with the results.  I had 6 jars of homemade watermelon rind pickle, which I gave to my dad for Father’s Day.

So with a successful canning attempt under my belt, I thought I would expand my repertoire this year.  I made peach preserves using fresh Chilton County peaches and a recipe from a 1928 cookbook (10 lbs. of peaches, 10 lbs. of sugar) and the other weekend, I canned peppers.

I had been collecting jalapenos, Serranos, chilies and cowhorns from my garden for a few weeks and they were starting to pile up.  I didn’t want them to go to waste and I love pickled jalapeno slices on lots of stuff, so I decided to make my own!

The container on the left has my home-growns in it.  A few were contributed by my neighbor, as well.

Now, while I had a fair amount of various peppers (my neighbor even contributed a few), I didn’t think I had enough to warrant all the “work” of canning.  So I headed to the Montgomery Curb Market on Madison Ave.

If you’ve never been down to the Curb Market…well, shame on you!  It’s so awesome.  They have all sorts of fabulous veggies, fruits, herbs, and berries (among other things).  Some vendors are strictly organic and others aren’t, but unlike out at the State Farmer’s Market – the vast majority of the produce is local and sold by local folks.  It’s open Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday 5:00am – 12 Noon.  And while the vendors all seem to provide bags, I always like to bust out one of my “green bags” I use at the grocery store and make myself as much of a dirty hippie as possible.  Yay environment!  Moving on…I left the Curb Market with some wonderfully huge organic jalapenos and normal banana peppers (I like those on my sandwiches!).

Upon returning home, I did a little” canning peppers” research on Google, found a recipe I could live with and started the process.

First:  We need to have a little talk.  So all the recipes are saying things like “Make sure to wear gloves when handling peppers” and blah blah blah.  I’m thinking to myself “Amateurs.  Gloves?  I don’t need no stinking gloves…”



Normally, this is true.  But when you are cleaning, handling, slicing, scooping, and stuffing about 7 lbs of peppers, YOU SHOULD WEAR GLOVES.  I know what you’re thinking “I hate wearing gloves when I cook.  I have no dexterity.”   This is one instance where compromised dexterity is not an excuse.  If you don’t want to sit on your couch for the rest of the night with your hands SCREAMING at you and you can’t do anything but wash them with Murphy’s Oil Soap (which works by the way) and pray you don’t forget and rub your eye (or if you’re a man use the facilities with no “buffer”…think about it) – use the gloves.

Now to the pickling:  It’s really very easy compared to other canning I have done.  Wash and slice all your peppers into rings.  Why rings?  Well, if you do them in rings and not as whole peppers, you don’t have to skin them and to be honest, that just looked like more work than I was up for.  Plus rings are easier to use, I think.

While you’re slicing, depending on what recipe you are using, bring the vinegar-salt brine to a boil.  This is our pickling agent.  NOTE: Don’t stand over it.  Few things are more painful than getting a big lung full of evaporating vinegar.


Here's a pretty standard recipe (7-8 pints):
1 clove of garlic per jar
6 cups of vinegar
2 cups of water
1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon pickling/canning salt

Start packing the rings and garlic into the hot, sterilized jars.  You will want to smoosh the peppers in good, but make sure a lid goes on flat.  I found a hand juicer works well to push them down.  A pestle would be perfect!

Once packed, fill each jar with the slightly boiling vinegar brine, leaving ¼ inch of headspace. Then use a chopstick or small spatula to remove any air pockets from the jar.

Place the hot lid on top and screw on the band.  Process in a boiling water canner for 10-15 minutes.

Once they are done, remove the jars and allow them to cool for about 24 hours before storing.  DO NOT TIGHTEN THE BANDS!  Re-tighten the bands can screw up your seal. They will need to sit for a minimum of 3 weeks before sampling.

The best part is standing back and admiring all of your pretty jars of homegrown and/or locally grown peppers!  Plus you can have a taste of summer during those bleak winter months.

New Vegetable Garden and the Year of Alabama Food

So it's been almost a year since I posted to my blog....  Part of it isn't entirely my fault.  I forgot what email and password I had been using since google migrated all the blogger stuff to their system.  It's associated with the email account I rarely use and thusly was forgotten.

BUT not to fear, I have successfully logged in and will be working diligently to get it moved over to WordPress and it's own URL.  Waterchestsaregross.com should be coming soon.  It might look like crud for awhile b/c i've got a freelance gig i'm working on, but have patience and we'll get there together.

A couple of things:  my wonderfully handy BF, Hunter,  helped me plant a veggie garden this year since my tomatoes only had one good group last year and then looked like shiz the rest of the summer and did nothing.

We planted 3 different kinds of tomatoes.  Heirloom German Johnson (I name him Willhelm), Huskey Cherry tomatoes (at the suggestion of a master gardener friend) and beefsteaks (at Hunter's request).

And we planted 4 different peppers: jalapenos, chili, cowhorn and serrano.

The little guys in March when they first got planted.
 I did some rearranging of them not realizing that yes, plants do grow.

As of May 05.

Here are some pics of the lovely fruits on their respective vines.  We got tons of them, but have only had one plum-sized beefsteak ripen as of yet.  We've had a handful of peppers come in and I even used two jalapenos in the chili I made this past weekend.

Husky Cherry Tomatoes abound!

The Beefsteaks are definitely gettin' their grow on!

It took the heirlooms a lot longer to get fruit on them, but
when I first saw them I freaked out!  They are so cute with the  little ridges!!

These guys are now in chili and in the freezer!

The cowhorns

Ok so that's the first thing.  Second thing is this:  It's the YEAR OF ALABAMA FOOD!  And they have this cool website and facebook page with all this cool info in it.  I highly recommend ya'll take a look at it.

Okie dokie - that's all for now.  But keep checking back b/c I will be posting again soon!  Thanks for stopping by! :)

Hot Pepper Jelly

A little back story first:
I'm trying out some different recipes for Christmas gifts.  I'm kind of shooting myself in the foot if I go into too much detail b/c i don't want everyone to know what they are getting from me for Christmas, so let's just say I'm seeing what's good and how much of the good stuff certain recipes make.  Yes, I'm already thinking about Christmas presents, but when you don't plan on buying stuff for people and instead are making their presents, you kind of have to plan ahead.

So with that said, today I made Hot Pepper Jelly.  What on earth do I do with Hot Pepper Jelly, you may ask yourself?  Well personally I dump the jar onto a big ole' hunk of cream cheese and dig in with some crackers.  It's an EXCELLENT appetizer and super easy to do...especially if someone else gives you the jelly. lol

The recipe I'm using comes from the St. Michael's and All Angels Cookbook. This was the parish I grew up in located just outside Stone Mountain Village and right down the street from my elementary school.  The recipe comes from a lady named, Cynthia Sutton and while I don't know who she is, Mom said she had wonderful recipes and that she was sure this one was equally as good.  If memory serves, she said something along the lines of "Ooh its a Cynthia Sutton recipe!" :)

Ok enough rambling, onto the good stuff.

First off: your canning jars.  You will need 5 8oz. jars.  Wash them and then put into a hot water bath.  I usually fill the jars with some water so that they won't float.

Bring the water to a boil while making the actual jelly.  They will be nice and hot by the time the jelly is ready to be put into them.

Take 1 large bell pepper (any color will do, but I used green b/c i'm poor and they are cheap.), cut the top off, remove the seeds and quarter.  You want the actual quantity of bell pepper to equal 1 1/2 cups.  Toss into the food processor or blender.

Next, take your jalapenos (fresh from my garden or your's or your grocery store), chop off the tops, slice in half length-wise, remove the seeds and measure out a 1/2 cup (add more or less for varying degrees of heat) and add to the bell pepper in the food processor.

Grind up the peppers until they look like this:

Transfer the pepper mixture (juices and all) into a large pot and then add 6 1/2 cups of sugar, a pinch of salt and 1 1/2 cups of white distilled vinegar.

Stir the mixture well, bring to a brisk boil and then boil for 3 minutes.  DO NOT WALK AWAY FROM THE STOVE WHILE THIS IS GOING ON!  I made the mistake of leaving to do a tiny bit of vacuuming, only to return to it boiling over and it smelling oddly-enough like burnt marshmallows.  (Burnt sugar is burnt sugar, yes?)  This is also why they are no pictures of the mixture boiling...priorities.

After the mixture boils for 3 minutes (hopefully, without incident...)  Now this is where I got confused a little and I'm hoping it doesn't effect my end product.  The recipe calls for "1 bottle of Certo", which I found when I Wally World, but it was SUPER pricey ($6.00+ for a 2 pack) compared to a big packet of instant fruit pectin (97 cents).  So I read both packages and came to the conclusion that one bottle and one packet made the same amount of end product and I went with the packet. (I had a tiny bit leftover after filling the jars and I put it into a clean jar without a lid, just so I could taste it after it firmed up.  It seems to firming just fine - so I'm guessing everything went correctly with the  fruit pectin .)

***UPDATE***
Monday, Aug 22
I'm now under the impression that the one packet of fruit pectin wasn't enough.  After sitting out for several hours to cool and firm, the jelly was still rather fluid, so i'm not going to cheap out next time, and i'll be buying the actual Certo.  Oh well, live and learn right?!
**************

So add the bottle of Certo and continue to boil for one more minute.

Remove the pot from heat and let sit for 5 minutes.

Your jelly jars should be nice and hot now.  Use tongs to remove one from the water and then use a baster or ladle to put the liquid jelly into the jar.  Next screw on the lid and set aside.  Continue this until all the jars are filled and lidded.

If you want the jelly to be more of that neon green color, I would add some green food coloring or food gel to the jelly after removing it from the heat, but i'm fine with the natural color.

The jelly is still cooling in its jars so I haven't tried it yet, which I guess isn't a very good thing to do.  I probably should have waited to try it before I went and posted about it - but nothing ventured nothing gained. I have FAITH that it will be tasty and if it isn't... well I'll have some ideas that might make it that way.

Fingers Crossed!!

------------------------------------------------------------------

Hot Pepper Jelly

by: Cynthia Sutton

yields: 5 8oz. jars.

5 8oz. Bell jars

1 1/2 cups bell pepper (any color)

1/2 cup of jalapenos (fresh)

6 1/2 cups of sugar

1 1/2 cups of white distilled vinegar

1 bottle of Certo or one packet of instant fruit pectin (should say on the package that it's good for 5 8oz. servings)

pinch of salt

Grind peppers in blender or food processor. Mix peppers, sugar, salt and vinegar into a large pot.  Bring to a brisk boil.  Boil for 3 minutes.  Add Certo/Fruit Pectin and boil for an additional minute.

Remove from heat and let stand for 5 minutes.  Pour into hot, sterilized jars and seal.

Spicy Chipotle Meatballs

I made these meatballs a couple of weeks ago and just now got to posting about them. Trust me, these suckers are definitely SPICY! But so good!

These meatballs are a slight adaptation of the recipe on Simply Recipes.com.

First, preheat the oven to 450º.

I chopped the uncooked bacon and 1 garlic clove and then combined them in a large bowl.

Using my small chopper, I combined the eggs*, bread crumbs and 1 teaspoon salt. Add this to the bacon and garlic.


*side note about my eggs this recipe. My friend and co-worker, Summer has 3 chickens in her back yard and she brought me 6 of their eggs! I used three of them because they are kind of small. If you're using XL eggs from the store, just use two. It's the first time I've ever cooked with "farm-fresh" eggs before! So cool!!

Finally, add the meat and using your hands, mix all the ingredients well.

Now, with wet hands, form meat into about 15 plum-size balls and place them in a greased baking dish.

Bake until lightly browned, about 15 minutes.


While the meatballs are baking, use this time to combine the tomatoes, chipotles (remove all seeds first!), the adobe sauce from one can of the chipotles, oregano, the rest of the garlic (chopped) and ½ teaspoon salt in a blender or food processor. Process to a smooth purée.



When meatballs are done baking, drain the fat from baking dish.


Now, combine the tomato mixture with your favorite tomato sauce (homemade or otherwise). And pour the sauce on top, covering the meatballs evenly.



Bake until sauce has thickened, about 15 or 20 minutes.

While the meatballs are baking a second time, go ahead and start your pasta, whatever kind you like. I used no-yolk whole wheat eggs noodles, which are always awesome. Just follow the directions on the package.

Spoon 2 meatballs and sauce over each serving of pasta and enjoy!


Feel free to garnish with freshly-grated Parmesan!

____________________________________________________

Spicy Chipotle Meatballs
makes approximately 15 meatballs

Ingredients:
3 slices bacon chopped into 1-inch pieces
3 garlic cloves, peeled
2 large eggs
1/2 cup bread crumbs
Salt
1 ¼ pounds ground meat (feel free to use beef, pork, veal, any combination of those three, or even turkey)
1 28-ounce can diced tomatoes, drained
1 or 2 canned chipotle peppers in adobo sauce, stemmed, seeded and sauce reserved
1 teaspoon dried oregano
24 oz. of your favorite tomato sauce
1 lb. pasta (whatever kind you desire)


Instructions:

Preheat the oven to 450º.

Chop bacon and 1 garlic clove, combine in a large bowl.

Combine eggs, bread crumbs and 1 teaspoon salt. Add to bacon and garlic. Add meat.

Using your hands, mix all the ingredients together well.

With wet hands, form meat into about 15 plum-size balls and place them in a greased baking dish.

Bake until lightly browned, about 15 minutes.

While the meatballs are baking, use this time to combine the tomatoes, chipotles (remove all seeds first!), the adobe sauce from one can of the chipotles, oregano, the rest of the garlic (chopped) and ½ teaspoon salt in a blender or food processor. Process to a smooth purée.

When meatballs are ready and drain the fat from baking dish.

Incorporate the tomato mixture with tomato sauce (homemade or otherwise). Pour the sauce on top, covering meatballs evenly.

Bake until sauce has thickened, 15 to 20 minutes.

While the meatballs are baking again, start water boiling for your pasta and follow directions on package.

Once the meatballs and sauce are finished baking, spoon 2 meatballs and sauce over each serving of pasta and ENJOY!

Collard Greens Soup and Jalapeno Cheddar Cornbread

I woke up this morning knowing I had a huge bunch of collards in the fridge and that they needed to be cooked...lo and behold - its rainy and gross and cold out today. *IDEA* SOUP!!

I have a couple different anecdotes regarding collard greens soup, but I'll make them fast!

The first time I was introduced to collard greens soup, I was working at a local sandwich shop called Wright's Gourmet in Dunwoody, GA. Mrs. Wright made this amazing soup with collards in it. Well, I thought collards were gross up until that point. Now I'm a collard greens eater for life! This recipe isn't her's. I'm sure its locked in some safe with all the other fabulous recipes they have. (Her pimento cheese is drool-worthy!) I highly recommend eating there if you ever get the chance!

Ok, so this next part isn't an anecdote, but whatever. I bought a bunch of collards at the store the other day because the bags were gigantic and I didn't need that much. Also, I like to buy the bunches when I can because then I can cut the stems and such off, which I'll show you in a bit.

And the cornbread got made because well.... cornbread is awesome and goes with soup! Plus the soup had to simmer for 45 mins and it was the perfect time to make the cornbread. :)

First things first. Prepare the raw collards. When you buy them, they will look like this:

Take a big knife and cut the entire bottom off, pretty much everything below where the leaves stop. Next you'll take each leaf individually, which looks like this:

Fold it in half and run the knife along the edge, cutting out the spine of each leaf.

You want to do this to the majority of leaves in the bunch. The recipe calls for 1 lb. of collards and I used all but 4 or 5 of the leaves in the bunch.

Once all the leaves have been cut, start tearing them up into large bite-sized pieces and toss them in a sink full of cool water. (These, unlike the bagged ones, need to be washed)


Give them several good swirls in the water to rinse off any dirt, etc that might be on them.

Once they are good and washed, transfer them to a large stock pot and add 10 cups of chicken broth and a ham hock (I already had some frozen ham necks in the freezer, so I used those. I added a 1/2 tsp of liquid smoke though to make up for the fact that the necks were not cooked.)

Put the whole mess onto the stove and bring to a boil, stirring occasionally. The broth will not cover the collards fully until the collards wilt down a bit. Just move 'em around every now and then to help them out!

Once the collards have smooshed themselves down and the broth is boiling, cover with a lid and simmer for 45 mins. This is what they'll look like before you cover and simmer them.


Now this is when i started to make the cornbread, but to make this whole thing flow better, I'll do the cornbread in a sec.

So 45 mins have past..*whew* that took forever! lol :)

The collards are a deep, rich green now and bordering on being cooked to death, but that's a good thing. Remove the ham hock (or necks in this case) and give them to your dog once they've cooled or something. My cats won't touch them so I toss 'em in the round file, if you know what I mean.

Bones removed. Now add 2 cans of Great Northern Beans and 1 1/2 cups of cubed ham. (Use a centercut ham slice for its thickness.) Add cayenne pepper, garlic, apple cider vinegar and some salt to taste. Give it a good stir and cover again and let simmer for another 20 mins.

Once done, it should look a little something like this:


Ladle it out into a bowl and serve with the upcoming jalapeno cheddar cornbread!


NOW ONTO THE CORNBREAD!!

I didn't even know I had this recipe until I started flipping thru my "cookbooks". Who knew?!

Anyway, I've never made cornbread from scratch before and let me just toot my own horn here - it came out PERFECT! :) yay me!

First, preheat the oven to 350°F.

Mix all your dry ingredients into a large bowl. (flour, cornmeal, salt, sugar, baking powder)

In another bowl, mix together all the wet ingredients. (eggs, milk, melted butter)

Slow stir the wet ingredients into the dry ones making sure to remove any lumps, but DON'T OVER STIR!

Add 2 cups of the grated Cheddar, the scallions and jalapenos, and allow the mixture to sit at room temperature for 20 minutes.


Once it has sat, transfer to a cast iron pan. I suppose you could use some other kind of pan, but I'm southern and use my great-grandmother's cast iron. Smooth out the top and sprinkle with cheese and a few scallions.

Pop that bad boy in the oven for 30-35 mins or whenever a toothpick comes out clean.

And *voila* this is what you get:


Serve it up with the yummy soup you just made! And you've got a delicious (somewhat healthy), warm-your-insides kinda meal!


ENJOY!!!

__________________________________________

Collard Greens Soup

Ingredients:
1 pound collard greens
1 ham hock
10 cups chicken stock
2 cans Great Northern Beans
1 1/2 cups cooked, cubed ham
1 bunch green onions, diced
1 clove garlic, minced
1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1/2 teaspoon liquid smoke, optional
salt to taste

Instructions:
Prep the collards by removing the spine, tearing up into medium-sized pieces and washing them in cool water.

Put collards into a large stock pot with with chicken broth and ham hock

Bring to a boil(stirring occasionally) and reduce to a simmer.

Simmer for 45 minutes.

Remove ham hock and add remaining ingredients.

Simmer for an additional 20 minutes.



Jalapeno Cheddar Cornbread

Ingredients:
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup yellow cornmeal
1/4 cup sugar
2 tablespoons baking powder
2 teaspoons kosher salt
2 cups milk
3 extra-large eggs, lightly beaten
2 sticks unsalted butter, melted
2 1/4 cups shredded, extra-sharp Cheddar
1/3 cup chopped scallions, white and green parts
3 medium-sized fresh jalapenos, seeded and minced

Instructions:
Combine the flour, cornmeal, sugar, baking powder, and salt in a large bowl.

In a separate bowl, combine the milk, eggs, and butter.

With a wooden spoon, stir the wet ingredients into the dry until most of the lumps are dissolved. Don’t over mix!

Mix in 2 cups of the grated Cheddar, the scallions and jalapenos, and allow the mixture to sit at room temperature for 20 minutes.

Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 350°F. Grease a large cast-iron pan.

Pour the batter into the prepared pan, smooth the top, and sprinkle with the remaining grated cheddar and extra scallions.

Bake for 30 to 35 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean.

Cool and cut. Serve warm or at room temperature.