Jalapeño Poppers

This weekend I'm headed up to Hoboken, New Jersey to stay with some of our closest friends, Chip and Kristen for the weekend. They moved to Hoboken a few years ago, which allowed Jon and I to visit them for such events as Fake St. Patrick's Day 2007, Blue Jays vs. Yankees in the old stadium and Labor Day 2008. Basically, we don't need any real occasion to visit the Humkeys, we tend to create reasons since we have so much fun together. For this weekend, the big event is that they have recently become homeowners and are having a housewarming party - and I am lucky enough to be in the US during the party weekend (though this may not have been a complete coincidence…). I cannot wait to see their new place in person, although I've already seen some pictures and the place is beautiful. I am taking my favorite form of transportation, the Amtrak train, from Washington, DC to Newark and will be there in no time. For the occasion, I'm trying my hand at a new recipe that my mom swears by. Although I try to stick to the healthier menu items, this delicious dish is not on the calorie-counting list - but I promise that this is not my norm. So, introducing my first (the plan is that it's the first of many) recipe post!

Jalapeño Poppers

Ingredients:
20 - 25 whole jalapeño peppers
12 oz. cream cheese, softened
1 tablespoon Cajun seasoning
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 lb. bacon
toothpicks (for securing the bacon around the peppers)

Directions:

1. Wash the jalapeño peppers, cut off stem end and remove seeds and ribs.

   

   Washed peppers

   Note: My mom has an amazing tool called a jalapeño corer. This is ideal, but any paring knife will do the trick. The seeds and ribs contain a lot of the pepper's heat, so the more thorough, the less spicy they will be. You also can slit the peppers down the long end to make this easier, but we decided to leave them whole this time around.
   
2. Mix cream cheese and spices, adjust spice level to taste.
3. Stuff peppers with cream cheese mixture. Note: We filled them by hand, which can be quite messy. Next time we will use a pastry piping bag which will certainly make this process much easier.
   
   

   

   Me filling peppers the hard way
   

   
   

   
   

   
   

   
   

   
   

   
   

   
   

   
   

   
   

   
   

   
   

   
   

   
   

   
   

   
   

   
   

   
   

4. Cook bacon for 2-3 minutes.

   

   Waiting for bacon

   Ideally the bacon will be slightly cooked, but still soft enough to wrap around the stuffed peppers. Note: If making ahead of time, you can skip this step, it just increases the cook time on the final product.
   

   
   

   
   

5. Wrap peppers with bacon. The bacon adds flavor and helps keep the cream cheese filling inside the pepper while they cook. Wrap the bacon most securely around any openings in the pepper and then secure with toothpick(s).
6. Cook stuffed peppers on the grill until the bacon is cooked throughout and the pepper is slightly soft.

Finished product, ready to grill!

The longer the peppers cook, the less spicy they will be. The peppers are good for up to 3 days after stuffing, but they must be kept refrigerated constantly. They are a great dish for tailgates, summer and winter grilling. The last time I had them was when my mom brought them down to Jon's parent's house for Christmas dinner. They were gone in minutes. We'll see how they fare at the housewarming party.