NMFL's Jalapeno Poppers

So I promise that these are THEE best jalapeno poppers ever! Do you know why I can say that? I put Chicken in my bacon wrapped jalapenos. This recipe has evolved a lot from the first time I made it (I found the recipe in a cookbook some where.) I only have a picture of the final product unfortunately but will get some up soon.

So this recipe started as a half jalapeno filled with a piece of string cheese and a piece of onion wrapped in bacon and then BBQ'D. Though it was good, it lacked the flavor I was looking for. So I decide to add chicken instead of the piece of onion. This was really good and was my staple dish for a while until my friend Levi decided to replace the piece of string cheese with cream cheese, making them closer to a traditional jalapeno popper. I really liked this idea and made it my go to until another friend, Deep, added some spices and flavor to the cream cheese. This is where we stand now. It has been about four years since the recipe has been changed, but doesn't mean it wont be changed again...

SHOPPING LIST-
-You need a package of thick cut bacon. Count how many pieces of bacon there are in the package.
-Buy that many fresh jalapenos.
-2 packages of cream cheese.
-A box of tooth picks
-Skinless, boneless, chicken breasts. Only need about three or four.
-If you don’t have it, salt, pepper, garlic powder, and red chili flakes,

HOW TO:
First thing is pull cream cheese out of fridge to start bringing it to room temp. Then put at least two tooth picks for each jalapenos in a bowl of water so they won’t burn in the heat.

Cut jalapenos in half length wise and use a butter knife to scrape out seeds and insides. Turning the jalapeno halves into little boats.

Then cut the chicken breasts into little pieces about the size of half your pinkie. If you cut the chicken too big, it takes to long to cook and you end up with pretty soggy jalapenos, trust me I have tried. Salt and pepper lightly.

Put the two packages of cream cheese in a bowl and flavor with the salt, pepper, garlic powder, and red chili flakes to taste. Mix thoroughly.

Fill each jalapeno “boat” full with the cream cheese mixture.

Take the whole bacon slab out of package and cut it all in half.

Take a piece of cut chicken and put on top of the cream cheese boat and wrap with a half piece of bacon. Use one of the pre-soaked tooth picks to secure the chicken and connect the bacon piece.

After all jalapeno halves have chicken and are wrapped in bacon, BBQ on med high heat for approx 12-15 minutes until chicken is cooked. Easiest way to tell is to cut a jalapeno popper in half and look for no pink in the chicken and clear juices, be careful to not cook too long or the chicken will dry out.

Take off grill and let sit for 5- 10 minutes, serve and enjoy.

Watch out for flare ups while BBQ-ing. You will need to watch them carefully and move away from hot spots often to not burn the bacon. Some bacon will have some black parts on it but that is okay.

Joshpae's Stuffed Habanero's and Jenna's Bacon Wrapped Peaches

In my post about my Habanero Peaches, ( Here) I mentioned that it was a collaboration between two of my friends recipes and I thought that I would share them here in case anyone was wondering about them.

I will start with Joshpae's Bacon Wrapped, Stuffed Habaneros.

These were great but oh so HOT! I am a huge fan of spicy stuff. I put habanero's in a lot of recipes and can handle the heat and don't have to get out of the kitchen, if you know what I mean but after two of these my mouth was on fire. Which is why I actually wanted to try some other method to get these flavors together.

What my friend Joshpae did was buy 8-10 habeneros and chop the tops off them all. Then use a butter knife and scrape out some of the insides so he could stuff them. He then put softened cream cheese in a zip lock bag and cut one end off and squeezed the cream cheese into the habaneros. He then wrapped a piece of bacon around the habanero, using the bacon to seal in the cream cheese and secured it with a pre soaked toothpick. (I think that if I made these again I would use a 1/2 piece of bacon because it was hard to get the bacon cooked all the way through.) Then he BBQ'd them on Med/High heat until bacon was to his desired crispy level. Let cool for a minute and serve but beware of their heat, spicy heat, that is.

The other half of the collaboration was Jenna's Bacon Wrapped Peaches. She cut her peaches into 8 pieces. Wrapped each piece with a basil leaf and then wrapped that in a piece of bacon. Then cooked in a skillet on medium low heat, turning as needed until her bacon reached her desired level of crispiness. She also made a balsamic reduction to drizzle over them that consisted of an aged balsamic vinegar heated in a small saucepan, with honey (optional) until it reduces to a syrup like consistency.

Sorry about the fact their are no pictures but as I stated these were their recipes and I just went off their pictures and experiences, so I apologize again..

NMFL’s Habanero Peaches

These are so great, an awesome taste of sweet, spicy, and salty. These were a collaboration I came up with from my friend Joshpae's Cream Cheese Stuffed and Bacon Wrapped Habaneros and my Friend Jenna's Bacon Wrapped Peaches.

Start out by soaking 12 toothpicks in water, large ones if possible, about 6 inches is best. Soak for about 20 minutes so that when you put these on the BBQ, the toothpicks don't burn up.


Ingredients

1 habanero pepper

½ package softened cream cheese

2 peaches

12 pieces of bacon

Preheat oven to 300 degrees. Place bacon on a cookie sheet and bake for approx 10-15 minutes. You want the bacon to start browning but it needs to be pliable enough to wrap the peaches. 

Put 1 whole habanero in a food processor. Pulse on high until it is chopped very small. Add softened cream cheese and blend together. Scoop into small zip lock bag.

Cut each peach into 6 pieces. I tried cutting them into quarters and into eighths (As picture shows) but sixths seemed to work the best. Use a spoon and scoop out middle of each piece of peach, making it like a little boat. (Again, see picture.)

 Fill each piece with the habanero cream cheese by cutting a corner off of the zip lock bag and squeezing it in.

Wrap each peach piece with bacon and connect the ends together with one of the soaked toothpicks. After all 12 pieces are filled and wrapped, BBQ on med/high for 7-10 minutes until bacon is cooked crisp (as desired) and peaches are soft.

 Serve and enjoy.

Buffalo Chicken Wing Dip

Man!!! I wish that I could take credit for this recipe, but alas, I can't. My friend Vib made this for a party we were at, and I tried to literally, eat it all. So of course I asked for the recipe. Thanks again, Vib. I have made this for the last three Super Bowl parties I have gone to and people have raved about it. Last year there were three different variations of a buffalo wing dip and this one was by far the favorite. One lady even told her boyfriend that it was ok to like this one better than hers. Haha, I agreed.

Ingredients:

1 Rotisserie Chicken (Shredded)

2 Packages of Cream Cheese (Softened)

1 cup of Cheddar Cheese (Plus a little more to sprinkle on top)

1 cup of Ranch Dressing

1 12 oz. Bottle of Frank’s Red Hot

Start out by shredding the chicken. Get ALL the chicken. You want to leave it in decent size when you can. About the size of the backspace button on your keyboard. (Bigger or smaller based on your preference) 
Put all the chicken in a large bowl and then mix in remaining ingredients. Get in there with your hands and mix everything together very well. Put mixture into a 9inch x 13inch glass or ceramic dish and sprinkle some extra cheddar cheese on top. Bake at 350 degrees for 40 minutes. I always serve with chips, usually Scoops, but if you really want a treat, cut some celery into little 1 to 2 inch pieces and serve those as well. I promise this will go fast...especially if you invite me to the party.

Sorry for no pictures. I will update the next time I make this. Hopefully before the next Super Bowl. (Fingers crossed) 

Egg Omelet Muffins

So I started this blog because I wanted to put some of my recipies and ideas out for the world to see. I cook a little bit for my lady and sometimes I come up with some good stuff. Sometimes it's just ok, but always fun. Here is my first post;

So I was on Pinterest and saw this. I liked the idea for an easy breakfast but didn't need it to be gluten free. Here is how I made them;

1st pre-heat the oven to 400 degrees

I started out by cooking about a cup of Jimmy Dean sausage.

Then I sauted some red onion, mushrooms, and fresh jalapenos and mixed them together with the sausage.

I just had a 6 muffin tin so I put 5 eggs in a bowl and mixed them with 2 Tblsp milk, a 1/3 C of jack cheese, and salt & pepper.

I sprayed the muffin cups with some non stick spray then I put some shredded hash browns down in the muffin tins like so...

Then I added my sausage, mushroom, onion, and jalapeno mixture..

Then I spooned in the egg mixture and filled the cups. I cut up a little bit of a green onion and sprinkled it on top.
 

I cooked them at 400 degrees for 25 minutes and voila

They are great breakfast on the go. The next day I put one in the microwave tor 45 seconds and just ran out the door with my egg muffin in a paper towel. They were really good with some hot sauce also.