Jalapeno Appetizers

We had a big party out at my mom and step-dad's ranch last night for Peter. They invited about half the county and it was a lot of fun. I'll post some pictures of their ranch sometime soon. Right now I want to show you the jalapeno appetizers that I took.

They are so easy to do. The ingredients you will need are:
jalapenos
cream cheese
bacon (I used turkey bacon for the first time and it worked out well)
ketchup
mustard
brown sugar
toothpicks

I realize that you can't buy jalapenos in the store right now, so this may be a bad time to post this recipe. Hopefully some of you will have an overabundance in the garden like we did. :)

I'm not sure what kind of peppers the yellow ones are. Mike planted them and he can't remember either...oh well, they tasted good!

First, slice the peppers in half lengthwise. Then use a spoon to scoop out the seeds and membrane. Be careful if you have sensitive skin and be SURE not to rub your eyes or nose.

See the DVD player in the background? Cindy brought it into the kitchen and put The Sound of Music on for she and I to watch while I was cooking. Isn't she sweet? I wouldn't let her help because I was worried about her handling the peppers, but she still wanted to hang out in the kitchen with me. She took some of the pictures.



Here are all the peppers ready to go. We put the insides on the compost pile.


Fill each pepper half with softened cream cheese.


Wrap each filled pepper with a third to a half slice of bacon, depending on the size of your peppers and secure with a toothpick. This is turkey bacon in the picture.


Place the wrapped peppers on a cookie sheet and bake at 375 degrees for about 15 minutes. While they are baking, mix together ketchup, mustard, and brown sugar. I don't measure, but maybe you can get an idea of the proportions from the picture.


After the peppers have baked for 15 minutes, brush the ketchup mixture on them. Return them to the oven and bake for another 5 to 10 minutes.


They are good hot right out of the oven or at room temperature. When we got to my parents house, I went ahead and uncovered them so everyone could sample a bite before I took them into the kitchen. I thought I was going to have my arm gnawed off before I could even get through (and not by the 4 legged creatures)! :) This is all that was left by the time I made it to the kitchen and these few didn't last more than another 10 minutes. The latecomers didn't even get any!