Sunday, November 1, 2009

Halloween jalapeño poppers

Saturday, I visited Farmer Rick at the Summer Creek Farm stand at the farmer's market. He had a quart of jalapeños. I said, "I'll take those." He looked at me funny. "You want ALL of them?" "Yep," I answered.

I took them home and made jalapeño poppers. I brought one back for Rick to try when I came back later for the vendor meeting after the market. Will from Whitmore Farm also tried one. I think the consensus was that they were awesome. Yeon and I ate the rest of them on our way there.

Since they turned out well, I made a second batch for my friends for Halloween. I called together an impromptu porch party for anyone who wanted to hang out and give kids candy. I had "adult treats" for us, like mulled wine. I also had a bag of caramel corn from Catoctin Popcorn. I had about 10 friends show up, which was really fun. My friend Charisse brought a giant inflatable Scooby Doo, which we put on the porch with us. We had a good time interacting with the kids and their parents; I think we had about 80 kids come through. Some of the costumes were awesome. My favorite was my neighbor friend Samantha. She dressed as the fruit of the loom grape guy but her grapes were purple balloons. My little buddy Henry dressed as a farmer, and his treat box had a scene with fresh vegetables on it. I did not see him eat any vegetables, however.

Sometimes I would offer the parents treats. One parent dude loved the jalapeño poppers. After he and his kids went to the next house, he wandered back: "hey, I heard you guys had jalapeño poppers." Me: "you look a little familiar." Him: "that's not me. That was my dad." HILARIOUS.

Jalapeño Poppers
  • 10 Jalapeño peppers (I used Summer Creek Farm's)
  • chevre or cream cheese (I used Caprikorn Farms's chevre)
  • Hard cheese like cheddar
  • Bacon strips (I used Rohrer's)
Wear rubber gloves if you don't want to have spicy hands. Slice the jalapeños lengthwise in half. Cut out the stem part on top. Use your fingers to remove the seeds and the white pith. Put chevre in each jalapeño half until almost level. Sprinkle with shredded cheese and mound a little on top. Sprinkle with paprika if you have it. Wrap with half a slice of bacon. Have the bacon ends on the bottom of the jalapeño, and stack the bacon ends, don't overlap them. Put in a baking dish. Bake at 450 until the bacon is cooked to your liking. If your bacon is not cooking quickly enough but you don't want to cook the jalapeños too much you can broil them. It depends on your oven. Allow to cool for a few minutes until the cheese won't scorch your mouth. Drain on paper towels. These things are pretty hot.

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