Don't You Forget About Me - Brunch Club May

I thought of a new excuse for not posting in a while.



Brunch club nearly disappeared after the last one that was sometime last year! Sue heroically revived it, and the newlyweds, Robily, graciously hosted at their new cool apartment in Pasadena. It was delightful to meet back up again. It had certainly been a while. With the return of brunch club, I am inspired to make a return to blogging after, well let's call it a sabbatical.

The club-goers (the brunch club goers that is) depend on us to bring the hearty egg-type dishes to the event so I made this little breakfast calzone I have been meaning to try from my recipe binder.

I made two, one with sausage/jack cheese/egg/peppers/onions



...and the other with feta/sun-dried tomato/egg/spinach/mushroom/onion.



The former was from the recipe, the latter was a creation of mine not only to accommodate the vegetarians in the group, but also to experiment with the concept to see if it would work with other ingredients. The feta/spinach one was actually better in my opinion.

It is almost unnecessary to bore you with a recipe for this because you can do whatever you want with these things. I used Pillsbury pizza dough which comes in one of those scary pop-open cans (doyouknowwhatimean?...one of those cans where you slowly peel away the wrapping on the outside until the can bursts open like BLAM!)
You can stuff the thing up with anything you want. I will definitely use more eggs next time. You can almost just make scrambled eggs with anything you like to add and then roll it up in that dough, and bake for about 15 minutes.

Instead of a traditional recipe, I will simply give you some tips for this:

*Cook or saute whatever meat or vegetables you will be using until the meat is brown or the vegetables are slightly tender.
*Mix together about 4-5 eggs, and scramble them with whatever filling (meat/veggies/cheese) you are using
*Roll out your pizza dough into more of a long rectangle so once the filling is added and folded it, you will have a log-shaped calzone that you can cut across.
*Add the egg filling down the center of the dough rectangle.
*You can fold the edges it and pinch them together at the top.
*Brush the dough with an egg white wash OR just use some cooking spray to lightly coat the dough (I used olive oil spray)
*Use the timing/temperature on whatever pizza dough package you use. Just make surethe dough is cooked all the way through. I believe I did about 20 minutes at 350 F.
Allow to cool for at least 10 minutes before cutting into the calzone.

Got Eggs? (and Feta and Spinach): Brunch Club October Continued

I cannot stop thinking about these little gems.



This is definitely a self-appointed title, but just call me "Savory Sammy" when it comes to brunch. I feel like I can be counted on to provide at least one savory dish when we gather for our monthly brunches. I had been planning to make Chocolate Chip Puffins for a while, but I needed a savory dish as well. I almost always end up bringing some sort of egg, meat or egg/meat dish. I am simply running out of ideas for ways to make eggs! I resorted to searching Tastespotting for egg dishes. If you are not familiar with this website, it is essentially pictures of food...pages and pages of food pictures. You can click on something that looks delicious and be directed to the website of the photographer (which usually is a food blog that includes a recipe).



I came across a delightful photo of a tasty-looking egg dish on a blog I had never visited, A Big Mouthful: Adventures in Food. I mean, I pretty much started drooling when I saw the picture of these "Spinach Feta Pop-In-You-Mouths". I thought if I could make something that looked half as good, I would be more than happy. I was impressed to find (after actually reading the blog post) that the blogger, Adrienne, basically made these spontaneously one day with some ingredients she had on hand. I was even more impressed when I got a chance to taste my recreation of them.



The recipe is flawless. I followed it exactly as written (which I almost NEVER do), and they came out perfectly...exactly as I had hoped they would. It was very easy too!

Please visit Adrienne's blog for the recipe and other amazing ones as well: A Big Mouthful: Spinach Feta Pop-In-Your-Mouths . You will not be disappointed!

Change Up: Brunch Club October

Some things never change; more things do.



October brunch was at Sube's last year. We feasted on a silly amount of food, and then we carved pumpkins. There were mounds of orange goop in large bowls on the table as each of us carved our own pumpkins with an unnecessary level of concentration. This year was to be a repeat. Sube was hosting again, and brunch was to be followed by the carving of pumpkins.

While I would call the brunch another wonderful brunch success, there was an epic pumpkin carving fail. I believe Andace brought one small pumpkin. Stanley tried to eat the stem, but gave up probably once he realized it tasted like a tree. Once brunch was cleared from the table, the pumpkin tools were brought out, but no one moved. We continued our amusing conversation about what horror movie character Sue should be for Halloween at the school where she teaches and the fact that she and Natalie's dad bears a strong resemblance (at least in his facebook picture) to US House Minority Leader, John Boehner. To illustrate, two of the three pictures below are the real John Boehner; one is Sue and Natalie's dad:





Anyway, we all were so distracted by good food and conversation that the single small innocent pumpkin was spared.

Besides the absence of pumpkin carving, there are quite a few things that have changed just since the last October Brunch (2009), hosted by Sube:

*Candace and Andy tied the knot in a backyard ceremony at Andy's parents' Canadian home.
*Zach and I adopted our Greyhound, Stanley and moved into a new, much bigger apartment and are each in different jobs.
*Elliott moved to LA and got a cool new job.
*Emily and Rob got engaged!
*Natalie moved into a great Loz Feliz Apartment on her own and seems to have made more friends than people I have even met in LA.
*Brian got a great job, and Sue gave us the "two year warning" that babies would be on the way!
*Even though Three-Hole-Punch (Sube's little dog) gained weight since last year, she looks smaller to me now that I am used to Stanley.

If you ask me, these are all great changes. This stage of life is so fascinating to me. Change is not only rapid, it is significant. People are going from boyfriend/girlfriend to husband/wife, jobs that will direct the course of our careers are won/lost/quit; it is like life on steroids because the decisions we make at this stage of life seem to carry more weight than ever before, laying the groundwork for our adult lives.

Zach and I adopted Stanley the Greyhound, it was strange to think that the decision would have a huge effect on my life for about the next ten years. I think it is important to take big decisions seriously, but it is just as important to be be able to break them down into manageable terms. We cannot always know exactly where the decisions we make will take us or what the consequences might turn out to be. It helps me to think of big choices in terms of "day by day". Each day, I will choose to take on the consequences (good or bad) of the decisions that have led me to that point (big or small). I guess a huge decision is simply made up of a bunch of small ones.

With all the decision-making and changes taking place, the constants become increasingly important. I am really grateful for the consistency of something like monthly brunch club but more so for the relationships that led to it in the first place.

Maybe you are not in this very scarily exciting time of your life, and you could use some change! If that is the case (and even if not because who really cares if their food changes as long as it is delicious), you may consider trying the following recipe from the hugely popular baking blog, Bakerella. Here, she comes up with the most creative little treasures, pancakes in the form of mini-muffins...Puffins. Brilliant! They are dip-able/dunk-able (however you prefer to put it) little pancakes: dip in syrup and eat with your hands. You can make them in any variety of pancake; I went with blueberry puffins and chocolate chip puffins.



Chocolate Chip Puffins

(Recipe from Bakerella, makes 24)

1 cup flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons sugar
2/3 cup buttermilk
1 egg
2 tablespoons pure maple syrup
2 tablespoons melted butter
1/2 cup milk chocolate chips (I did half blueberry/half chocolate chip so I used 1/4 C chocolate chips and 1/4 C fresh blueberries)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and sugar in a medium bowl. Sift together with a wire whisk.
In another bowl, stir buttermilk, egg, maple syrup and melted butter until just combined.
Add wet ingredients to dry ingredients and stir with a spoon until combined.
Stir in chocolate chips. Reserve a few chips to sprinkle on the tops.
Bake for 8-9 minutes.

Makes 24 mini pancake muffins.

Let cool slightly and remove from the pan. You may need to use a toothpick around the edges to separate the pancake muffins from the pan.

Serve immediately with warmed butter if you like or even just with maple syrup.

COMING SOON: I made another dish for brunch that was potentially my favorite dish I have ever contributed to the feast. For a sneak peak, check out the yellow thing with bits of green in it on the bottom of my plate (I apologize for the horrible picture)...

Brunch Club August: A Guest Blog by LeAnna

The brunch club was back and better than ever this month. I mean, look at us:



BreAnna did a fantastic job this month. They not only managed to host the biggest brunch club in brunch club history, they did it picnic style in their front yard area. With the city in the background, sitting under the shade of the tailgate tent with the canines and a plate of food was the perfect way to spend a lazy glutinous sunday afternoon.



Stanley meets Parker:


BreAnna always makes a ridiculous amount of food for their hungry guests. This is not me complaining by any means because every single thing is delicious. This month, LeAnna made a vegetable orzo dish that was of upmost satisfaction to this blogger. It was honestly the first time I had ever had the pasta-that-really-resembles-rice dish, and i was delightful mixed with some chunky veggies served cold brunch-style.



Some other notable dishes this week included LeAnna'a neighbor's chocolate chip cookies (her mother's recipe):



Sube's guiltily delicious berry berry good coffee cake was too good for words:



I made some siily-bad-for-you corn muffins stuffed with bbq pulled pork:


LeAnna was kind enough to write a guest blog for me after I offered my highest compliments to her veggie orzo. You will rarely see her without a smile on her face. She is always hospitable, even when she is not in her own home. She is the first to offer a helping hand to me in the kitchen when her and Brian come to my apartment for get-togethers. She is friendly, cheerful and a pleasure to be around. See for yourself will ya?

Hi! This is LeAnna. The Amazing Lindsey asked me to write a guest blog after hosting brunch, and I decided to go with it, despite having no idea how to write one. This should be fun for all of us!

So, a little back-story about me in regards to cooking: I'm half Sicilian and the other half is one of 26 grandchildren, from a mother who was 7 of 9, from a grandmother who was 13 of 13. I am genetically programmed to cook for LARGE groups of people. I can cook for one, two, or twenty--there is no middle ground. I do quite like cooking, but also being quite lazy, I don't very often. Thus, when I have a reason to cook (and REALLY cook, at that), I go ALL OUT. And now onto brunch…




For my (and Brian's) brunch I made/had:

Bacon

Hashbrowns

Pancakes

Stuffed Mushrooms

“Water Should Never Not Taste Like This” Water

Vegetable Orzo

Brian's Breakfast Casserole

Caprese Salad

Bagels

COFFEE (aka life blood)

And…

Mimosas (because what's brunch without booze?!)

I'm not going to lie, even with all the above and knowing that people would be bringing other dishes, I was still worried that it wouldn't be enough food. It's a hereditary thing. I was INCREDIBLY wrong about that, by the way--seriously, does anyone want to come over for leftovers? Please?

Well, incase you're not a fan of going over to a stranger's house and eating her brunch leftovers, yet would still like to recreate some of this experience, I'll share 2 recipes with you. (I'll try to give you the smallest serving sizes possible--key word being try.)

“Water Should Never Not Taste Like This” Water

This is a recipe I was inspired to create after enjoying some uber fancy water at a tres chic spa. I find it especially refreshing on hot days.



Ingredients:

2 gallons of water

2 lemons

2 oranges

1 cucumber

Prep:

Wash produce like crazy!!! You will be leaving the skin and rinds on and putting them in the water. Nobody wants to drink pesticides, so wash those better than you would your newborn.

Slice off ends of lemons, oranges, and cucumber. Discard. Slice remaining fruit and cucumber into ¼- ½ circles.

Put in a pitcher with water. Chill. Or don't. Delicious either way.

Also, to recreate a spa experience on a penny buster budget, grab the biggest glass you can find, pour in this water, throw on a towel, and sit in your parked car with the windows rolled up on a hot summer day.

“Vegetable Orzo”

This is a variation of a recipe I grew up with. It's fairly healthy because the orzo is marinated with the juices of the vegetables rather than a heavy sauce. It's vegan (I think).

Ingredients:

Orzo pasta

1 green zucchini

1 yellow squash

2 tomatoes

Shitake mushrooms (I normally put in 6, but it really depends on how much you like Shitake)

Small bunch of asparagus

Olive oil

Prep:

Thoroughly wash produce.

Slice zucchini, squash, and mushrooms. Dice tomatoes. Chop asparagus.

Boil water and cook orzo according to package instructions. Drain.

Add about a capful of olive oil into a skillet over medium heat and add mushrooms and asparagus. Cover. Occasionally stir.

When mushrooms first start to wilt (about 3-4 minutes) add zucchini and squash. Cover. Occasionally stir.

When zucchini and squash are wilted (about 10-15 minutes) add tomatoes. Stir. Cover.

Quickly allow the tomatoes to heat (about 2 minutes), then stir and remove from heat. Dump vegetables, along with their juices into your drained orzo and serve (or put in the fridge for later--can be eaten hot or cold).
And that's how you make that!

I hope you guys like these recipes. Yay Lindsey's blog readers!!!

Thanks for having me!

Happy Eating,

LeAnna

If you are wondering about my brunch recipe. Don't. I cannot even express how easy it is. It is simply Jiffy corn muffin mix and BBQ pulled pork. You can buy the pulled pork or make it yourself. I bought it. You just put some corn mix (prepare as directed on box) i the bottom of greased muffin tins, then put about 1 tbsp of pulled pork on top of it, and then top it with more muffin mix. The muffin mix will engulf the pork. For something a little more palatable for vegetarians or, well, health concious folks, you can use anything to stuff the corn muffins...ground beef, blue cheese crumbles, black beans, baked beans... just stick anything you want in there!

Brunch Club July: Movie a Week

This summer has been one of the best for movie-going.



I have seen a really great movie just about every week this summer. I am on a roll, and I do not want it to end!

WEEK 1: Sex ad the City

WEEK 2: City Island

WEEK 3: Cyrus

WEEK 4: The Kids Are All Right

WEEK 5: Inception

Of course, I saw some mediocre documentaries like 8: The Mormon Proposition and Babies, but the overall movie experience has been fantastic this summer.


Sube's salty sweet banana tart with a buttery oatmeal crust.

Lindzachary's simple popovers...didn't know what a popover was until they came out of the oven.

On top of a great movie-a-week in the theater, I have been catching a great short movie-a-week this summer on youtube. Brian (of Sube) has been making one short movie every week and will continue for the rest of the summer. This week's movie was based on brunch club July which was hosted by me and Zach.



So there you have it folks, a sneak peak into the goings on of our monthly gatherings. It is also worth noting that we have officially made it a year! The first brunch was hosted by us August of last year. I feel good about the potential of this ritual to continue for years to come.





Brunch has bee a really great culinary experience for me because it keeps me sharp when it comes to breakfast foods and appetizers. I decided to make something a little different this month, drunken tomatoes.



Drunk Before Noon Tomatoes:

(recipe adapted from Woman's Health Magazine)

2 pints of tomatoes (you can use different varieties like yellow, orange, plum, cherry, grape or anything)
1/2 C vodka
1 tsp kosher salt
handful of finely chopped fresh basil (original recipe calls for fresh dill, but I couldn't find any)

Using a fork, poke plenty of holes into each individual tomato.
Place tomatoes into a large ziploc bag.
Pour the vodka over the tomatoes, and shake it around a bit.
Let tomatoes soak in the refrigerator overnight (flip at least once).
Right before serving, take out tomatoes and drain off extra vodka.
In a large bowl, add salt and basil (or dill) to tomatoes and mix just enough to coat evenly.
Serve cold...you can set them out in a bowl with some toothpicks nearby.

Easter Feaster: Brunch Club April

This was not just brunch.



It was Easter brunch, and the day was right. The sun was out, and the food was plentiful. Natalie’s new apartment was particularly inviting, inspiring me to get going on setting up my own new apartment. She even had some indoor gardening started including strawberries, a small lemon tree, an artichoke, fresh herbs, eggplant and quite possibly more.



It was definitely the biggest brunch we’ve had which only means more ridiculously good food for all.

There was just too much food to picture all of it this time around, but some highlights to me included Emily’s fresh fruit salad which involved a heavy blackberry influence, Elliot’s savory spinach dip in a huge bread bowl and Natalie’s hot fresh waffles with raspberry and fruit compote.

Emily’s fresh fruit salad.



Natalie's hot fresh waffles.



Almond bark.



Blueberry Scones.



BreAnna's deep dish cookie.



Eggs (this is really all about my pretty new plate)



Cheese Stix.



Lindzachary's Sausage Quarter Biscuits.



This was a Paula Dean recipe, using canned biscuit dough. I really think this could have been much better with a homemade biscuit dough, but the canned dough sure was convenient. This took about 15 minutes total to make, and these little things can be saved for to-go breakfast throughout the week.

(a Paula Dean recipe)

1 (10-biscuit) can buttermilk biscuit dough (or your favorite biscuit recipe)
1/2 lb ground breakfast sausage (you may like the spicy kind)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
Form the sausage meat into 20 quarter-sized (but about 1/4 inch thick) medallions
In a large pan, cook the sausage medallions until just cooked through.
Cut each biscuit in half, and roll into balls so you have 20 small balls of dough.
Place the biscuit balls into muffin tins
Press one sausage patty into each dough ball in the muffin tin. The edges of the dough should come up around the sausage.
Bake for about 10 minutes or until the biscuits are cooked thoroughly.

Simple, y'all!

Brunch Club February: Humble Showing

Brunch club is still alive for those of you who had doubts. There was a humble showing this month, a humble showing of people that is, not food.



Yes, after a break during the month of January, the brunch club kids are back to their old tricks: making impressive, feastly and insane amounts of food for not-that-many people. One of us is also subsequently making up words like "feastly" just to accurately describe the food situation.



Andace (Andy and Candace) was in San Diego "locked up" in a room all day for some sort of conference Candace had to attend for work. I also feel I should mention Andy made a coke commercial that won a contest! It is called "Message in a Bottle," and I believe it will be playing in movie theaters before the movie starts... at least I am pretty sure that is the case. It is very exciting, and it is the reason I am giving these two a pass for missing out on brunch this month.

Emily had lots of work to do. She seems to be in a crazy-difficult post-grad english program. Somehow, she found the time to plan an entire Mammoth Mountain ski trip weekend earlier this month for all of us. She really did make all the plans for that amazing weekend in the midst of her full-time student, part-time english curriculum planner schedule so she too will receive a pass for missing brunch this month.

Natalie was sick. I simply do not wish to be sick right now no matter how much I knew we would miss her presence. She, of course gets a pass. She did get to enjoy a tidy plate of food from the festivities brought to her door by her loving sister, Sue, later in the day.

This leaves the rest of us who I now like to call the "die-hards" of Sunday brunches. While the above-mentioned hooky-players got free passes this time, next time they may not be so "lucky".



Elliott gets "Best in Show" this month. He whipped together a fresh broccoli salad that I think could get anyone to eay raw broccoli anytime. It was a delicious blend of a sweet balsamic dressing with raw broccoli, dried cranberries and walnuts from what I remember.



At some point I remember saying doughnuts could never be made better in the home than at the doughnut shop. Now, it has been a while since I have ducked into a let's say Dunkin Doughnuts, but I was very impressed with Sube's lightly-crispy-on-the-outside-and-delightfully-fluffy-on-the-inside powdered sugar doughnuts. Verrrrry impressed.



Sube also prepared some delicious baked goods featuring fruit: cranberry muffins and banana bread with orange zest. Both were delicious and adventurous.



BreAnna arrived after my pictures had been taken, but they supplied the much-needed delicious fresh strawberry fix. Oh, and the chocolate fondu and halvah to dip them did not hurt.

Lindzachary is all about the savory this month. First of all, we bring the meat: some slices of cooked Canadian bacon. We also brought a frittata (much like we did last time Sube hosted Brunch), this time with spinach, mushrooms and goat cheese. You can basically make a frittata with anything you want in it by whisking a dozen eggs with whatever vegetable, meat and/or cheese you wish. Put the mixture in a large skillet at 400 degrees F for about 15 minutes (until egg is set). If you are using hard vegetables (such as broccoli, carrots, potatoes, etc, you should sauté them in the skillet on the stovetop until they are tender before adding the eggs and cheese. Also be sure to cook any meat all the way through before adding the eggs. Sprinkle a little cheese on top because it is pretty.



What else could this group possibly need? Biscuits. I have never made biscuits from scratch before so I decided to go with a classic-seeming buttermilk biscuit recipe. I was not disappointed with the results. The best part of baking buttermilk biscuits from scratch is the buttery milky smell. mmmmmmmmmm. This is a good simple recipe by Alton Brown that is easy to follow.



Basic Buttermilk Biscuits By Brown

(Makes about 10 biscuits - Recipe by Alton Brown, featured in Family Circle Magazine)

2 cups flour
4 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons shortening
1 cup buttermilk, chilled

Preheat oven to 450 degrees.

In a large mixing bowl, combine flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.
Using your fingertips, rub butter and shortening into dry ingredients until mixture looks like crumbs. (The faster the better, you don't want the fats to melt.)
Make a well in the center and pour in the chilled buttermilk. Stir just until the dough comes together. The dough will be very sticky.
Turn dough onto floured surface, dust top with flour and gently fold dough over on itself 5 or 6 times. Press into a 1-inch thick round.
Cut out biscuits with a 2-inch cutter, being sure to push straight down through the dough. Place biscuits on baking sheet so that they just touch. Reform scrap dough, working it as little as possible and continue cutting. (Biscuits from the second pass will not be quite as light as those from the first)
Bake until biscuits are tall and light gold on top, 15 to 20 minutes.

Brunch Club December: Interrogations

Andice hosted brunch this month in their lovely Los Feliz apartment.



For those of you who are not familiar with the area, Los Feliz is a charming trendy neighborhood in East Los Angeles with the tiniest little movie theater, an insane number of delicious local restaurants with plenty of outdoor seating, a couple unique book shops and small houses with bright green yards and fruit trees. It is bordered by Griffith Park, one of my favorite places in the city, and Silver Lake, an even trendier neighborhood full of dive bars, artists and Tomato Pie (home of "The Grandma" pizza). Also, around these parts it is pronounced, "Los FEE-less", not "Los Feh-LEES", the way you may be inclined to say it if you ever took Spanish I. The neighborhood has a great community-type feeling. People walk places.

Andy and Candice are Canadians. In case you don't know, that means they are very nice and good-spirited people who like to walk a lot. Their home was lovely (especially the bathroom with deep purple walls). But this month was the month of interrogations in three parts:

1. It was not easy to believe that Elliott made baklava. Considering it is quite the process to make it from scratch, I was intrigued. It was presented in a casserole dish and not a store bought box, but I thought a little investigating was in order. Apparently, he was taught by a friend. He explained to a room full of wide-eyed ladies exactly what goes into the exotic dessert, batting down every ounce of my suspicion. Impressed.

2. Sue, Natalie and Emily demanded answers from the brunch guests as to whether or not they would be attending or at least interested in the ski trip they are in the midst of planning. The deadline for final answers is Zach's birthday, December 20th.

3. Candice's friend, Gabe, was visiting from Winnipeg, a Canadian city just north of North Dakota. The weather there is below freezing which is really all I need to know as far as specific temperature is concerned. Gabe works as a reporter for a newspaper and covers hard-hitting stories. I almost did not need to be told that she was Canadian or a reporter. I gathered both by her pleasantly charming and inquisitive nature. She had a lot of questions for me about what I had forgotten could be interesting to those who do not work in the entertainment industry.

The line up for these brunches is getting really obnoxious. We've got people making insanely difficult and involved dishes. I am proud of my fellow brunchers this week. Here we go:

This month's **WINNER OF THE BITE ME BLOG BRUNCH DISH** December edition goes to:

SUBE'S Poppy Seed Cake:




My love for this dense, moist cake started when I saw Sue soaking the poppy seeds in vanilla and milk the day before Brunch. It almost had the consistency of a muffin top and was delicious with the whipped cream and fresh berries.

ELLIOTT'S Homemade Baklava:


It was incredible.

NATALIE'S Homemade Croissants:


I mean really, people...the competition is so stiff. This was impressive. Some were regular and some were filled with chocolate.

EMILY'S Stuffed Tomatoes:


The stuffing was a creamy corn mixture. No problems eating our veggies here!

BREANNA'S Breakfast Casserole:


This really hit the spot! So warm and hearty.

ANDICE'S French Toast:


I have not had French Toast in years, but now it is all I can think about. The only questions is: Eggnog French Toast or Gingerbread? Oh, yeh, okay. Both.

SUBE'S Rice Pudding:


I did not know I liked rice pudding, but I definitely do.

Lindzachary's Stuffed Jalapeños Wrapped in Bacon:



(recipe from one of the best food blogs around, The Pioneer Woman)

Bacon is just so good. However, I made a huge mistake one time in making these. I used turkey bacon. Turkey bacon may be good as a side dish for eggs, but it is not good for wrapping. It was not as crispy as I had hoped. Don't use turkey bacon; the fat from regular kind is there for a reason. Let us never forget that.

15 jalapeno peppers
8 ounces cream cheese
15 strips of bacon (don't use the thick kind)
Gloves!



Rinse the jalapeños and preheat the oven to 375 F.
Put on some latex or kitchen gloves. The jalapeno seeds will leave your hands feeling like they are on fire for hours after if you handle them directly.
Slice the jalapenos legnthwise, and hollow out the seeds.
Use a small spoon or potato peeler to scrape out the seeds and white membrane out of the inside. Soak the hollowed peppers in some water. Any extra seeds will float to the top. (the seeds are what pack the heat so if you can handle it, you may choose to leave a few in there).
Pat the jalapenos dry with a cloth towel on the inside and on the outside.
Fill the inside of each one with cream cheese.
Wrap one half slice of bacon around each stuffed pepper, and secure with a toothpick.
Bake at 375 F for 20 minutes (you may want to turn up the heat for the last 5 minutes to get the bacon to crisp up).