Baked Jalapeno Poppers

Image by fritish via FlickrSince I have all these hot peppers, I went searching for a recipe for jalapeno poppers and found this post about baked jalapeno poppers - which linked to this recipe - Baked Jalapeno Poppers. Perfect!  I didn't want anything deep fried - mostly because it makes a mess, but also because too much grease makes me feel sick.

Baked Jalapeno Poppers

Ingredients

• 12 fresh jalapeno peppers, halved lengthwise, stems, seeds and membranes removed
• 6 ounces cream cheese, softened
• 1 1/2 cups grated Monterey Jack or mozzarella cheese
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1/2 teaspoon cayenne, or less, to taste
• 2 large eggs
• 2 tablespoons milk
• 6 teaspoons Essence, recipe follows
• 1 cup breadcrumbs
• 1/2 cup all-purpose flour

Directions

1. In a bowl, cream together the cream cheese, Monterey Jack cheese, cumin, and cayenne.
2. In a small bowl, beat together the eggs, milk, and 2 teaspoons of the Essence. In a shallow dish, combine the bread crumbs with 2 teaspoons of Essence. In a third dish, combine the flour and 2 teaspoons of Essence. 
3. Spread cheese mixture into the middle of each jalapeno half. One at a time, dredge in the flour, dip into the egg mixture, then dredge in the bread crumbs, pressing to coat. If necessary, repeat the process. Place the coated peppers, cut side up, on lightly greased a baking sheet and bake at 350° F until the filling is runny and the crust is golden, about 30 minutes.
4. Remove from the oven and serve immediately with cold beer.  (or milk)

*Essence (Emeril's Creole Seasoning):

• 2 1/2 tablespoons paprika
• 2 tablespoons salt
• 2 tablespoons garlic powder
• 1 tablespoon black pepper
• 1 tablespoon onion powder
• 1 tablespoon cayenne pepper
• 1 tablespoon dried leaf oregano
• 1 tablespoon dried thyme

Combine all ingredients thoroughly and store in an airtight jar or container.

Yield: about 2/3 cup

I didn't follow the original recipe exactly - partly because I wrote it down wrong and partly because it called for 1 T of the cream cheese filling in each jalapeno half, but that seemed like too much - so I just gave up any pretense of measuring after the first half and simply filled them.  I stopped counting how many peppers I used, but it was definitely more than 12.  I had to add more bread crumbs because I ran out before I ran out of cream cheese mixture or anything else.  About the time I finished dredging all the peppers in flour, egg mixture, and bread crumbs, I decided to try egg mixture, flour, egg mixture again, bread crumbs - and that seemed to work better.  Just remember the cardinal rule - wet with one hand, dry with the other - or you'll end up with a huge mess.  It's messy enough as it is.

I did not bake all of these - just a few because I just had to try them.  I put them all on a wax paper-covered cookie sheet and placed them in the freezer.  Once they're frozen, I will place them in a sealed container, probably with wax paper between layers - all ready to take out and bake whenever I get the urge.

The few that I did bake and try?  Amazing!  Seriously.  These are so good.  Yes, they take quite a bit of time to prepare, but I'm thinking they're worth it.

Mojito!

There's a recipe for a frozen Mojito in my Ninja cookbook.  I grew mint this summer just so I could make Mojitos, but I hadn't thought to make them in the Ninja.  I've been making them like this - without all the fancy stuff: (and I just remembered I should have bought club soda when I went shopping yesterday)

Anyway tonight I tried the Ninja recipe - only I mixed it up and then put it into the freezer to get/stay all slushy, like the Cranberry Daiquiri Slush I've been making this summer.

Frozen Mojito 

Ingredients 

• 2 Limes, Juiced 
• 10-12 Mint Leaves 
• 2 OZ. Simple Syrup* 
• 6 OZ. White Rum 
• 2 Cups Ice cubes 

Instructions 

1. Add all ingredients into the pitcher and use long pulses until well blended. 
2. Serve in 2 tall rocks glasses, garnish with mint. 

*Combine 4 Tbsp Sugar and 4 Tbsp Water in saucepan on warm stove until sugar dissolves.

I'm not sure how I'm going to serve it up - probably need that club soda to mix with the slush...

I did taste it, once it had frozen and I scraped it from the glass dish I had it in originally and put it into a plastic container with a lid - less worry that it will get knocked out of the freezer and shatter on the tile floor making a huge mess and not allowing me to enjoy my mojito!  It tasted quite good.  I think I'm going to enjoy this quite a bit!
 

Related articles

• Cranberry Daiquiri Slush (recipes.alwaysbcmom.com)

Lots of Hots

I got lots of hot peppers from my garden this year. I've mostly just been letting them grow and ripen on the plants and picking as I wanted some for salsa or something, but they were calling for a possible frost last night, so I went out and picked a bunch yesterday.   And now I have to figure out what I want to do with them.  I found a couple options at Gardeners.com:

To Freeze Peppers: Halve sweet peppers (green, red, yellow or purple), remove the core and seeds, and slice into julienne strips or small 1/4" chunks. Pack them into a freezer bag, squeeze out the air and throw them in the freezer. That's it! Frozen peppers are best used in a dish that gets sauteed, such as a stir-fry, or added to onions and potatoes for a tasty omelet.

To Pickle Peppers: Prepare peppers as above. Fill a clean pint or quart jar to within an inch of the top with the chopped peppers. Pour in white vinegar to cover all peppers. Cover with a plastic lid if possible, as the vinegar will gradually corrode metal lids. Store the jar in the back of your refrigerator for up to 12 months. The peppers will stay crunchy for a few months but will gradually soften. Spoon them out of the jar as you need them. The vinegar is flavorful, too. My favorite pickled peppers are a colorful mix of yellow, orange and red Hungarian hot wax peppers. They're great on sandwiches or mixed into pasta and bean salads.

and another option at My Daily Bread Body and Soul:
 

Hot Pepper Sauce 

Ingredients

• Hot peppers, any variety and amount* 
• White Vinegar 
• a few peppercorns (optional) 
• Garlic (optional) 

Directions 

1. Clean the jars you are going to be using in the dishwasher or boiling water. 
2. Bring vinegar to a boil. 
3. Wash peppers and either chop then to fit in your jar or put a little slit in them so that the vinegar penetrates them, which is what I did. 
4. Add peppers, garlic and peppercorns to a decorative bottle or jar. Pour boiling vinegar over peppers. Make sure peppers are completely covered with vinegar. Leave a little head-space, airspace in between the peppers and vinegar and the lid, and close the lid. Let it sit for a few weeks and enjoy. 

I always store them in the pantry, if it make you feel better, store in the fridge. *Amount of peppers used depends on how hot you want your sauce and what type peppers you have on hand and how big of a bottle you are going to use. Cayenne peppers are HOT and just after a couple days my sauce was hot and ready to be used.

And, of course, I could dry some of them. I did that once when I grew habaneros - just strung them with a needle and thread and hung them in the kitchen.  I had a lot of sweet peppers last summer, and I froze a bunch of those.  I chopped them into the 1/4" chunks, spread them on cookie sheets and froze them.  Once they were frozen, I put them into zipper bags.  That works really well and makes it easy to grab just the amount of peppers I need for a recipe - so some hot peppers like that will be nice to have.

Related articles

• Recipe: Homemade Sriracha Sauce, Ode to a Rooster. (peppermeister.wordpress.com)

Raspberry Cobbler

I didn't put all the raspberries I picked yesterday into the freezer. I decided to use some of them and make this Raspberry Cobbler. I mostly followed the original recipe.

Raspberry Cobbler

Ingredients:

• 1 c. flour 
• 1-1/2 tsp. baking powder 
• 1/2 tsp. salt 
• 1/2 c. sugar 
• 1/2 cup butter, melted 
• 1/2 c. milk 
• 1/2 tsp. vanilla 
• 3 c. fresh (or frozen) unsweetened raspberries 
• 1/3 c. sugar 
• 1 tbsp. flour

Directions:

1. Butter or spray an 8 inch square baking pan. 
2. Combine flour, baking powder, salt and sugar in medium bowl. Make well in center. Add melted butter, milk and vanilla. Stir until blended. Pour into prepared pan. 
3. In another bowl, combine raspberries, sugar and 1 tbsp. flour. Spoon fruit mixture evenly over batter. 
4. Bake at 350° for 45 to 55 minutes or until golden brown and done in the middle. 
5. Serve warm with vanilla ice cream.

Image via WikipediaThe original recipe called for 2/3 cup sugar and 1 T tapioca to be mixed with the raspberries.  I cut the sugar in half because I don't like things all that sweet, and I substituted flour for the tapioca because the only tapioca I have is the Pearl kind that's supposed to be soaked - and I didn't want to wait for it since everything else was already mixed up.  The flour was fine, but now I'm thinking I need to make some tapioca pudding!  After we finish the cobbler, of course, which turned out really good - at least I thought so!

Also - Cobbler.  When I was looking up recipes I found some like this with the batter on the bottom and fruit on top and others with the fruit on the bottom and a biscuit-type crust on top.  So, which is it?  What is a cobbler really?
 

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• Apple-Raspberry Skillet Cobbler (mamastephf.com)
• Blackberry Peach Coffee Cake (nancysrecipes.wordpress.com)
• Clearly Superior Berry Cobbler (balanceandblueberries.wordpress.com)