Jalapeno Poppers

  

  Today is my husband's 20th birthday and I was racking my brain for how to make it super special. I have always been super extra when it comes to his birthday (or anyone's for that matter) but this year we are married so I have to pull out all of the stops. The only problem is we are trying to save money as much as we can so he made me promise that I would only buy him one present. 

    You may not realize how difficult this is for me. When buying gifts I usually go by this guide: one thing to eat, one thing useful, one thing on their list, and one thing extra that I think is funny. Just about every holiday or birthday I do some variation of this. Now this is almost impossible to do with only one gift so I figured out how to bend the rules a teeny bit. How I did that is to cook some his favorite foods and call them gifts in my head. 

     Now, even that is a difficult thing to do because I have to figure out what to make him on a budget. His favorite meal is surf and turf but that is a little pricey so I decided to go shopping to see if I could find something cheaper. On my way to the store I remembered "Ivan's Produce" which is this Amish man and his family who sell produce in the mall parking lot for only $1 a pound. I never seem to have cash when he's open but today I had enough to make it worth looking around. This guy had an amazing stock and it took so much self control, and the reminder I did not have much cash, to not buy one of everything. However, as I was walking around the tables I discovered a box of jalapenos and I remembered how much my husband loves bacon wrapped jalapeno poppers and I knew that was the perfect solution to my problem. As I was going to pay for the jalapenos I found a package of smoked bacon that was just barely within my budget and I couldn't help but think of how perfect this is.

    Anyway I came home with all the ingredients and had him pick out any movie he wanted so I could make him a snack. I struggled to find a recipe because I had only bought 6 jalapenos. I didn't plan on eating any because the Norwegian in me makes it so that I am pretty much incapable of eating anything even remotely spicy. In the end I gave up looking for a recipe that used the ingredients and the amounts of each I had and just figured out what temperature and how long to cook it. 

    I started to preheat the oven to 400 F and I mixed about 1/4 c cream cheese, 1 tbsp sour crean, 1tsp garlic powder, and a pinch of salt and pepper. I then warmed up the mixture because it wasn't actually mixing very well and then I mixed it again until it was smooth. Next I cut each jalapeno in half and used a spoon to scoop out all of the seeds and junk that make them extra spicy. Before you are disappointed I'll let you know that my husband is also quite scandinavian and even though he likes spicy foods he can't actually handle a whole lot so I cleaned those suckers out pretty well. If you like the spice you can leave some of the white stuff and even the seeds in there. 

     Once the jalapenos were cleaned out I stuffed them with the filling I had prepared earlier and leveled off the tops with a spoon. I then put them on my cookie sheet lined with parchment paper and sprinkled cheese on top. I know a lot of people like to mix the cheese in with the filling but when you sprinkle the cheese on top it makes a fried cheesy crust thing that is super good (I know I said I don't eat jalapeno poppers but I love bell pepper poppers and they're better with cheese on top.) I then wrapped bacon around each popper. It is recommended that you attach the bacon with a toothpick but I don't have any at the moment. That being said, it worked super well to just tuck the edges of each bacon strip under the poppers. 

    I then put them in the oven for 25 min. I had to fight my husband off so that he didn't burn his mouth. When they finally cooled off he loved them. He liked them so much that I even tried one. I had tears running down my face because it was too spicy but it was almost worth it! I will definitely make these again but with those mini bell peppers so I can actually eat them.