Fourth of July Yum

I'm sure it's true for everyone...

There are certain things that remind you of "family."

One of those things for us is "peppers."

If the family is getting together someone will inevitably ask, "Who is bringing the peppers?"

So...if you're spending some time with your family this fourth of July I thought I would share this yummy recipe.  It involves bacon and cream cheese.  You can thank me later.

You will need:

36 large jalapeno peppers
2 boxes of cream cheese (they sell organic cream cheese at HEB now!)
2 packages of bacon

latex or vinyl GLOVES (this is a must)
baking rack
baking pans with edges (don't skimp on the edges)

Do not quit reading.  The directions are important.  I'm warning you...if you quit reading now, and you attempt to make these peppers your hand may catch on fire and you will cuss...either on the inside of your body or on the outside of your body.  This applies to die-hard non-cussers as well.

A little back story...for years my aunts always made the peppers.  I never tried to make them myself.  For one holiday, we were not going to spend it with my family and so I decided to make the peppers myself.  How hard could it be, right?  I'm not blind.  Jalapeno peppers stuffed with cream cheese wrapped in bacon.  Duh.

I made my peppers.

We ate them.

Yum.  Yay for me.

I was a hero.

Until I took a shower.

Something about that hot water released the jalapeno oil that was on my hands.  Panic and pain like no other.

Lava.  It felt like I dipped my hand in lava...like I had fondled the sun.

While I was lying on the bed rolling around in agony...AGONY...I remembered something very important.

Every time I had watched my sweet little aunts make the peppers they were always wearing gloves.  I never thought about why they were doing that.

Come to find out, my aunts wore the gloves so that the skin on their hands would not fall off and go down the drain in the bottom of the shower.  Those aunts...such geniuses.

I was in so much pain.  Aaron read everything he could find online to try and help with the jalapeno burn.  We soaked my hand in milk and in some....other....things.

Nothing worked.

The pain was worse than being in labor.  I was lying on the bed with ice packs on my hands begging Aaron to give me an epidural in my hand.  I don't know why I thought he could give me one, and I don't know where I thought he was going to get it, but I was convinced Aaron was holding out on me.  The burn had made its way to my brain.  I was totally irked Aaron would not go at least check to see if they carry epidurals at CVS.  There are so many times in our past when Aaron should have been able to divorce me.  This was one of those times.  I was a maniac.

This sad story ended with me taking prescription pain pills and cursing my aunts in my mind.  When I woke up I apologized to my aunts in my mind too, because it wasn't their fault that I did not wear gloves.

Hopefully I've scared you enough that you will not attempt to make these peppers without wearing gloves.

Hopefully I've not scared you so much that you won't make the peppers at all.  As long as you wear gloves and use a pan with sides on it, you'll be fine.  I've only had two pepper catastrophes...my skin catching on fire and me almost setting the kitchen on fire because I did not use a pan with sides on it.  The grease from the peppers fell into the bottom of the oven and it was not pretty.

Grab your gloves and your pan with sides...these will be your new favorite holiday food.

BEFORE you wash the peppers, slice them in half and scrape the seeds out.

Then wash your peppers.

If you wash your peppers too soon, the water releases the devil from the peppers.  It's like Jumanji.

With a butter knife, cut a quarter inch slice of cream cheese.  Then cut the quarter inch slice in half longways.  That will be enough cream cheese for two pepper halves.  Stuff all your peppers.

Then wrap each pepper with a half slice of bacon.

Lay peppers on a cooking tray.  If you have a bakers rack (like the one in the picture above) put that in the cooking tray and set the peppers on it.  This helps the bacon to get crisp on both sides.

Put peppers in the oven and cook on 375 until the bacon on the bottom is brown.  About 40 minutes.  The peppers need to be soft.  Remove from oven.

Now get ready for your family to follow you from the oven to the counter as you're carrying the pan.  The peppers will be gone quickly, and you will be the new favorite person in your family.  Yields 80 servings (40 peppers cut in half = 80 servings) although everyone will eat more than one.

Happy fourth of July!