My sweet husband just turned 50 over the weekend. While I wish I had pictures of all the food in the making & on the service counter when it was all done, I don't. I will give you the recipes though because they were really yummy.
We had Stuffed Jalapenos, Stuffed Dates, Smoked Ribs, Grilled Chicken, Carne Asada, Firecracker Cranberry Beans, & Cole Slaw.
Stuffed Jalapenos
24 jalapeno peppers, whole
12 oz breakfast sausage
1 8oz pkg cream cheese, room temp
2 cups Parmesan, grated
1 cup cheddar, shredded
Cut peppers in half, deseed & devein. I wear gloves when handling jalapenos because I wear contacts too. It never hurts taking them out, but the next time I put them in I may as well be jamming a hot fire poker into my eye. Capsaicin is the active ingredient in chili peppers & they mean business when it says "active". I love how Wikipedia says it can be an "irritant" to mammals, including humans. HA!
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| The Capsaicin Molecule even looks like an irritant! |
Because I still have gloves on, I just use my hands to mix these together. That way too, I can easily pack them into the peppers - again protecting my eyes in the long run! Put them on a sheet pan with a lip so it doesn't make a mess in your oven.
Once you've got them all stuffed and ready to go, pop 'em in a preheated 350 degree oven and let 'em bake until the cheese melts and they start turning a golden brown. I often make these up a day ahead. They're done in about 20-25 minutes.
Stuffed Dates
1-2lbs of dates
4lbs bacon, cooked
1 cup bleu cheese
Now this is one sticky, gooey, time consuming job. For all you moms out there, consider it like having a baby. Once the baby is born you've forgotten the pain of contractions. Once these little treats come out of the oven, you'll forget the amount of time they take to make. Plan to do them at least a day in advance & get a friend to help you, perhaps have on hand a nice bottle of Reisling to share. Before you know it, they'll be all wrapped up and ready for the oven.
I cooked the bacon a couple days ahead of time, storing it between layers of paper towels. Place the bacon strips on 11x13 stoneware bar pans & put them in a 350 degree oven for about 40 minutes. Doing it this way allows the bacon to stay flat while it cooks & gives me time to do other stuff too. (Can you tell I'm a multi-tasker?) It's ok if the bacon doesn't cook fully. You don't want it to get crispy at all. If you like, you can buy precooked bacon, but for the money it was easier to do it myself. The trick when it's done is not to go hog wild with BLT's because tomorrow you're going to need to wrap the dates.
Now, on to the sugary little gems we know & love. Dates are an ancient food that have been around since prehistoric Egyptian times. They also are considered a stone fruit, which puts them in the same family as avocados. While they have little vitamin power, they are loaded with iron & fiber. But who am I kidding? There's bacon & bleu cheese in them thar dates!!! Any health value they have will soon be out the window. (Though I have another, healthier version on the way.)
Gently slice your gems down one side & pop out the pit. Stuff it with the bleu cheese before handing it off to your friend, whom you've bribed with a bottle of wine, to wrap it with a strip of bacon, securing it with a toothpick. Make sure it's someone you trust - after all, they're sitting there with 4lbs of cooked bacon & a pile of toothpicks. You never know what that much bacon may cause a person to do! Mmmmmmm...bacon. (drooling on the keyboard) I do encourage you both to maybe drop one or two that have to be eaten immediately to live within the 5 second rule. ;-)
I stored them overnight in a storage bag in the fridge. After the guest of honor arrived, we put them on a tray heading into the 350 degree oven for 15 minutes. Trust me, people won't give them time to cool off before they are gone.
Alright, that will get your party started. My next post will have the meat rubs & marinades. Have a blessed day & feed the ones you love!
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