Jalapeno Thingies

It's Thanksgiving and during a lull in the meal preparation madness, we made Jalapeno Thingies, tasty

hors d'eouvres that have become a holiday staple for our family.  There is a bit of work involved, but they are so very worth it. I would never dream of eating a raw pepper, but somehow, cooking them takes away lots of their punch.  They're beyond delicious!

Start with about 25-30 small jalapeno peppers.  Wash and, dry them, then cut off the stems, but don't cut off the entire stem end.  Think of the peppers as being little boats that will hold the filling.  Oh, and don't forget to wear rubber gloves. I learned the hard way that the your hands can burn for hours after prepping these things. Slice the peppers in half lengthwise, then make a small slit at the stem end, as pictured below.  This will help you to pull the seeds and membrane out of the pepper.

We stuff ours with plain old cream cheese, but you can add a mixture of  feta, parmesan, herbs or whatever you like to the cream cheese.  After stuffing them, we add a piece of par-cooked bacon (par cooking really cuts down on the grease), or prosciutto.  We used to wrap a strip of the bacon, (cut in half the long way, then cut the strip into three portions) around the pepper but felt as if this was too much. I'll be honest here.  Wrapping the peppers with a slice of bacon is prettier, and I'm all about how things look... makes things more appetizing, don't you think? But for just us, the strip is fine.  If I were serving these to non-family or taking them to a party, I would do strips. We have used pieces of both here, half are topped with bacon, half with prociutto.  I like to put them on a wire rack and that goes on a cookie sheet.

Bake in the oven at 375 degrees for 20 minutes or until the meat is cooked and the cream cheese begins to brown.  That's it!  They're done!  They're so delish!  E-mail me and tell me how much you love them.  beesknees52@gmail.com  .