Sausage Stuffed Jalapenos and Cheater Baked Potato.

OK, tonight we tried a new recipe called something something stuffed jalapenos. I picked the recipe off of a low-carb blog. (Find it HERE. She's funny too.) What's great about this specific blog is that it's called low-carb, but it uses a TON of cheese and dairy, which is awesome because we're not eating a lot of carbs so I feel healthy, but it still tastes delicious. So the official name of the recipe is Sausage Stuffed Jalapenos.

Ingredients:

8oz. Cream cheese (YESSSSSSSSSSSSS)

1 lb. Jalapenos halved and rinsed of seeds and innards

1 lb. sausage (we used spicy I-talian. Will let you know if that was a mistake)( Retrospect: probs saved the dish)

1 cup shredded cheddy cheese

2 finely chopped green onions

Directions:

Step 1. Brown sausage. I took mine out of the casings. It was fun.

Step 2. While I stood over the stove (like a good little house-girlfriend. The people in the Romney commercials would be proud, especially that one mom disgusted with the Obama commercial on her iPad.) my amazing little personal chopper cut up two chives thingies, shred cheese, and help cut the peppers in half and clean them out of seeds and the inside stuff.

Step 3. Once the meat is done, drain if there is fat, and put it in a bowl with all the other ingredients.

Step 4. Line a cookie sheet with foil (dishes are the devil) and “stuff” the halved peppers with the meaty mush. Bake for 12-15 minutes.

ALSO... We also made these Cheater Baked/Roasted Potaties. Supes easy.

Ingredients: potatoes, salt, pepper, paprika, LOTS of Paula Dean's Blood (aka butter)

Step 1. Slice potaties down the center long ways and then twice across to vent.

Step 2. Microwave potaties for 3.5 minutes wrapped in a paper towel.

Step 3. Cut potaties open so that they are mostly flat (see finished product photo)

Step 4. Smother, and I mean SMOTHER potatoes in Paula Dean Butta.

Step 5. cover with salt, pepper, and lots and lots of paprika.

Step 6. Bake at same time as peppers (but for 20 minutes).

How It Went:

Well, for starters, I would not skimp on the butter on the potatoes before baking. I should have known better. Paula Dean's gravestone will probably say “There's no such thing as too much butter.” Shame on me for not remembering that. If you don't put enough, the potaties might dry out a little too much. In addition, like it says in my earlier post from this week, I've never worked with jalapenos so I don't know the general kitchen physics of them (Kitchen Physics: knowing that if you don't but baking soda in cake, then it will taste like a biscuit.). So I tonight learned that the longer you bake a pepper, the more it will collapse, as in, not crunch so much when you bite into it. That being said, if you want crunchy jalapenos, then 12-15 minute away. I kind of felt like it made it seem undercooked and it wasn't hot enough temperature-wise for a tasty steaming entree for dinner (even though these are kind of tailgate-y food, but its Sunday night football so watch me care). So since I have a giant bowl of the stuffing left over, since we didn't use a whole pound of jalapenos, I might try this again for lunch or something and bake the jalapenos for like 15-17-20 minutes.

The last mistake that I made was not seasoning the stuffing enough. We both took our first bite and decided that the peppers were good, but didn't seem like anything special, and obviously if I want to be the worlds greatest cook, that's not what we're aiming for here. The ROOKIE mistake that I made in the stuffing (and that I roll my eyes at in every single episode of Restaurant Impossible) is that I did not add enough salt and pepper. The other reason that I am kicking myself for this is because I'm pretty sure that in every single post that concerns food, I say, (and I quote myself) “Don't be afraid to add lots of salt and pepper!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!” The second we added salt to the top of the peppers, they were great. LESSON. LEARNED.

Peanut was smiling too.