Fix My Recipe!

Okay Housewives & Housewife Appreciators, I need help with a recipe!

I found this awesome looking photo on Pinterest, which was the answer to my grocery prayers because I happened to find myself the owner of a heaping bowl of jalapenos with to intended purpose this week.

Yummy Bacon Wrapped Jalapeno Poppers courtesy of DoughMesstic

I planned to run home last night and whip them up for the Hubs as a future Wife Points Wednesday post, but, as he is prone to do, my Husband spoiled the surprise by skipping man night and staying in. (I know, I know... how dare he?!?)

So, I decided it was the perfect opportunity for us to cook together, something we used to love doing but rarely find the time for anymore. (And this saved me from admitting that I had no dinner plan and would have probably just eaten some SunChips and a Skinny Cow ice cream sandwich for dinner had he not been home.)

After digging around in our tool drawer for about 10 minutes looking for my handy-dandy pepper seed scrapper-outer tool, "cooking together" turned into my husband preparing his own snacky surprise while I organized the kitchen drawers. This recipe didn't really require four hands, fortunately, and I stand by my side-tracked decision because look how bad they were:

No wonder I couldn't find anything! Now, look at how much better they are:

Okay, so what was I talking about? Oh yea, the jalapeno poppers. Here is what we did:

The Hubs grabbed the largest knife we own regardless of the fact that it was disproportionally large for the task at hand and cut the jalapenos in half.

Then he used the pepper inside scrapper-outer tool I eventually found to remove all the seeds & washed all the peppers.

Then we mixed up the cream cheese and seasonings (onion and garlic powder, salt & pepper) per the recipe.

Then we changed the recipe up a bit by cooking & chopping up the bacon to add to the filling rather than wrapping the peppers in individual bacon strips. My husband doesn't follow recipes very well; he is an artist in the kitchen. Or something like that.

Then we stuffed the peppers (I was helping by this point) and sprinkled some panko crumbs on top for good measure & baked them at 350 for 45 minutes.

Oops- forgot to take an after photo. Sorry kids! They did turn out beautifully though but tasted... well... not quite right. We couldn't put our fingers on what was wrong but it was as if something was missing. Maybe they weren't cheesy enough? Maybe they needed another seasoning? Or perhaps they were over seasoned? Is baked just no where near as good as fully breaded and fried within an inch of their little pepper lives?

I don't know- help! What do you think? Any suggestions on how we can improve this recipe or does anyone have a phenomenal jalapeno popper recipe they'd like to share? I feel like this is an essential recipe I should have in my arsenal so please help!