Bacon Wrapped Stuffed Jalapenos

We generally have very little luck growing peppers of any kind in our garden. So when the lone jalapeno plant that we very apprehensively planted this year sprouted these beautiful spicy babies, we felt they were worthy of something special.
 Add some lovely Mark’s Almost Famous Bacon,

(can't seem to find a website to link to, but we sell it at Goodness Me!)

 and some cheese, and you have an awesome appetizer, guaranteed to please! I used a lovely Gouda that paired nicely with the flavour of the thyme and smoked sea salt. (If you don’t have smoked sea salt, substitute with a nice Celtic or Himalayan sea salt.) The red peppers are actually just ripe jalapenos. When they ripen and turn red they have a slightly sweeter and hotter piquancy to them. Green or red, whatever colour you happen to have, this recipe is tasty and so darned easy, you have to make them!! I highly recommend wearing gloves when you take the ribs and seeds out of the peppers, my thumbs are still tingling as I type out this recipe, and I really was being ever so careful to limit my exposure to their heat.

Bacon Wrapped Stuffed Jalapenos

I had two very large and two
fairly small Jalapeno's, this
amount of filling should fill 4
average sized jalapenos
very nicely.

4 Jalapeno peppers

8 slices of nitrate free bacon

2/3 cup cream cheese

2 cloves garlic, minced

½ tsp dried thyme (rubbed between your palms to crush well)

½ cup grated Gouda cheese (Mine was a very generous ½ cup!)

Smoked Sea Salt and Fresh Ground Black Pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 375F.

Wearing gloves, cut the jalapenos in half lengthwise, and remove the ribs and seeds and discard. Set peppers aside.

In a medium sized mixing bowl, mix the cream cheese, garlic, thyme, Gouda, salt and pepper together until well incorporated.

Divide filling evenly between the pepper halves, and wrap each with a strip of bacon, securing with a toothpick.

Place in an oven safe dish and bake for 35-40 minutes or until the bacon is fully cooked and just beginning to crisp up. The cheese should be softened and starting to bubble.

Remove from oven and cool slightly before serving. Best eaten while still warm J

We served them with prime rib steak,
pan fried portabello mushrooms,
freshly picked Swiss chard and
pan fried potato slices...heaven!!

Grain Free Nut Free Rosemary Chia Flax Crackers with Cranberry

Topped with a cheese called
"5 Brothers" from an awesome
 little cheese shop in Paris ON, called
 The 3 Blind Mice Cheese Company

I have yet to find a grain free gluten free cracker in a package that I love. They either contain ingredients that I am not willing to eat, or they are just not very tasty. Up until now, these almond crackers have been my favourite to bake. They are very tasty, but I find they don't stay crisp for storage. A few versions of this flax style cracker have been floating around for a while, so I decided to give my own version a try. I am really glad I did! I thought the onion would be overpowering, but it gives a nice background flavour to the cracker. Perfect for accompanying soup, or topping with a slice of cheese or nut butter for a snack.

My Inspiration recipe can be found here; my recipe goes something like this: 

Grain Free Nut Free Rosemary Chia Flax Crackers with Cranberry

1 medium organic onion, cut in chunks (mine was just a white cooking onion, a Vidalia would give you a milder onion flavour)

2 cloves organic garlic

A sprig of fresh organic rosemary, tough stem removed (alternatively use one tsp dried, or other herbs of choice)
1/3 cup  organic pumpkin seeds

¼ cup melted coconut oil

½ tsp Herbamare or other sea salt of choice

1 cup milled Flax seeds 

½ cup milled Chia seeds

¼ cup unsweetened or fruit juice sweetened dried organic cranberries, chopped into small-ish pieces

Semi Coarse salt to top crackers before baking

Preheat your oven to 300F

Puree onion, garlic, and rosemary in a food processor or blender. You want it to be a pretty smooth puree, no real chunks left. Scrape down the sides if needed. 

Add pumpkin seeds and pulse until they are just coarsely chopped in the onion mixture. (alternatively, you can puree them until they are smooth too, but I like the texture the coarse chop gives)

Dump this mixture into a mixing bowl and add the coconut oil, salt, flax, Chia and the chopped cranberries, mix with a wooden spoon or your hands until all ingredients are evenly mixed and it forms a ball of soft dough. Let stand for approx 10 minutes, to let the Chia absorb some of the moisture.

Between 2 large pieces of parchment, roll your dough evenly into a thin rectangle, approx 17’ by 12’. You want them quite thin.

Cut into 2’ squares (or other shape of choice) being careful not to cut right thru the parchment paper.(I wouldn't recommend trying to roll these without the parchment, the dough is pretty sticky!)

Using a salt grinder or your fingers, sprinkle the tops of the crackers with about ¼ tsp of extra semi coarse salt. Cover dough once more with the parchment, and press lightly to adhere the extra salt to the crackers. Peel parchment from dough again, and set aside for another use.

Leaving the dough on the bottom sheet of parchment, transfer to a large cookie sheet, and bake at 300F in the lower 1/3 of your oven for approx 1 hr, or until your crackers are crisp, with no moisture left in them at all. Check frequently during the last 15 minutes to ensure they don’t burn. If they aren't  quite crisp, bake longer but check every 5 minutes until they are crisp.
Let cool, and serve with toppings of choice! They are pretty amazing with a full flavoured cheese, like the one pictured above!

Bean-Free Zucchini Hummus

Oh hummus, how I have missed you. Beans have not been a regular part of my diet lately, digestion issues having relegated them to the strictly occasional very small indulgence. I have really missed hummus though, and until recently, thought I would not be able to enjoy it again. BUT! When browsing Pinterest the last few days, I have found 3 hummus recipes that don’t use beans! Oh joy oh bliss!! This one uses Cauliflower, this one uses Beets, and the  one that I made today uses Zucchini as the base. I was out of tahini, and having little patience when I am in the mood to create, substituted Sunbutter, with pretty good results! I also cut the amounts down, and added a kick of cayenne to give it some spice. You can peel your zucchini if you wish, but I left the skin on. The green flecks look kinda pretty!

Bean-Free Zucchini Hummus

2 cups  roughly chopped organic zucchini (approx 1 medium)

1/3 cup organic sun flower seed butter (Sunbutter)

Juice of 1 organic lemon

1 clove of organic

garlic, peeled

1 tsp cumin

½ tsp Herbamare or sea salt of choice

1/8 tsp cayenne (optional)

Blend all ingredients in a food processor until everything is nice and smooth and hummus-like. Serve with dippers of choice!

Goat Cheese and Date Bites

A very good friend of ours is leaving the country on business for 6 months. So, we cooked a farewell dinner for him on Sunday. I made these appetizers on a whim, and was very pleased with the results. The fig vinegar was an impulse purchase from Whole Foods a while back, and while it was expensive, it was worth it in the long run. A drizzle is all that is needed. My bottle is almost empty, I think a road trip is in order !

Goat Cheese and Date Bites

6 dates, cut in half, pit removed
4   slices from a log of goat cheese, cut about ½ inch thick, and then cut into three sections each, so you end up with 12 pieces of cheese,

6 large basil leaves, cut in half (or 12 smaller ones)

12 pecan halves

Fig vinegar to drizzle

Place ½ of a basil leaf in the cut side of each date half. Place a piece of goat cheese on each, and press a pecan half into the cheese. Repeat with all 12 pieces of date, and arrange on a plate. Drizzle with the fig vinegar and serve.