A few months ago a fellow food blogger mentioned that she had done a “recipe swap” with another blogger, making their recipe and blogging about it, and it was something they wouldn’t normally make. I thought that was a really good idea, because most of what I write about is our every day dinners, and what I make for parties. I have a ton of soup recipes, and sauce recipes, and seafood recipes, simply because it’s what I tend to make the most often. Swapping recipes with other bloggers would be a great way to expand my horizons!

Let me introduce you to Sara from http://my-imperfect-kitchen.com/. Sara lives in Los Angeles, which is a whole other food world than the one I live in. She gets to do things like walking food tours!  I mean, seriously, what would we tour here, our local McDonald’s, Denny’s, and Taco Bell?! Ok, ok, we have a few local restaurants here, and some of them are really good, but you can’t walk down a street and find one after the other.She also gets to take cooking classes taught by known chefs! They also have much better farmer’s markets in LA, and I’m sure the grocery store’s aren’t too shabby either! Yes, I’m jealous!

Alright, enough of my jealousy and on to why I chose this recipe of her’s to make. I really love jalapeno popper’s, but I’ve never made them from scratch. I’ve also never had them with BACON! So, I knew I had to make them and  I must tell you, these poppers are excellent! I even had some cold the next day, and they were still good. So, now your going to want her recipe, right? Well, here you go! This is what she used:

Bacon-Wrapped Jalapeno Poppers

2 – 8 oz packages cream cheese, softened to room temperature
1 cup grated sharp cheddar cheese
4 green onions (both green and white parts) sliced
2 tsp minced garlic
25 slices of thin bacon, cut in half crosswise (approx 2 lbs)
25 fresh jalapenos
Rubber gloves for handling the jalapenos
Toothpicks

I halved the recipe because it was just for myself and my husband, and we ate a bunch that night

I forgot to get the green onions at the store, and then my husband forgot them when he went, so I chopped fine 2 tablespoons of yellow onion and it tasted fine. I also used shredded cheddar instead of grated, no problem there either.

Preheat the oven to 275 F. Wearing gloves slice the jalapeno in half-length wise. Use a teaspoon to gently scrap out the membranes and seeds from each half. If you want them a little spicy, leave a few seeds but not too many, they will be hot! I used one or two seeds in just a few of them.

In a bowl beat the cheeses, onion and garlic together with a mixer. Fill each jalapeno half with the cheese mix. I used a teaspoon to spread the cheese across. Wrap half a piece of bacon around each filled jalapeno, covering as much of the cheese as possible. Use a toothpick or wooden skewer to secure the bacon, place jalapenos on a rack over a sheet pan to catch the bacon grease, and bake for about an hour, or until the bacon is sizzling. You can make these without the bacon for a vegetarian version, too! And I did make some without the bacon, just because I didn’t want to open another package of bacon

If you love this recipe as much as I do, please visit and follow Sara at http://myimperfectkitchen.com and her Facebook page My Imperfect Kitchen.