Bacon Wrapped Jalapeño Poppers

I have always loved sports, but really only follow basketball, well mostly, the Portland Trail Blazers. Okay, I'm a huge Blazers fan. I could go on, but I'll spare you for now. I played fantasy basketball last year and finished second in the league - not too shabby for a rookie. This summer, I was somehow convinced to join my best guy friend Andy's fantasy football league, probably for some easy competition. At the time, I could not name more pro football players than I have fingers and I still can't tell you what position a player is on the field at any given time, with the exception of the quarterback. Being from Oregon, we don't have a pro football team so my only loose ties lie with the Seattle Seahawks by default. (I did make it to my first Seahawks game last year though!) The only tailgating I ever partake in involves Oregon State Beaver football, so going to visit Andy up in Seattle during the opening weekend of the NFL was reason enough to try out a new recipe.

Andy loves spicy food and was drooling when I mentioned making bacon wrapped jalapeño poppers for Sunday football shenanigans. I like spicy foods, but can't handle too extreme of a kick. These were very tasty, but were nearly too much for me. I am not one to eat a jalapeño by itself, but add bacon to something and it's good to go. The cream cheese helps, too. Andy scarfed about 70% of them.

Not that jalapeño poppers are rocket science, but I based mine off of this recipe from Doughmesstic. (Isn't that just the greatest blog name? Dough + mess + domestic. It's one of my faves.) Not to worry, these poppers are very easy to assemble. 

Bacon Wrapped Jalapeño Poppers
Makes 12

Ingredients
12 pieces of bacon
12 jalapeños, seeded
6-8 oz. cream cheese, softened
2 teaspoons onion powder
2 teaspoons garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
pinch of salt

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Partially cook bacon however you wish (stove top/oven/microwave) but just make sure you can still wrap it around a jalapeño. While the bacon is cooking, slice one side of a jalapeño lengthwise to open it up, in order to remove the seeds. Repeat for the 11 other peppers. Now, mix cream cheese with all of the spices. Spoon the cheese mixture into the seeded jalapeños. As you can see from photos, I may have stuffed my jalapeños with a little too much cream cheese, that is if you have a problem with exploding cheese. Finally, wrap each popper with bacon and place in oven safe dish. Bake for 35-40 minutes, until bacon is done.

Happy football season! Maybe this year I will have something more to root for (thanks to my fantasy football team) than the tailgate food. Fingers crossed!