Grilled Bacon Wrapped Stuffed Jalapeno Peppers

The yard just keeps spitting out hot jalapeno peppers, and I'm loving trying to find out how many recipes I can make with them. My talented cousin Katy suggested this awesome recipe. Mike's favorite Mexican food is chile rellno, or a stuffed and fried chili pepper, so I thought I'd try something similar on the grill with bacon. Mike loved them; now we don't know which to fix: these or the jalapeno poppers!

4 ounces cream cheese

3 cloves garlic

pinch of salt

dash of pepper

dash of cayenne pepper

handful of fresh cilantro, basil, parsley, and oregano (a little of each to make one handful total)

6 jalapeno peppers

6 slices bacon

• Place cheese, garlic, salt, peppers, and herbs in a small food processor and blend together. This can be done beforehand to let the flavors bloom.
• Set the grill on medium or the oven on 350 degrees.
• With a sharp knife, make a slit down the side of the jalapeno - don't cut it entirely in half.
• Squeeze the top and bottom to open the slit up like a coin purse.
• With a small spoon, scoop out as many seeds as you want (the more seeds you leave in there, the hotter it will be).
• Stuff peppers with cheese mixture.
• Wrap with bacon and trim off extra bacon if desired.
• Secure with a toothpick - Mike doesn't like a lot of bacon, so I made it one layer and toothpicked both the top and bottom. But if you want to really wrap your pepper, just use one pick in the middle. You can also skewer them for one-step flipping.
• Grill for 20-30 minutes or set them on a cooling rack on a cookie sheet and cook in oven for about 45 minutes or until bacon is fully cooked.
• Toward the end, you can kick up the grill or oven heat to finish up cooking the bacon.

The low carb version? Replace the herbed cream cheese with shrimp, a little minced garlic, and a spritz of lemon juice.