By Julie White

Add a bit of delicious spice to your summer parties. My friend Val made these for a get-together and they were devoured in no time. Even if you don’t like spicy food, they are worth a try.

Ingredients:

20 fresh jalapeños (try to get them uniform in size, about 2 inches in length)

2 8-oz. packages of cream cheese, softened

1/2 pound of bacon (cooked and crumbled)

1/4 cup finely minced onion (preferably red onion)

1 teaspoon of cumin

Pinch of salt

Preheat oven to 375 degrees

If you have latex or vinyl gloves, use them in case you are sensitive to the peppers. Cut the jalapeños in half. Use a spoon to scrape all of the seeds and membranes from the pepper. You can do this with your hands dipped in a bowl of water if you don’t have gloves.

Mix the cream cheese, salt, onion, cumin and half of the bacon together. (Reserve the other half of the bacon to sprinkle on your poppers when they have finished baking.)

Spread this mixture into the halved peppers and place on a baking sheet.

Bake for 20 – 25 minutes. Sprinkle remaining bacon on the finished jalapeño. Serve warm for best flavor.