BBQ Bacon Jalapeño Poppers

This post is brought to you in partnership with Stubb’s Bar-B-Que 
As we all know, bacon makes everything better. You know what, though? So does barbecue sauce!
These spicy grilled jalapeño poppers are stuffed with an addictive mix of Stubb’s Sticky Sweet Bar-B-Q Sauce, cheddar and cream cheese, and glazed bacon before being grilled until hot and bubbly.
The only challenging part to this recipe — apart from not scarfing the entire batch before your guests arrive — is making sure the poppers don’t fall through the grill grates. Be sure to lay them across the grates rather than parallel to avoid this unwanted fate.
Another word to the wise: take care not to overcook them. You want the filling to get hot and melty, but don’t cook so long that the peppers become soft and lose their texture. Cook just until the tops feel piping hot to the touch and the bottoms show grill marks.
Feel free to serve your jalapeño poppers with a dip bowl of sour cream on the side – the coolness of the cream will help balance the heat of the jalapeños. An ice-cold beer is also highly recommended.
These jalapeño poppers are the perfect one-bite snack for your next party. You might even want to think about doubling or tripling this recipe – it’s very hard to stop at just one!

BBQ Bacon Jalapeño Poppers Recipe

• Prep time: 30 minutes
• Cook time: 40 minutes
• Yield: 6 to 8 servings

When you buy your jalapeno peppers, pick through the bunch and find medium- to large-sized ones that feel firm and have no signs of wrinkling.
Be sure to let your cream cheese soften at room temperature for a half hour or so before you plan to assemble your poppers. This helps make it easier to mix with the other ingredients.
Depending on the size of your peppers and how much you stuff them, you may have some leftover filling. This makes a great spread for crackers or made into sandwiches! 
Oven Directions: Arrange the poppers on a baking sheet and roast at 425F until the cheese filling is hot and bubbly and the jalapeños are tender, 10 to 15 minutes.

Ingredients

For the bacon:

• 8 slices (about 12 ounces) thick-cut smoked bacon
• 1 1/2 tablespoons Stubb’s Sticky Sweet Bar-B-Q Sauce

For the filling:

• 8 ounces plain cream cheese, softened at room temperature
• 1 cup (3 ounces) coarsely shredded sharp cheddar cheese
• 1 1/2 tablespoons minced fresh chives
• 1 large clove garlic, minced
• 2 tablespoons Stubb’s Sticky Sweet Bar-B-Q Sauce
• 12 medium-sized jalapeños
• Extra minced fresh chives to garnish
• 1 cup sour cream, to serve (optional)

Method

1 Preheat oven to 375ºF. Line a baking sheet with aluminum foil. Lay a few layers of paper towels on top of a cooling rack and place near the oven.
2 Glaze and bake the bacon until crispy: Arrange the bacon in a single layer on the baking sheet. Brush with 1 1/2 tablespoons of barbecue sauce.
Transfer to the oven and bake until crisp and caramelized, 15 to 20 minutes (begin checking around 15 minutes; the bacon could take up to 20 minutes to fully crisp depending on the brand).
Remove the bacon from oven and drain for a few minutes on paper towels, then transfer to a plate to finish cooling. The pieces will stick to the paper towels if left for too long.

3 While bacon cooks, prepare the filling: Combine cream cheese, cheddar cheese, chives, garlic and barbecue sauce in a small mixing bowl.

4 Prepare the jalapeño peppers: Wear gloves for this step if you are sensitive to pepper heat. Cut the jalapeños in half lengthwise. Use a spoon to scoop out the seeds. You can leave the stems on (they make nice handles for eating!) or trim them off.
Arrange all the jalapeños cut-side up on a platter.

5 Stuff the peppers: Chop or crumble bacon into small bits, then fold into the cream cheese mixture. Using a spoon, fill each of the jalapeño halves with a big dollop of the cream cheese mixture, mounding slightly.
At this point, the poppers can be covered and refrigerated until ready to grill.

6 Prepare your grill: For gas grills, heat the grill with the burners set to high and preheat for 10 minutes. When ready to grill, reduce the burners to medium.
For charcoal grills, fill a grill chimney with charcoal and light it. When the coals are hot (they should be covered with a layer of fine gray ash) empty the coals into the grill and push them to one side of the grill to make higher heat and lower heat cooking zones. Set the grate in place and cover the grill. Preheat the grate for 5 minutes.

7 Grill the poppers: Brush grill grates with oil to prevent sticking. If you're using a charcoal grill, cook over the low-heat cooking zone.
Using tongs, place the poppers on the grill so they lay across the grates and don't fall through. If any of the poppers is leaning to the side, prop it up against a neighbor so the cheese filling doesn't start to melt out at the poppers cook.
Grill until the poppers are seared on the bottoms and the cheese filling is hot and bubbling around the edges, about 10 minutes. Be careful of overcooking or the peppers will become too soft.

8 Serve the poppers right away: Using tongs and a spatula in tandem to scoop up the poppers, remove from the grill and transfer to a platter. Serve immediately alongside sour cream, if desired. Discard the stems as you eat.

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Italian Sausage Stuffed Zucchini

Fellow gardeners, you know this tale well. You step away from your garden bed for 1 minute (or a weekend) and come back to find a monster zucchini hiding in the greenery.
Sometimes the plant warns you. Regular zucchini production starts slowing down, odd for early summer. The reason? All of the plant’s attention is going to feeding that one humungous baseball bat of a zuke.
Fortunately, those ginormous zucchinis are perfect for stuffing!

You just cut the zucchini in half lengthwise, and scoop out the insides, leaving a shell to stuff with whatever your heart desires.
This week my heart desired Italian sausage, so my friends, this is what we are using to stuff this particular zucchini.
We brown some Italian sausage, onions, garlic, and some of the zucchini insides, and mix it with fresh breadcrumbs, basil, tomatoes, oregano, and Parmesan cheese. One egg is all you need to bind the stuffing together.
Into the oven it goes to bake for 40 minutes. Yum!

Italian Sausage Stuffed Zucchini Recipe

• Prep time: 15 minutes
• Cook time: 1 hour
• Yield: Serves 4

You can stuff the zucchini a day ahead of time and bake right before serving.

Ingredients

• 2 Tbsp olive oil
• 1/2 pound Italian sausage, out of casing
• 1 large zucchini, 12 to 14 inches long (about 1 1/4 to 2 lbs) or 3-4 medium zucchini
• 1 cup chopped onion
• 3 cloves garlic, finely chopped
• 2 slices of bread, pulsed in food processor or blender to make fresh breadcrumbs (about 1 cup fresh breadcrumbs)
• 2 medium tomatoes, chopped
• 1/4 cup chopped fresh basil
• 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano, or 2 teaspoons chopped fresh oregano
• 3/4 cup shredded Parmesan cheese
• 1 egg, lightly beaten
• 3/4 teaspoon salt (less or more to taste)
• 1 teaspoon ground black pepper

Method

1 Cook the sausage: Heat 1 Tbsp of olive oil in a medium skillet on medium to medium high heat. Add the sausage, and gently cook until the sausage is mostly (but not all) cooked through.

Stir frequently and break up the sausage into smaller pieces while it cooks. Remove to a large bowl and set aside.
2 Prep the zucchini: Cut the zucchini in half. Use a metal spoon to scoop out the insides of the zucchini, leaving the zucchini shell about 1/4-inch thick. Remove any thick seeds from the insides you've scooped out.

Chop up about half of the remaining zucchini flesh (you should have about a cup).
3 Cook the onions and garlic: You should have 1 Tbsp of fat in the pan (rendered from the sausage). If not, add more olive oil so that you have at least a tablespoon of fat in the pan. Heat the pan on medium high heat.
Add the onions and cook until softened. Add the garlic and cook 30 seconds more.

Add the chopped zucchini and cook a minute or two more.
Add to the bowl of sausage.
4 Preheat oven to 375°F.
5 Make the stuffing: Add the rest of the stuffing ingredients to the sausage and onions.

6 Stuff the zucchini and bake: Place the zucchini halves in a baking dish. Stuff them with the stuffing. (At this point you can make ahead, cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate until ready to bake.) Add 1/4-inch of water to the bottom of the pan.

Bake at 375°F for 40 minutes.

Read More: Italian Sausage Stuffed Zucchini

Lentil Salad with Arugula and Feta

I could eat this salad every day! It has all the elements I love in a salad: something crunchy (pine nuts and red onions), something salty and tangy (sherry vinaigrette and feta cheese), something sweet (dried currants), and some tasty greens (peppery arugula).
It makes a great lunch all by itself when you’re in the mood for a salad. It also pairs well with anything coming off the grill or with simple roast chicken if you want to serve it for dinner.
I’ve included a Middle Eastern spice, perhaps unfamiliar, in the dressing: ground sumac. Don’t worry! It’s totally optional and the recipe is just as delicious without it. I’ve been experimenting with spices from my local Middle Eastern market, and I wanted to share this one with you in case you stumble upon it.
Ground sumac is dried and ground from the red berries that ripen in clusters on sumac bushes in the fall. The spice has a clean, bright, ultra-tart lemony flavor and adds a puckery punch when sprinkled on toasted pita chips, over hummus, or as with this recipe, into a vinaigrette for a salad.
When buying lentils for this recipe, smaller varieties, like French green lentils, are the best choice. They hold their shape without becoming mushy, look pretty, and have a slightly chewy texture.
One other trick worth mentioning is to add the onions to the lentils while they are hot. This tames their harsh bite while keeping their crisp texture.

Lentil Salad with Arugula and Feta Recipe

• Prep time: 25 minutes
• Cooling and assembly time: 20 minutes
• Yield: Serves 4 to 6

When buying lentils for this recipe, smaller varieties, like French green lentils, are the best choice. They hold their shape without becoming mushy, look pretty, and have a slightly chewy texture.

Ingredients

For the dressing:

• 2 tablespoons sherry vinegar
• 1 teaspoon coriander seeds, coarsely crushed in a mortar or with a rolling pin (or 1/2 teaspoon ground coriander)
• 1 teaspoon ground sumac (optional), plus more for garnish
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• Fresh black pepper
• 5 tablespoons olive oil
• Salt and pepper to taste

For the salad:

• 1 cup small dried lentils, such as French green lentils
• Salt and pepper to taste
• 1/4 cup pine nuts
• 1/4 red onion, thinly sliced
• 1/4 cup dried currants
• 1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro
• 2 bunches (about 6 cups) arugula
• 12 cherry tomatoes, halved
• 3 ounces (about 2/3 cup) feta cheese, crumbled

Method

1 Make the dressing:  In a bowl, whisk the vinegar, coriander and sumac (if using) with 1/8 teaspoon salt and a few grinds of fresh black pepper. Gradually whisk in the oil. Taste, and add more salt and pepper, if you like.
2 Cook the lentils: Bring a large saucepan of salted water to a boil. Add the lentils. Reduce the heat to medium-low and simmer for 18 to 20 minutes, or until the lentils are tender but still hold their shape.
3 While the lentils cook, toast the pine nuts: In a dry skillet over medium heat, stir the pine nuts constantly for 2 to 3 minutes, or until they are lightly browned. Transfer them immediately to a plate to keep them from burning.

4 Season the lentils and tame the onions:  When the lentils are done cooking, drain them into a colander and transfer to a small bowl. While the lentils are still hot, stir in the onions and 2 tablespoons of the vinaigrette. Let cool until it's a warm room temperature (no longer piping hot).
(To speed up the cooling, you can spread the lentils and onions out on a plate.)

5 Assemble the salad: In a salad bowl, toss the arugula with the currants, cilantro, and remaining vinaigrette. Pile the lentils over the salad and top with the cherry tomatoes, feta, and toasted pine nuts. Sprinkle with more sumac, if you like.

Read More: Lentil Salad with Arugula and Feta

Steak Salad with Arugula and Parmesan Cheese

When summer finally hits its stride, you begin to understand Italian food.
Think of figs, arranged on a pretty plate and drizzled with honey. Or perfect peaches macerated in white wine and strewn with lavender. Or fresh-picked, fat asparagus, peeled, steamed, doused with fruity olive oil and topped with finely shaved shards of Parmesan Cheese.
This is heady stuff. Food for kings. At its core, Italian food only asks for simple ingredients at the peak of perfection served without fuss.
That’s what makes this recipe work so well. With only five ingredients, you can pretend you are in Tuscany: a great cut of steak, fresh arugula from the farmers market, good olive oil, lemons and big flakes of Parmesan Cheese from Frigo.
In Tuscany you would be served a giant T-bone steak, which comes from the region’s Chianina breed of cattle, prized for their tenderness and flavor. For this recipe, we use sirloin strip steak, but rib-eye, tenderloin, T-bone or porterhouse cuts would do nicely as well.
Wouldn’t it be nice to go to Italy this summer?! If a trip isn’t in the cards, at least we can still listen to Puccini as we go about making this blissfully simple assembly of steak and arugula sprinkled with Frigo’s Shaved Parmesan Cheese.

Steak Salad with Arugula and Parmesan Cheese Recipe

• Prep time: 20 minutes
• Cook time: 11 minutes
• Yield: 4 servings

Ingredients

For the salad

• 5 ounces (about 6 cups) baby arugula
• 2 tablespoons olive oil, plus more for serving
• Salt and pepper, to taste
• 1/2 cup (1 ounce) Frigo® Shaved Parmesan Cheese

For the steak

• Vegetable oil (for the grill)
• 2 (1 1/2-inch thick) sirloin steaks (about 1 3/4 pounds)
• 2 lemons, cut into wedges (for serving)
• Olive oil (for serving)

Method

1 Make the salad: In a bowl, toss the arugula with 2 tablespoons of olive oil. Sprinkle generously with salt and pepper and toss again. Mix in the Parmesan Cheese. Divide among four plates.
2 Prepare the grill: For charcoal grills, fill a grill chimney with charcoal and light it. When the coals are hot (they should be covered with a layer of fine gray ash) empty the coals into the grill and push them to one side of the grill to make higher heat and lower heat cooking zones. Set the grate in place and cover the grill. Preheat the grate for 5 minutes.
For gas grills, heat one burner to high and one to low (225F).
Fold a small piece of paper towel to make a 2-inch square, and pour a few tablespoons of oil into a shallow bowl. With tongs, dip the square into the oil, and brush the grates.
3 Cook the steaks: Brush the steaks with olive oil and sprinkle them on both sides with salt and pepper. Place them on the hot side of the grill and cook until browned and slightly charred on one side, 3 to 4 minutes. Turn the steaks over and continue to grill 3 minutes longer, or until well browned.
If the steaks aren't quite cooked to your desired doneness at this point, move them to the cooler side of the grill to finish cooking. Cook to an internal temperature of 135F for medium-rare, 140F for medium, or 150F for well done.
Transfer the steaks to a cutting board or platter, tent loosely with foil and let rest 5 minutes before slicing.
4 To serve: Slice the steaks and divide the slices between the plates, placing them on top of the arugula. Drizzle with olive oil and squeeze lemon juice over the top. Sprinkle with more salt and pepper, if you like.

Read More: Steak Salad with Arugula and Parmesan Cheese