Christmas Presents Wrapped in Bacon!

Christmas Fun!  We decided to have a little Christmas Celebration night and make some fun appetizers.  We started in the holiday spirit with some California Wassail.  As in the song "Here we come a wassailing..."  We then decided that we wanted bacon.  So we went with Bacon wrapped Jalapenos and Bacon wrapped Water chestnuts.  Both pretty simple to make. 

California Wassail

Cut the orange into sections and stick the cloves into the orange peel.  We throw all of the following in a crock put and heat until warm.  Yummy.

24 Whole cloves
1 large Orange
4 cups Orange Juice
4 cups Apple Juice
4 cups Cranberry juice
16 Maraschino Cherries
4 Cinnamon Sticks

For the Water chestnuts: Wrap the water chestnuts in the bacon (hold everything in place with a toothpick) and cover with your favorite BBQ sauce.  You will probably only need to use half a strip of bacon for each water chestnut.  Then bake until the bacon is as crispy as you like.  We finished ours in the broiler because we like our bacon crispy.

For the Bacon wrapped Jalapenos: Cut the tops of the Jalapenos and remove the seeds and core as best you can while keeping the pepper intact so you can stuff it.  We found that a long vegetable peeler can be used pretty well for this.  After you clean the peppers out, we pack them full of cream cheese.  You could probably use any kind of cheese you want, but we like the creamy, coolness of the cream cheese.  Then wrap in the bacon and stick a toothpick though everything to hold it together.  Bake under the broiler until the bacon is done and the peppers start to blacken.

Let me finished off with a snack, some chex mix.  This chex mix was a little on the bland side, so if you do it yourself you might want to up the spices.

Chili and Garlic Chex® Mix

Prep Time:15 min

Start to Finish:15 min

Makes:18 servings (1/2 cup each) 4 cups Corn Chex® or Rice Chex® cereal 5 cups popped fat-free microwave popcorn 1/4 cup dry-roasted peanuts 2 tablespoons canola or vegetable oil 3 tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese 1 teaspoon chili powder 1 teaspoon garlic powder 1. In large microwavable bowl, mix cereal, popcorn and peanuts. Drizzle with oil; toss until evenly coated. 2. In small bowl, mix remaining ingredients. Sprinkle over cereal mixture; toss until evenly coated. 3. Microwave uncovered on High 3 to 4 minutes, stirring after each minute, until crisp. Spread on waxed paper to cool. Store in airtight container.