Party, part 2

Sadly, I did not get any pictures last night. I was focusing more on the food, and the friends than taking pictures at the time, so I'm pretty upset by that fact, because I really had some great photo taking opportunities. Sigh...
Rundown of last night. First I tweaked the heck out of the chili, I added diced tomatoes, green chiles, cumin, chili powder, garlic galore, cilantro, onions, hot sauce, tonys, season all, pepper, red pepper flakes, oh and corn. I'm sure I'm probably forgetting something, but thats the gist of it. It turned out fantastically. I still have some left, and will probably be enjoying picture taking opportunities later, lol! Everyone enjoyed it, and thats what I love. We also made some chili cheese dip, basically the revised chili mixed with mexican velveeta, very good, and it was all gone by the end of the night, I bought two bags of chips and both of them were eaten. Paul and I also made some stuffed mushrooms which were very very good, and some jalapeno popper things (thanks PW). I revised that recipe as well. I revise most recipes, but thats just what I do. The stuffed mushrooms were delicious: http://www.recipezaar.com/Stuffed-Mushrooms-57228. These were fantastic, but of course, I tweaked it a little. First off, I didn't use real bacon, why use real when bacon bits taste sooo much the same, and are easier to use? So I dumped what I considered 3 bacon strips worth of bacon bits in the pan, and I don't usually measure out my ingredients to things, so the oregano and salt were just kind of added in. We stuffed the mushrooms and they were delicious! Try them, they were actually really easy to make, and I used larger mushrooms than the small button mushrooms, just because I like to them to be a little bigger than a bites worth.
The jalapeno popper things, is what I'm calling them, but the base for the recipe was copied from Pioneer Womans website: http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2007/07/bacon-wrapped_j/
She has amazing pictures on her site, how to photos, everything you could think of. I love her site, for her recipes. But of course, again, I tweaked it, I'm sure it would taste delicious even if you didn't, but these were a HUGE hit. My recommendation, WEAR GLOVES when messing with jalapenos, your hands will thank you later. I wear gloves when I mess with a lot of different smelly type things, like meats, onions, garlic, and jalapenos. So this wasn't new for me, but Paul did it, and I even made him wear gloves. Who wants their husband complaing about burning fingers later? Anywho-he cleared them out and all that, I made the cream cheese stuffing, basically I mixed together some onion powder, minced garlic, and some Tonys seasoning (http://www.tonychachere.com/), I don't know how much I added, like I said, I don't usually measure things like this out. Anyway, we stuffed the jalapenos, wrapped them with bacon, put them in the oven, and voila, we had an easy, healthier, cheaper jalapeno poppers, that everyone loved and gobbled up. This is going to be a mainstay recipe for me, I love the frozen breaded jalapeno poppers that you find in the grocery store, and now I'm thinking this is farrrr better for me, its yummier in my opinion. I think I can definately make it lighter too, use some turkey bacon and some light cream cheese. The jalapeno isn't bad for you, and spices aren't bad either, so you'd have a lighter jalapeno popper, I think I'll try that next time.
All in all the food was great, the company was even better, and we all had fun. We met some new people, and had a great time all around. We got to play some rock band, and just chat. It was awesome, and it was what a party should be for the most part! We won't be having another party for about another month or so, not like that, so I'll try those jalapeno poppers again, and this time I WILL take pictures! Promise! And who knows, maybe I'll have more recipes up my sleeves to try. Please let me know if you do try these recipes, I'd love to know what you think!