Armadillo Eggs

A quick breakfast or snack food, also good with beer or as something extra with soup. I usually use turkey sausage, which I almost like better than pork sausage.

Take seeded whole chilies from a 4 oz can. Slit them lengthwise and stuff with 1 c. shredded cheddar cheese or small chunks of cheese. Roll up slightly. Make 1 lb bulk pork sausage into as many patties as you have chilies; wrap around the peppers to totally enclose them. Bake in a preheated 450 oven until browned and cooked, then drain on paper towels.

Flatten or roll out individual biscuits from a refrigerated tube of 10. Place sausage ball at one end then roll up, to cover sausage completely. Bake again at 450 for about 10 minutes, til the biscuits are browned. Serve hot or at room temp.

These are not "hot' at all. If you are into heat,try hot pepper jack cheese and mix a few dashes of Tabasco or Texas Pete Hot Sauce into the sausage, or use hot Italian sausage. There are lots of ways to make it fiery, but that's not my area of expertise.... I like them just as they are.

They're bigger than you might expect, and some of that depends on the canned jalapenos. There's no predicting how many will be in a can or what size they'll be. Today I used Kroger brand and there were just 4 large chilies in the can. I cut them in half- which meant open ends on some....not so easy to stuff shredded cheese into them, so I used chunks of cheese instead. It won't matter, as long as you are careful to completely enclose each in the sausage so it doesn't leak out.

Chilies Rellenos Casserole

Chilies and cheese, a perfect  flavor combination. This  would also be a good brunch dish.

Preheat oven to 350.   Lightly grease or spray a 9x13  shallow baking dish.  From a 16-oz. can of mild green chilies, remove stems and lay half  the chilies  flat on the bottom of the dish.   In a skillet, cook 1/2 lb ground pork and 1/2 lb. ground beef with 1 chopped onion and 1 clove minced garlic, until browned.  Drain well and spoon over the chilies, then layer on  3 c. shredded cheddar cheese. Top with the remaining chilies.  Whisk together 4 eggs, 1/4 c. flour, 1  1/2 c. milk, 1 tsp salt.  Pour over the chilies, top with 1 c. shredded Monterey jack cheese, and bake for 25 minutes.  Remove cover and bake for about 15 minutes, until lightly browned.  Serves 6-8