- I'm about to show you a fun recipe.

It's for candied jalapenos.

Yes, spicy jalapenos in this beautifully spiced, sugary sweet syrup that turns into a thing that people affectionately call Cowboy Candy.

It is so easy.

Let me show you how to get started.

So, what I'm gonna do is, is I'm gonna take a big pile of jalapenos and cut them into little thin rounds.

I'm taking my Handy Dandy vegetable slicer, putting it on a bowl, wearing my gloves to protect my fingers from those peppery juices.

And I'm just gonna slice them into little rounds.

[slicer rattling] So, you just keep doing that with your knife or with your slicer until you have a bowl full.

And now I'm gonna show you how to make the syrup that brings it all together.

[soft music] So, the next easy thing is we're going to make our spiced sugar syrup, really simple.

This is cider vinegar.

And we're gonna add to that some sugar, quite a bit of sugar.

That's where we get the candy in our Cowboy Candy.

[bowl knocking] And then I'm gonna add four things to flavor it.

This is powdered ginger, celery seed, granulated garlic, and a little bit of turmeric.

And I'm just gonna stir this to help that sugar dissolve.

And we're gonna let it come to a boil and let it simmer for about five minutes.

That's all you have to do.

So, look at this after just a little bit of cooking.

See how it gets thick in syrupy and kind of falls off your spatula.

That's what you're looking for.

And then we're gonna add our sliced jalapenos.

[soft music] Now, I want you to let this come back up to a simmer.

Set your timer for four minutes and then we're ready to put 'em in the jars.

So, here we go.

Four minutes is up and these are ready to go in a jar.

Make sure these jars are really clean, squeaky clean, because we're not gonna preserve these.

We're just gonna stash 'em in the fridge and they'll keep for a long time.

But you want that really clean jar.

I've got my handy dandy funnel.

And then all I'm gonna do is I'm going to transfer our cooked jalapenos into a jar [spoon scraping] and come up pretty close to the rim.

Just keep at it here, a few more scoops.

And then we are gonna pour on some of this delicious syrup.

Come up to the top.

And then I want you [pot tapping surface] to take out your funnel and take something like a chopstick or a skewer and poke 'em around a little bit, 'cause we wanna make sure there are no little hidden air pockets in there.

And we wanna make sure that these are totally submerged.

So, if you need to top it off a little bit, please do.

Then we're gonna take your tight fitting lid.

We're gonna close the jars to what they call fingertip tight, like that.

And we're gonna let these sit undisturbed in a little corner of your cutting board undisturbed until they cool to room temperature.

And at that point you can put 'em in the refrigerator and they're going to keep for weeks.

Now, you can use this Cowboy Candy like you might use a relish or pickles or something.

But next I'm gonna show you one of my favorite recipes on how to make the most of your candy jalapenos.

So, I'm gonna use some of our Cowboy Candy to make a wonderful cheese spread.

It is so easy.

I have here some of our jalapenos and then I have Worcestershire sauce, a tiny bit of our brine, straight out of the jar of our jalapenos.

I have some very finely chopped green onions and some finely chopped pecans.

And I'm gonna stir this together with a tiny bit of mayo.

So, stir this around until it's well combined.

And then I'm gonna add two kinds of cheese.

Both of these are cheddars.

[utensil tapping] One is extra sharp and one is seriously sharp.

And you do wanna grate your own cheese.

You're gonna be so much happier if you grate it.

One on the large holes on a grater and one on the fine holes.

And that combination of textures really helps this come together.

And then we're just gonna fold it together.

We're just gonna give this [bowl tapping] some folding and some stirring until every bit of this cheese is coated with that delicious combination of our jalapenos, our crunchy green onions, our gorgeous pecans.

See how this comes together with just a little bit of stirring and folding.

[soft music] Now, I want you to cover this and put it in the refrigerator for a few minutes to firm up a little bit.

Now, you could serve this as a cheese spread, but I have a great idea of a beautiful way to serve it, to make it even more fun.

[soft music] So, look what I did.

I took that lightly chilled cheese mixture and I took my handy dandy [scooper rattling] little scooper here and I formed it into little bite-sized cheese balls.

I love to call these cheese bonbons.

And now for a little bit of a finish, I'm going to roll these in finely chopped pecans.

Now, you're going to get about two dozen of these little bites from that amount of our base mixture.

And I love how these cute little cheese bonbons are an updated version of the cheese ball that everybody loves at a party.

[upbeat music] I could not be happier with how this all turned out.

Look, we made the little ones.

We made one big one, we garnished it a little bit, and this is going to be a tempting treat the next time you have folks come over.

And when you make 'em, people are gonna talk about you in the very best way.

[upbeat music]