Armadillo Eggs

Note from Cheri: The recipe and text below are reprinted with permission from Peace, Love and BBQ - Recipes, Secrets, Tall Tales, and Outright Lies from the Legends of Barbecue By Mike Mills and Amy Mills Tunicliffe (2006, Rodale). Here is a loving tribute, almost in scrapbook form, of the authors' lifelong relationship with and passion for the ultimate American cuisine, barbecue. No, I don't mean grilling or merely cooking outdoors, but rather the true meaning of barbecue -- that slow cooked bit of carnivorous heaven that earns America it's rightful place in the map of the world's great culinary contributors. Author Mike Mills is the only person to win three Grand World Champion titles at the Memphis in May International Barbecue Festival. He is also barbecue guru and partner at Danny Meyer's Blue Smoke Restaurant in New York City and owner of six notable barbecue joints, two in Southern Illinois and four in Las Vegas. Along with his daughter Amy, a journalist and publicist, he's created a culinary roadmap to America's great barbecue joints and competitions, along with the characters who make them tick. Click here for more information about this fabulous book, along with more great sample recipes.

These armadillo eggs are one of the best ideas I've seen recently. Spicy bratwurst sausage is molded around a jalapeño pepper stuffed with cream cheese to form an egg.

12 jalapeño peppers 1 package (8 ounces) cream cheese, softened golden yellow paste food coloring (or yellow food coloring) 3 pounds spicy bratwurst sausage, casings removed 17th Street Special All-Purpose Dressing, optional

Serves 12 - 18 Cut the stem ends off the jalapeños and use a small knife to cut the seeds out. Keep the peppers whole. Put the cream cheese into a small bowl and use a toothpick to add a tiny bit of the paste food coloring (this paste is very concentrated, so a little goes a long way). Mix the coloring thoroughly into the cream cheese. Add more, if you need it, to achieve a bright golden color, like the yolk of an egg. Transfer the cream cheese to a pastry bag fitted with a wide tip and pipe the cheese into the jalapeños. (You can make your own pastry bag by using a small zippered plastic bag and snipping off one corner.) Divide the sausage into 12 pieces. Flatten each piece into a disk, place a filled jalapeño in the center, and wrap the sausage around it, pressing the edges to seal. Form the sausage into the shape of a large egg. Smoke using indirect heat for 1 1/2 hours at 250 degrees. Slice to serve. The slices will resemble sliced hard-cooked eggs, with the colored cream cheese looking like the yolk. Serve with the dressing, if desired.