Bacon Jalapeno Cheddar Stuffed Pugliese!

Recently I find writing about personal experiences/opinions/outlooks a bit more invigorating than just sharing a recipe. I'm still sharing a recipe but at the same time, its like story telling. It's almost like stories or discussions you'd be able to have at a dinner table. 

Well since I'd can't be at everyone's dinner table, sharing these stories here will be a nice way to imagine being at a dinner table with everyone and me sharing my side and view of the world. Thank you to all those who take the time to read through my elaborate entries about life and all its entities!

So the other day while I was waiting in line at Marshalls, because that's where you find all sorts of little treasures, there was a mother and her son in front of me. Kids being the impatient little people that they are, the son wanders to a display pile and points it out to his mom that this "toy" looked fun. He runs back to the line and says "mommy,  go look at it, I'll hold your place, go" and his mom laughs and go to look at the toy (looked like a slip and slide) and then comes back and tells him, "no, its not that fun." Now at this point, most kids would start screaming and kicking, but this little guy, he was awesome! He simply replied "okay, I guess its not that fun, but its okay AND I saved your spot in line!" So adorable! Now this was a VERY long line so I was with them for a while and all this time, he never complained and everytime before he wanted to go see something, he'd ask his mom if he can go see. She'd let him and so forth. Finally we got to what seems like the end of the tunnel and he sees a random marvel toy set laying around and shows his mom, I didn't catch all of what he said because by then I was spacing out... but I did catch the end where I had to smile. He noted to his mom this toy was for 4 year olds (not realizing its 4+) 
so his mom asks him: "How old are you?"
Son: "I'm five!" 
Mom: "That's right, so this toy is not for you"
Son: "Yah! Its for a four year old! Okay, I don't need this"
No tantrum, nothing. Isn't that great!? Its so rare to see....kids of today are so fortunate and they don't even know it! It bugs me every time I see a kid throwing a fit because they don't get what they want...if they only knew what it was like to not be able to get anything at all. 

My brother and I did, we didn't throw tantrums, we didn't whine, and we certainly didn't kick and scream because we knew we can try all we want but the matter of the fact is, we were poor and its not going to happen, not to mention we have Asian parents who were NOT afraid to use forms of discipline. We only got a couple of toys throughout the year, usually birthdays and Christmas. We use to play this game called "if we could buy any toy which one would you pick?" while we waited for our mom to do her grocery shopping and we'd drool at all the toys in the toy aisle. That was life, we'd imagine what toy we'd have and how we'd play with them. Video games, you can forget about it. Movies, I think we owned less than 10 movies by the time I was in high school. We'd play with anything, gave us both quite the creative/imaginative minds. I didn't even know what watching TV was like before college. I had 3 channels growing up, ABC, PBS, FOX, and some other super fussy channels that probably shouldn't count but if the angle of the antenna was just right, we'd be able to get some cartoons off of it. We spent most of the time drawing and reading books from the library because those things were free. I remembered the first time we discovered the library. It was like a whole new experience. There were movies and CDs you can borrow, old but we had so many movies/cds on our "we will watch/listen to you one day list" who cares! So many books! We'd come home with stacks of them, at least 10+ each and the following week, we'd have 90% of them read. We loved our books. Probably because it was like traveling to loads of different places, experiencing, and seeing things we otherwise wouldn't be able to. Still love to escape into my books.... 

 

It always bugged me a little when people gave me grief me about not having watched a certain movie/show or knowing a certain singer/actor or going to a certain place or not have eaten at a certain restaurant, its not like I wanted to not try those things, we simply didn't have the money. So little people realize that having just enough money will go a long way. Sure you're not Bill Gates, but at the same time, you get to enjoy the little things in life that is often very overlooked like being able to eat out once in a while. Being able to go to the movies. Owning a video game counsel. Having cable. New furniture. Living in a home that you can call your home and is permanently yours. The small things... my point is, people often overlook these simple things and they complain about what they don't have and what they need. Instead we should all take a look at what we do have and how lucky we are to have those things. There are people out there far less fortunate. If we are fortunate to have our health, our family and their health, a roof over our heads, and food to fill ourselves, in essences that's all we really need. Everything else is a luxury and we shouldn't be discontent when things we want don't go our way, we're forgetting the bigger picture. I always hated the fact we were so poor growing up but now that I've grown, I love the perspective it has given me. We should all appreciate a little more and need a little less. That's not to say don't go and enjoy life if you can afford to, do it! Just keep in mind that by being able to do those things, we are already very lucky.

Nowadays I definitely appreciate being able to travel, experience, fuel my hobbies, and catch up on all the little things I missed out growing up. So to conclude this detailed account of a blip of my life, here is my newest experiment: bacon jalapeno cheddar stuffed pugliese!

Inspired by Hasselback Garlic Cheesy Bread

Printable Recipe Here

Ingredients:

• 1 small loaf of pugliese bread (or bread loaf of choice)
• 2 shallots, diced
• 2 jalapenos, diced
• 2 strips of bacon, chopped
• 1 tsp ground paprika
• 1 tsp oregano flakes
• 1 tsp thyme
• 1 tsp basil flakes
• Garlic olive oil
• ½ cup jalapeno cheddar cheese (or cheese of choice) shredded

Procedures:

1. In a small sauté pan, sauté the bacon, shallots, and jalapenos together and set aside to cool.
2. Take the loaf of bread and slice the bread into ½ inch – 1 inch slices but only ¾ of the way down. Do not cut through.
3. Mix basil flasks, oregano, thyme, and paprika together to make an herb mix.
4. Brush some olive oil in between the slices and sprinkle in a pinch of herb seasoning in between the slices.
5. Mix ¼ cup of the cheese with the bacon mix. Make sure bacon mix is completely cooled so the cheese doesn’t melt
6. Stuff the bacon cheese mix in between the bread slices but leaving a little room so you can top it off with just cheese on top (with the leftover ¼ cup cheese)
7. Brush olive oil on the top of the loaf and sprinkle on herbs.
8. Bake in oven at 325 degrees for 10-15 minutes or until bread is light golden brown/slightly crispy and cheese is completely melted.