Last week, I bought some fresh jalapenos and wanted to make something really spicy. Not spicy where you can't taste anything, but spicy to wake up my tastebuds.  I decided to make jalapeno popper dip, so I started looking around online for a basic recipe that I could base it off of.  I found two that looked good to me.  One was for a dip that used lower fat items like neufchatel (which I can't figure out if it is just low-fat cream cheese or just a lower fat, creamy cheese), and light mayo.  The other actually made the dip as a filling for wontons. I made a double batch so I could fill some wontons and have the rest as a dip.  Variety is the spice of life.  I just remembered that saying and decided that I like it.  Hope you enjoy my first entry.  This recipe is for one batch but, like I said before, I like to make two batches because... hey, why not?

Ingredients

• 2 blocks neufchatel
• 10 jalapenos, broiled, steamed, and diced
• 1 cup pickled jalapenos, diced
• 2 tbsp pickling juice from the pickled jalapenos
• 1 cup light mayo
• 1 tbsp garlic powder
• 2 cups shredded mexican cheese
• package of wonton wrappers
• 1 small bowl of water
• tortilla chips

Dipping Options

• salsa
• sour cream
• blue cheese

Directions

1. Take the neufchatel blocks out of the fridge so they become room temperature.
2. Broil the jalapenos until they are nice and blistered.  When they are done, seal them in a plastic bag so they steam up. 
3. Preheat oven to 375.
4. In a large mixing bowl, combine the neufchatel, diced pickled jalapenos, pickled jakapeno juice, mayo, garlic powder and shredded cheese.
5. Take the jalapenos out of the bag and pull the skin off. Cut off the stem and dice up.  You can remove the seeds from some of them if you want to make it milder.  Combine with mixture. 
6. Cover a baking sheet with tin foil, add a thin layer of oil, and put in the oven to heat up.  Depending on how many you plan on making you might have to use two baking sheets.
7. Now it's time to fill the wontons.  Put 1 teaspoon of mixture in middle of wonton, wet edges with water, seal into triangles and repeat.
8. Remove baking sheets from oven and place all of the wontons on in a single layer.
9. Return to oven for 15-20 mins.
10. Put the rest of the neufchatel /jalapeno mixture into an oven safe bowl and heat up at 375 for 15-20 minutes.  (The last time I made this, I used two baking sheets and still had some left over, so I put it in a bowl and cooked it in my toaster oven at 375.)
11. Serve with chips for the dip and any other dippings you want.  The sour cream and blue cheese are good for cutting the heat.