Sausage-Stuffed Cherry Pepper Poppers – Because the Party with the Best Food Wins

Whether you want to admit it or not, it's getting close to holiday entertaining season, and as far as I'm concerned there's really only one measuring stick by which all holiday parties are judged – the food.

You can have the best DJ, the coolest place settings, even those novelty ice cubes in the shape of shapes, but none of that matters if your food is lame. That's where these sausage-stuffed cherry pepper poppers come in.

The foundation of all great holiday party menus are the hors d'oeuvres and appetizers. Most people will be drunk by the time the main courses are served, but when the party begins, and senses are yet to be dulled, a bad or boring array of small bites will not go unnoticed.

These super-simple, but memorable cherry pepper poppers will get the party started right. The next day, instead of talking about you trying to moonwalk with a lampshade on your head, or how you spilled a Bloody Mary on the boss's wife, people will be raving about "those little, red, spicy sausage pepper things."

By the way, the hardest thing about this recipe is finding these Peppadew peppers. Except for a few annoying exceptions, you know I like to use easy-to-find ingredients, but these gorgeous peppers, from the Limpopo province of South Africa, have such a wonderfully unique, sweet/spicy/tangy flavor that I wanted to use the real deal.

I was having a hard time finding them myself, but it was my mother-in-law Peggy who came to the rescue (again), and mailed these down to us as part of our anniversary gift. You can get them online for sure, and they are often found at the better gourmet grocery stores, but if you can't find them, most supermarkets do carry some type of jarred cherry peppers. Enjoy!

UPDATE: While I was making this recipe, I couldn't for the life of me remember where I saw this done for the first time. Well, I just talked to my mom Pauline, who informed me these were my Uncle Bill's invention. I should have known! Thanks Uncle Billy!