Crab Stuffed Shrimp and Peppers

Hope everyone had a wonderful weekend. Not much on our agenda, hubby went 4 wheeling with some friends while I shopped on Saturday then Sunday we smoked some meat all day. We're getting ready for a BBQ cook off coming up in a couple of weeks so practice makes perfect. Smoking meat isn't the most glamorous job, but the wait all day is worth it in the end. To tie us over I made some crab stuffed shrimp and instead of the usual cream cheese peppers I put some stuffing in them as well. I was inspired by a couple different recipes I've done in the past and come up with my own. While I admit I usually like anything on the BBQ pit, I think the crab stuffing flavor is better when it's done in the oven because the smoke flavor over took the crab flavor. Adjust the seasoning in the mixture to your taste and feel free to use the stuffing as you wish it's really good just as it is too since there's no egg.

Crab Stuffed Shrimp

2 sticks butter

1 sweet onion, chopped

1/4 pound celery (I left this out this time)

2 teaspoons chopped garlic

2 tablespoons chopped green onions

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon pepper

1 teaspoon red pepper flakes

1 teaspoon Old Bay Seasoning

1/2 teaspoon cayenne

1 cup bread crumbs

8 ounces crab meat

In a saucepan over medium heat, place butter in and allow to melt. Add next 9 ingredients and cook 6-8 minutes.

Place mixture into a blender and blend. Be careful as mixture is hot. Transfer to a mixing bowl adding bread crumbs and drained crab meat. Stir until combined.

There's a couple of different ways you can stuff and serve the shrimp. You could coat them with flour and deep fry them at 350 degrees F for 1-2 minutes then place a tablespoon of stuffing onto each shrimp.

You can stuff the raw shrimp with a tablespoon of stuffing, then wrap with bacon and bake them in a 350 degree oven. Or you can grill them which is how we did ours today.

For the peppers I just hollowed them out and filled them with stuffing then grilled till the pepper was soft.