my friend lori ann wanted the recipe for these mouthwatering morsels of deliciousness and i was going to post it on facebook but my post was TOO LONG. perhaps that’s why i never post anything on facebook.
i told her i’d put it here, and then i had the brilliant idea of adding a RECIPE PAGE! WHAT a great idea!
but then of course i realized that i don’t know how to add a new page. no idea. i did create a page (that is very boring) but then i didn’t know how to get it to show up on the main page. so that was a little bit pointless.
i could sit here for a while and try to figure it out and maybe i could because it’s not ROCKET SCIENCE, but then again, it is doing something with the web page and that’s kind of like rocket science. i once had a boyfriend who was an actual rocket scientist – he designed antennae for, um…rockets? i’m pretty sure that’s what he did. he went to cornell, which made it extra-funny to watch “the office” whenever andy was always going on about going to cornell.
but i digress. i have WAY TOO MANY THINGS TO DO TODAY to sit here writing random thoughts. must focus. must focus…
anyway, i will conquer the new page thing, and i’ll post some recipes eventually, and who knows, maybe i’ll even post a cooking video! very very ambitious, but only in theory.
here’s the recipe for the bacon-wrapped dates. but incidentally, you can almost always find a recipe for anything on allrecipes.com. this is mostly taken from there.
oh, and one more thing – i just have to WARN YOU – i did gain five pounds on thanksgiving day from eating so many of these dates, plus then i wasn’t even the slightest bit hungry for dinner but had to eat a little bit anyway to be polite.
just so you know.
oh, and also, i wrote to christine about these dates and she wrote that she’d had them many times. so even though these succulent bits of magicalness are new to me, perhaps they’ll be old hat to you, in which case i assume you’ve already gained your five pounds from them.
BACON-WRAPPED DATES
i had the dates at a catered party and couldn’t stop eating them. they’re super-easy. the caterer said that you can assemble them a few days in advance, which i would do if i was better about pre-planning which i USED to do but now i’m suddenly not so great at that.
you can get a big, 3-lb tub of pitted dates at sam’s (they’re in the baking aisle) for only seven bucks. they’ll cost more anywhere else, but wherever you get them, be sure to get pitted dates. one pound of bacon uses about half the container of dates. i stuffed them with blue cheese, but you could use almonds instead, or nothing at all. if you stuff them, you just cut a little slit in the date and put in some blue cheese and seal it tight. one of the reasons i ate so many is because i kept tasting them and saying CAN I REALLY TASTE THE BLUE CHEESE? i kind of think you can’t so much, but other people say they can. do whatever you want. i cut the bacon into thirds and wrapped it around the dates, and inserted toothpicks. you don’t need the toothpicks, but they make it much easier to turn the dates. the most important thing is to bake them on a cooling rack lying on top of a foil-lined cookie sheet. you want all the fat to drip down. this is one of the smart comments from people on the allrecipes website.
i put the pan on the highest oven rack, at about 450 degrees. you have to watch them closely so they don’t burn – it might take about 20 minutes for the first side, less for the second. be sure that the bacon is really, really done.
this makes enough dates to fill one cookie sheet. i guess if you used two pounds of bacon, they’d still all get eaten. i guess no matter how many pans you ake, they will all be gone. try not to start eating them right after getting them out of the oven because you WILL burn your mouth.
i made some with turkey bacon, and with fake vegetarian bacon. the real bacon was better, of course, but you could definitely taste the blue cheese with the other kinds.
ok, that is all for now. MUCH TO DO.
pre-christmas grace.