Bacon Wrapped Dates

HAPPY MEMORIAL DAY, EVERYONE! Let's take a moment to appreciate all those awesome people who've risked their lives for us. And what better way to celebrate their sacrifices then by eating bacon! Wait--is that right?

Oh yes, you read that right. I love these things, customizable to appease just about any picky palate (save the vegetarian/vegan). So easy, so delicious, so quick to make. Who wouldn't love them?! The only thing I would say to the recipe below is the cook time is off. That really depends on what your bacon needs, how thick it is, etc. I would say eye it and decide for yourself. If you're reading this post and remotely interested in making this recipe, most likely, you've eaten enough bacon in your life that you can discern between raw and cooked bacon.

*Please note: the recipe below uses blue cheese as the stuffing, I just left that all out. :D

4.5 out of 5 stars. I took off 0.5 stars because let's face it, it ain't healthy at all.

Extra tips:
-Try using pineapple or another hard fruit for the center.
-For a creamy twist, try stuffing the dates with soft cheese such as cream cheese or feta (just like the recipe below)

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Recipe found here.

Ingredients

• 1 pound sliced bacon, cut in half
• 1 pound pitted dates
• 4 ounces blue cheese

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C).
2. Slice dates in half, and open them up. Pinch off pieces of blue cheese, and place them into the center of the dates. Close the halves of the dates, and wrap a half-slice of bacon around the outside. Secure each one with a toothpick. Arrange in a baking dish or on a baking sheet with sides to catch any grease.
3. Bake for 30 to 40 minutes in the preheated oven, or until the bacon is crisp. Turn dates over after the first 20 minutes for even cooking.

Homemade Hummus Recipe

Good grief, I suck at this posting business. It's the pictures of recipes that I want to post that always slow me down. I would love to show you glossy, beautifully posed picture after picture that I've taken, but since I'm too cheap to get a cardreader, it's always an ordeal to upload pictures. So what happens? I upload pictures like once a month and who suffers? You. The nice people who take time out of their busy lives to visit this ridiculous blog. THANK YOU.

So, since we're talking about homemade lovely tahini recipes from the previous post, I thought I would post a homemade hummus recipe straight from one of my favorite foodie websites TheKitchn. (No, I did not take that picture either...sigh). Enjoy and thanks for your patience!!

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Ingredients

1 15-oz can of chickpeas, drained
1/2 of a fresh lemon, juiced
1 small clove of garlic, minced finely
2 tbsp. olive oil
3 tbsp. tahini. Note: if you don't want to buy premade tahini, here is an easy tutorial on how to make your own tahini.
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon finely ground black pepper
1 teaspoon sumac

Tools
A food processor or blender

Instructions

1. Combine all ingredients except the sumac.

2. Blend until smooth. If it is a little dry, just add a little more lemon juice or olive oil, a teaspoon at a time, until you have the desired consistency. Add more salt and pepper if you like.

3. Scrape out the hummus in a serving bowl and sprinkle the sumac on top.

4. Serve with raw veggies, or spread on some pita bread.

Other Hummus Variations:

• Try drizzling a little pomegranate molasses on top.

• Add two to three tablespoons of harissa for a little kick.

• Blend in 1 cup of roasted vegetables such as eggplant, zucchini, bell peppers, and garlic for a roasted vegetable hummus.

• For olive hummus, fold in 3/4 cup of chopped green or black olives.

• Nutty hummus is good! Try adding some lightly toasted walnuts or pine nuts.

• For a lemony hummus, add 1/4 cup of chopped preserved lemons.

Low Fat Spinach Artichoke Dip

*UPDATED 3/29/10*

Sorry for the ugly picture. I hate using flash, but it was necessary this time around. It looks a lot less runny than the recipe's picture because I used more cream cheese. At least...I think that's why. :)

*END*
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Recipe Song: Dead and Gone, audiobook by Charlaine Harris.

As part of my crazy cooking Thursday last week (I made this, the momofuku cookies from yesterday's post, as well as something else I'll post about later), I made this lovely spinach artichoke dip. Yea, the picture below isn't so appetizing, but I haven't uploaded any of my pictures from my lovely cooking last week, so you'll have to contend with that. Sorry! Muahaha.

Anyway, I had an interesting issue with this recipe. As you notice, it calls for low fat and fat free cream cheese. Well, after going to a few different grocery stores, none of which carries fat free cream cheese, I found out that hey, there's no fat free cream cheese. So I used all 1/3 less fat cream cheese and stupidly, none of those packages comes in a 6 ounce size, which angered me to say the least. It reminded me of the nonsensical way hot dogs and buns are sold. I don't eat cream cheese at home, so I just figured I'd use both blocks of cream cheese, regardless of what the recipe said.

Dang, I'm glad I wasn't baking. Cuz that wouldn't fly if I were.

So, the deal with adding more cream cheese is that I must now in turn add more of other things like sour cream and mozzarella and then---yea, I didn't. I think that was one downfall of the finished product. It was cream cheese taste heavy. So that was unfortunate. However, when it was all heated up thoroughly, it was really quite delicious. The dip is so creamy you'd never know you were missing so much fat, except that there is no unappetizing layer of oil sitting on top.

Another thing, I actually tore up the spinach and pulled all out the stems of every leaf. Huge waste of time. Next time I think I'll lightly chiffonade the spinach so I don't waste so much time hand tearing. This recipe makes a lot, so if there's only a few of you, think about cutting it in half or so.

Overall, delicious. Add some pita, chips, or bread and you're good to go.

4 out of 5 stars.

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Below from here.

Spinach and Artichoke Dip

- makes about 10 servings of about 1/2 cup each -

Adapted from Cooking Light.

Ingredients

10-ounce bag fresh spinach
6 ounces (3/4 block) 1/3-less-fat cream cheese, softened
6 ounces (3/4 block) fat-free cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup fat-free sour cream
1 1/2 cups part-skim mozzarella, shredded
1 (14-ounce) can artichoke hearts, drained and chopped
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
3 garlic cloves, crushed (not minced)
6 tablespoons shredded parmesan cheese, divided

Procedure

1. Preheat oven to 350°F.

2. Tear spinach into bite-size pieces, removing any thick stems. Rinse in a colander, leaving a little water on the leaves. In a large nonstick skillet or Dutch oven, sauté the spinach over medium heat until wilted. Drain in the colander, pushing a little of the extra water out.

3. In a large mixing bowl, combine the cream cheeses with a potato masher. Add sour cream and mash more. Add spinach, mozzarella, artichokes, pepper, garlic, and 2 tablespoons of the parmesan. Stir everything until thoroughly combined.

4. Pour mixture into a 1 1/2 quart baking dish. Sprinkle remaining 1/4 cup of Parmesan on top. Bake 30 minutes, or until parmesan is melted dip is all bubbly. Remove from oven and give it a minute or two to cool down. Serve with baked tortilla chips to applause.