I hope you had a fun holiday. Mid-week kind of took some of the fun out of it for me, hopefully you were lucky enough to have an extra day or two off. I’ve definitely been taking time off from blogging as it is the busy season at work. That’s why I’m always so grateful when someone sends in a recipe. It is always fun to see what someone else is cooking and makes my life as a blogger just a bit easier.

This one turned up in a conversation during last week’s recipe exchange thread, from Valdivia. As soon as I saw her talking about these, I requested the recipe. It sounds amazing and I can’t wait to try it. So thank you Valdivia for sending this along:

Stuffed Dates Wrapped in Bacon

Ingredients

• 30-40 medjool dates
• Spanish chorizo for slicing (I use this one, but in a pinch you can use any sausage, just not too spiced up and spicy), sliced into portions that will to fit into the date, exact thickness will depend on the size of your dates (I often split each chorizo slice into two)
• one package of bacon, cut bacon slices into two
• toothpicks/woodpicks to hold the date together

Preparation

1. Open up the date by cutting along the side, enough to take out the pit and open the date to stuff it with chorizo
2. insert a portion of chorizo, close the date around it
3. wrap stuffed date with slice of bacon (depending on length of the bacon slice, it should wrap around the stuffed date one and a half times)
4. keep the bacon-wrapped stuffed date together by inserting a toothpick
5. once all the dates are assembled, put a frying pan large enough to hold at least half of the dates in the fire with enough oil (I use canola, but it can be anything that does not have a strong flavor) at high temperature. when the oil starts to bubble, place the dates and fry them until the bacon becomes crisp
6. remove and place on a plate with some paper towels (to remove some of the oil) and before transferring to a serving platter.

Be prepared to die once you taste them

Variations

1) If you don’t want to have a pork overload, you can stuff the dates with Cabrales (or any other blue cheese) or Manchego or Roncal cheese for a sturdier assembly

2) you can also prepare this in the oven. Oven preheated to 400F, place dates in a baking sheet and cook between 10-15 minutes until bacon is crisp (might be more time)

Again thanks Valdivia and remember you can send me recipes to post whats4dinnersolutions@live.com (or just click on the email TaMara link on the right).  Pictures are welcome, too.