MADE: Bacon-Wrapped Goat Cheese-Stuffed Dates

I usually talk a lot about the recipes that I include here before I get to the recipe itself. This time, though, I'm not going to do that. Look at the title of the post. I just looked at it and I'm salivating already.

Onwards to the recipe.

Bacon-Wrapped Goat Cheese-Stuffed Dates

Ingredients
12 oz dates, pitted
8 oz soft goat cheese
1 lb bacon, sliced and uncooked

Cooking Instructions
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
First things first--fill dates with cheese! Smush the cheese into a plastic bag and snip off a small corner. Use the bag as a pastry bag and pipe the cheese into the dates, being as generous or as stingy as you'd like.

Second--wrap the dates in bacon. Cut each bacon strip in half, and thoroughly wrap the date, as though your'e giving it a little bacon-y sweater. The bacon will shrink as it cooks, so make sure you've provided enough bacon-overlap so that this shrinkage won't unwrap your dates.
When you've done these two steps--Congrats! You're done! Pop them in the oven for twenty minutes, until they're sizzly and delightful. Then--you know what to do--DEVOUR.

Variants: These can be made with turkey bacon (the ones in the pictures are made with turkey bacon), or with a different kind of cheese. I'd like to experiment with a ricotta/gorgonzola mixture next time around. Also, if you're using turkey bacon, don't bother making the strips terribly long--they won't shrink very much at all while cooking, so you can basically just use enough to wrap fully around each date.

Upcoming: Produce Basket Week!

Hello there, food blog. Long time, no see.

Today, PresentPaula got a present from PastPaula, who ordered a coupon-funded produce box delivery several weeks ago. In a turn of events surprising to neither PresentPaula nor PastPaula, MovingThroughTimePaula completely forgot about this order, and is now pleasantly thrilled to have found a box full of veggies (and a bit of fruit!) on her doorstep.

Some of the contents include:

• A grapefruit AS BIG AS MY HEAD. Okay, that's hyperbole, but it is the biggest grapefruit I've ever possessed. Breakfast tomorrow is going to be EPIC.
• Several kiwis. (Kiwi? Kiwii? Kiwis?)
• Something resembling a squash with a sticker proclaiming it "Delicata". I do not know if this is its name or a catchy adjective describing its flavor. 
• BEETS.
• A large bulb of fennel.

The haul.

I'm incredibly excited about this stash, but I have no idea what to do with some of it (I'M LOOKING AT YOU, FENNEL). Here are my tentative plans for the week:

• Curry with radishes, tomatoes, cauliflower, and sweet potatoes
• Squash soup, with a caramelized apple and onion drizzle.
• Something involving fennel? (Meredith suggests fennel, radish, and grapefruit salad. Hmmm...)
• BEETS I WILL EAT YOU NOW.
• Roasted tomato soup, a la smittenkitchen.

I'll post pictures and recipes if I do anything noteworthy! For now, I'm just roasting the beets, chopping them, tossing them with some sea salt and nutmeg, and eating them.

BEETS. IMMUNNAEATCHOO.