From the archives, first posted April 21, 2009.  This is one of our most popular posts and one of my favorite appetizers.  Easy and always a crowd pleaser, it’s a great one to have in your back pocket as we approach the holiday season.

We first had bacon-wrapped dates at a tapas place we like in Menlo Park, Iberia.  The service can be spotty, but the food is delicious, and the sangria is deadly.  They stuff their bacon-wrapped dates with Spanish-style chorizo.  It makes a great combination of spicy, sweet, and salty.  Here, we subbed the chorizo for Campo de Montalban cheese (similar to manchego) and an almond.  I tossed the almonds with olive oil, salt, cayenne pepper, and smoked paprika to add that spicy note, and I like the addition of the creaminess of the cheese.  It’s a great fusion of flavors, and a wonderful appetizer.

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• Cheese Date Biscuits
• Cheese Straws

Bacon-Wrapped Stuffed Dates

We’ve tried these with Medjool dates, but they are a bit too sweet and moist. We like them better with more readily available (and cheaper) California dates.

20 pitted dates
20 blanched almonds
10 pieces of bacon
1/4 c cheese, such as manchego, Campo de Montalban, or goat cheese, in small chunks
cayenne pepper
smoked paprika
olive oil
salt

Preheat oven to 350 F.

Optional: Toss almonds with a bit of olive oil, salt, cayenne pepper, and paprika. Don’t shirk on the spices; you want the flavor to come through in the final product. Toast for a few minutes, until barely beginning to brown. Let cool.

Stuff the dates with one almond and a few small chunks of the cheese. (You can probably just use the holes in each end of the date instead of cutting slits in them.)  Wrap each date in a half slice of bacon, and secure the ends with toothpicks.

Place the dates on a broiler pan.  Bake at 350 for about 5 minutes, turn, and bake for another 5 minutes or so, until the bacon is crispy.  Serve warm.

I don’t know about you, but now that it’s November, I’ve got Thanksgiving on my mind. I usually don’t plan ahead enough to actually share my Thanksgiving recipes this early, but I have a few Thanksgiving recipes from last year that I never got around to sharing, so in a way, I’m so late that I’m actually ahead! Didn’t get a great picture of the corn pudding last year (and it’s not the most photogenic of dishes anyway), but it’s that dish front and center in this post of my plate from last year.

Corn pudding is always one of my very favorite parts of Thanksgiving. It is super easy, but for some reason we never fix it except at Thanksgiving, which makes it extra special. Last year, I doubled the original recipe for only the six of us, and there still wasn’t very much leftover, so it’s always a hit.

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I think this was probably Matt’s favorite of all the recipes we tested for Jess’s cookbook. And if you know how much Matt likes brownies, maybe that shouldn’t be surprising. On the other hand, what you may not know is that Matt loves brownies made from a box mix, but generally doesn’t really like brownies made from scratch. Invariably, they are too cakey, too chocolatey, too gooey, too something, and if he wants a treat, he’d rather you pull out the Betty Crocker box (or he’ll do it himself and hopefully learn from his mistakes and not forget to add one of the eggs and the water again … yes that’s right, Matt added only one egg and the oil to a box of brownie mix one time … not pretty). But these brownies from Julie Badger even Matt enjoyed, so I think they’re a keeper. I think the key may have been the secret ingredient spoonful of peanut butter. They really don’t come out tasting very peanut buttery, but I think it does just add that extra something.

Julie Badger’s Brownies

3 oz. unsweetened chocolate
1 1/2 c. sugar
3 eggs
3/4 cup flour
1/4 teaspoons salt
6 Tablespoons butter or margarine
1 ½ teaspoon vanilla
Large spoonful of creamy peanut butter (1/3 to 1/2 cup)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Coat 9” square cake pan with Pam.

Melt chocolate and butter over low heat. Stir in sugar, eggs, flour, salt, and vanilla. Add peanut butter if desired.

Spread in pan and bake 30 – 40 min. until dry on top and almost firm to touch. Do not overbake.

Like the Irish Cream Poundcake from a few weeks ago, Katrin Baker shared this recipe with me for me to add to Jessica’s cookbook.  She thinks it may have originally come from Cooking Light.  It was another one of Matt’s and my favorites of the ones we made.  I always love risotto, and the roasted tomatoes that go with this would also be delicious on their own, or in bruschetta, for instance.  Enjoy!

Risotto with Fresh Mozzarella, Roasted Tomatoes, and Basil

Adapted from Katrin Baker, possibly originally from Cooking Light

⅓ cup balsamic vinegar
4½ cups fat-free, less-sodium chicken broth
1 Tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
2 cups chopped onion
1½ cups Arborio rice or other medium-grain rice
⅓ cup dry white wine
¼ cup half-and-half
1 teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
roasted tomatoes (recipe follows
¼ cup chopped fresh basil
5 oz. fresh mozzarella cheese, finely diced

Place vinegar in a small, heavy saucepan; bring to a boil over medium heat. Cook until slightly syrupy (about 4 minutes). Set aside.

Bring the broth to a simmer in a medium saucepan (do not boil). Keep warm

Heat 1 tablespoon oil in a large saucepan over medium-high heat. Add onion; sauté 3 minutes or until tender. Add rice; cook 2 minutes, stirring constantly. Stir in wine, and cook 1 minute or until the liquid is nearly absorbed, stirring constantly. Stir in 1 cup broth; cook 5 minutes or until the liquid is nearly absorbed, stirring constantly. Reduce heat to medium. Add the remaining broth, ½ cup at a time, stirring constantly until each portion of broth is absorbed before adding the next (about 25 minutes total). Stir in half-and-half, salt, and pepper; cook 2 minutes. Remove from heat; stir in basil and cheese.

Place about 1 cup risotto evenly into 6 shallow serving bowls, and drizzle each with ½ teaspoon balsamic syrup and roasted tomatoes.

Roasted Cherry Tomatoes

1 teaspoon coarse salt
½ teaspoon freshly ground peppe
4 sprigs fresh oregano, rosemary, or thyme

Preheat oven to 425 degrees

Put tomatoes, herbs, oil, salt, and pepper into a large bowl; toss to combine. Spread mixture on a rimmed baking sheet.

Roast until tomatoes begin to collapse, about 30 minutes. Let cool completely; serve at room temperature.

Another recipe I received when putting together Jessica’s cookbook, from her mom, Julie Badger. This is a great and easy side dish. We often make some version of this with whatever vegetable we have on hand. And of course, it was a great accompaniment to Swedish meatballs.

Oven Roasted Green Beans with Garlic
from Julie Badger

1 lb. fresh green beans
1 cup sliced onion
4 cloves fresh garlic
1 Tablepsoon olive oil
1 Tablespoon balsamic vinegar

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Spray 13”x9” baking pan with Pam.

Rinse beans and trim ends. Add beans and sliced onion rings to pan. Peel garlic, cut cloves in half, and scatter over onions. Drizzle olive oil over vegetables and add salt and pepper to taste

Bake uncovered for 30 minutes, stirring briefly every 10 minutes.

Remove from oven, add vinegar, and stir. Serve hot or at room temperature.