Salsa

 Happy (Re-) Birthday to my blog! Em Hungry is a real website now with a registered domain name and everything, and it feels great! After 5 years of using blogger, which served me quite well, I decided to remodel and turn my hobby into a real site. I’m in the mood to celebrate, so I brought chips and salsa.

On Resolutions

I made these bacon-wrapped dates today. Though delicious, they didn’t taste exactly as I wanted them to. Part of me is determined to continue my attempts until I get the recipe just right, but this would essentially mean resolving to eat more bacon, which may or may not conflict with some of my other goals for the new year.

In short, use the recipe below as a jumping off point, and feel free to tweak as you please. Here are a few things that I would do differently on a second attempt. 1) Greatly increase the blue cheese to cream cheese ratio. I would try 75%, or maybe even 100%, blue cheese. 2) Use smaller dates. While the medjools were meaty and delicious, they somewhat overwhelmed the cheesy filling. 3) Salt the filling, if needed. I think it would depend on how much cream cheese you opt to use.

Alterations aside, these were a deliciously salty, sweet, tangy snack. The bacon crisped up beautifully in the oven, while the exposed parts of the dates got deliciously caramelized. The balsamic drizzle was inspired by a similar dish I tried in Laguna Beach, and it adds a nice acidic counterpoint to all the richness.

And since I couldn’t offer you a perfect recipe myself…

If you’re in want of any resolutions for 2016, perhaps yours could be to try one of these delicious potato recipes:

     Hasselback Potatoes from this site, or

     Cheesy Potato Cups from over here

I eat potatoes fairly often, and I enjoy having a variety of stellar preparation methods up my sleeve. And frankly, these are stellar. So click click, eat eat.

Fun Fact:

Dates are a good source of fiber and potassium, a mineral with many vital functions. Potassium is necessary for muscle contraction and works with (or rather, against) sodium to regulate blood pressure and fluid balance in the body.

Bacon-Wrapped Stuffed Dates

Medjool Dates, scored lengthwise and pitted

Cream Cheese

Blue Cheese

Smoked Bacon

Toothpicks

2 Tablespoons Brown Sugar

1 Tablespoon Water

1 – 1½ teaspoons Balsamic Vinegar

Preheat oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit. Mix equal parts cream cheese and blue cheese. Stuff 1 tsp of cheese mixture into pitted dates. Wrap ½ slice of bacon around date, and secure with toothpick. Bake on an ungreased baking sheet for 40 minutes, flipping each date halfway through, until bacon is browned and crispy. Let cool on (or over) a paper towel.

Boil the brown sugar, water, and Balsamic vinegar together until reduced and syrupy. Drizzle desired amount over the stuffed dates.

Whole Wheat Cheddar Crackers

 

There are few foods quite as delightful as really good bread and really good cheese, and anything that combines the two is likely to fill my heart with joy. These crackers come from Melissa Clark’s In the Kitchen with a Good Appetite.  They’re on the healthy side (as far as crackers go), with whole-wheat flour and not too much butter, but they pack in so much cheddar flavor that you don’t feel like you’re “being good” by eating them.  They’re also super-easy to make, with the dough coming together in minutes – perfect if you want something that feels comforting and homemade without being fussy.  In regards to fussiness, though, I will say that you want to choose a very strong-flavored cheddar.  Extra-sharp is preferable, plus entirely snack-able should you “accidentally” grate too much.

Whole Wheat Cheddar Crackers

     Adapted precious little from Melissa Clark

1 cup whole wheat flour

¼ teaspoon baking powder

4 tablespoons unsalted butter, room temperature or softened (not melted!) in the microwave

½ teaspoon salt

pinch of Cayenne pepper (or a hefty pinch if your Cayenne is over a decade old like mine)

6 ounces (about 1½ cups) shredded extra-sharp cheddar cheese, divided

Place ½ cup of the shredded cheese in the refrigerator for later use.  Mix together the flour and baking powder; set aside.  Using a mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the butter with the salt and Cayenne until combined, making sure it is smooth, with no lumps of hard butter. Add 1 cup of the cheese, and beat until the shreds are well broken up and the mixture looks somewhat homogeneous.  With the mixer running slowly, sprinkle in the flour mixture, and mix, stopping to scrape the sides and beater until combined.  (Mine looked very lumpy at this point.)  Then, run the mixer at a higher speed, beating until the dough forms a smooth mass that pulls away from the sides of the bowl.  (The recipe said this would take about 7 minutes, but mine came together in 30 seconds.  Maybe I was being overzealous with the speed dial, but the final product indicated no suffering from my speediness.)

Turn the dough out onto a sheet of plastic, and using the plastic as an aid, roll the dough into a log about 1½ inches in diameter.  Wrap it up in the plastic, and refrigerate for at least an hour or as long as overnight.

When you’re ready to bake the crackers, preheat the oven to 350 Fahrenheit, and line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper.  Take out your dough, and slice it into coins 3/16” thick.  Place the crackers on the baking sheet, and put a pinch of the reserved cheese onto each one.  Bake for about 12 minutes, or until golden brown, then turn off the oven and let them stay cozy in there for 5 more minutes.  This will help them get crisp.  Remove the crackers from the oven, and let them cool on a wire rack.

Note: these can also be made in a food processor, but I haven’t tried it myself.