Dates with goat cheese and bacon

Planning a large meal can be tricky. How do you ensure that 10 or more courses all come out at the same time. It's important that you have a few dishes that you can make entirely in advance, and a few dishes that are quick and easy to make and assemble. As part of our appetizer round for our New Year's extravaganza, we whipped out an old standby. Dates with goat cheese and bacon.

This is a simple dish that has only three simple ingredients. That makes it critical that you find the highest quality ingredients you can. Dates in particular, which can readily be found in high quality in southern California, can be found stale in stores in Boston. They should be juicy and sweet. If they're dry or bitter, get new ones.

dates
goat cheese (like Bucheron)
bacon (I prefer to use homemade)

Execution is simple. Pre-heat the broiler in your oven.

Slit the dates lengthwise, and pull the date pits out. Schmear as much goat cheese into the dates. Wrap the dates with half-strips of bacon, and pin them closed with a toothpick.

Place on a cookie sheet, and bake in the oven. It takes only a few minutes for the bacon to crisp up, the cheese to soften and the dates to soften.

Serve hot.

By Bbq Dude