Hot Dates

 

 

First off, let me apologize for this picture.  These are truly delicious, but there's just no way to make them look appetizing on film. This was picture #62 and I HAD to move on to other things! Like eating them...lol

That being said...

This is so simple it really isn't a recipe at all.  It's a dried, pitted date wrapped in bacon.  Like pigs in a blanket...only this time, the pig IS the blanket!
Their hot salty sweetness is perfect with cocktails before dinner.  Bacon, booze, and tiny snacks...does it get any better than that??

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1 canister dried, pitted dates
1 pound bacon
Cajun seasoning (I use Tony Chacheri's)
broiler pan

raw, assembled, and ready to broil

Take the pound of bacon out of the package and cut it in half.  If you have regular bacon, one half will be lean and the other will be fatty.  (Depending on how fatty the 2nd half is, I don't use it.  Freeze it to make bacon grease for other recipes in the future and only use the "lean" part). 

So now you have halved pieces of bacon.  Wrap a date in each one by rolling it up and laying it seam side down on your broiler pan.  When you've finished, sprinkle the top with Cajun seasoning.

Turn on the broiler.  Broil until bacon is no longer raw and as crisp as you want it.  (Broiling is quick and sometimes dangerous, and I always do it with the oven cracked open so I can keep an eye on it!)

When crisp enough for you, take out and place on a plate.  Serve hot.

(should make approx. 20 hors doeuvres)

so cute on a cocktail plate