Houston Chowhound

I am full. I mean Thanksgiving Day, carb coma full, and it feels nauseating, but good. Today I went to my first Houston Chowhound event. Houston Chowhound is an online group of foodies that meets for dinner and has occasional food oriented get togethers. LOVE IT. I am excited to meet food-oriented people, learn about new restaurants, and talk food. It was nice to get out. Today was a pot-luck brunch.
Before the event I thought and thought about what I wanted to make. I felt like whatever I made would in some way define me. As usual I read way to much into things because it certainly was not like that. Initially, I was going to bake a quiche from Julia's book. A frittata with goat cheese , sun-dried tomato and swiss chard sounded good. I wanted to make a statement, something different, yet traditional. Bon Appetit magazine had an article about old dishes made new, perfect. I went with bacon wrapped dates stuffed with asiago. The dish was super-easy, great finger-food, and may just be my new apertif horsdeuvres when we have company.

Perhaps the best part of the occasion was that I made them twice. I made the dates once yesterday for the event that I thought was...ummm...yesterday, and ate them pissed off on my way home in the middle of a torrential rainstorm. Than I made them again for the real brunch today. Needless to say I know where the kind woman, Shannon, who hosted, lives. It's a nice neighborhood, been there before. I swear I think when Maya and Amara were born I lost even more brain cells than I previously had. Oye.

Stuffed Dates (from Bon Appetit)
24 dates
small slices of asiago cheese from a hunk
hot smoked paprika
8 slices of applewood smoked bacon

Preheat oven to 425. Cut a small slit in each date, take out the pits and fill with the cheese. Slice each piece of bacon crosswise into thirds (3 pieces). Brush the bacon with the parika. Wrap the dates with the bacon. Have the paprika side facing in, towards the date. Attach each piece of bacon with a toothpick. Roast 6 minutes per side. Serve slightly warm with ample amounts of bubbly. Yum.