BACON Wrapped Dates (So Good & Easy!!) & Warming by the Fire

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Beautiful morning. >> Yep. >> Slightly cold. >> Pretty cold. >> How cold? >> It’s about 17 or 18 right now. >> Was 14 when we got up. >> So, like crazy people, me and Matt are going to go look at the creek. We’re going to go on a little walk. I want to see if the creek’s froze over. You think it is? Uh there might be a little on the sides possibly, but he ain’t frozen over much. >> We’re going to take a a very quick cold walk. >> Yeah. >> Make the loop we call it. We’re going to make the loop. What are you looking for? >> What is this? >> Oh, >> huh. This is how you know it’s really cold. Look at the laurel leaves. How they’re all curled up like cigars or something like that. Rolled up paper. Once it warms up, they’ll just go back to looking like the flat green leaves that they usually look like. It’s amazing how they’ll do this many times during a cold winter, but they’ll still be okay once they thaw out. But that’s a good way to know it’s really cold outside. But if you look out the window and see them curled up like that, that noise you can hear. We’re not far above Cory and Austin’s house. So that’s their heat pump working overtime, I guess, during this cold weather. It’s amazing to see them all like that. Look at this. Everywhere you look. Of course, we live in the land of laurel, so that’s to be expected that they’re everywhere. See where Matt’s standing above him? All those are just curled up so tight on both sides. Well, I don’t see no ice. I don’t even see no icicles. Do you? Oh, I see a little bit of ice up there. A little higher. >> Oh, yeah. You get a little closer. You can see the ice on the rocks there and some over there at the edge. There’s some pretty little ice formations. Matt saw some turkeys way up there, but I never did see them. And I probably talking scared them off. Now, this little series of the creek is real pretty. These falls moving up there behind the bridge. >> Oh, that’s see. movement. I can’t really tell. Not much ice on the creek, but a lot of the little branches are covered that are like those branches that are laying in the water there and the laurel that we already seen. They’re kind of covered in ice where it’s splashed up on them and just layer after layer formed a circle of ice around it. Heat. Heat. Well, we’ve made it back to the garden. Looking at the creek that goes by the garden now. I don’t see no eyes here either, Matt. I guess it’s not been quite cold enough for a long enough period of time, has it? See some little ice pieces over there just where the water’s edied against the leaves, but not a thick layer of ice like happens sometimes during the winter. I can remember it being so bad one time, Matt, that it was it was enough right down here actually behind Paul’s house for me and Paul to skate on. I mean, we were little. Didn’t weigh much. And it wasn’t as big as a wash tub, but we thought we could skate on it. You know, it wasn’t a big area. >> Yeah. >> I guess our cold walk has ended. >> Yep. >> Ready to head back to the wood stove? >> I am. >> Look below us, though, at those little beautiful pieces of ice. The frost. Isn’t that lovely? I don’t know if it picks up on camera, but the whole garden because it’s frosty like that is just shimmering in the sun as the sun begins to hit it. Just a thousand diamonds, ain’t it, Matt? >> Yeah. You have your knife? Crazy question, huh? >> You cut this. Every time I come down this trail, see this one big brier? Will you cut that for me? Austin kept our trail weeded good last summer, but this one brier somehow fell over and every time I walk down through here, I run right into it. Thank you. Thank you. Now I got a clear pathway. See how long Oh, it’s in the ground. But it’s still in the there. See how long it was? And every time I come down through here, I run right into it. I never had nothing to cut it with myself. On me. I should be like Matt and carry a knife. >> Huh? >> Should be like Matt and carry multiple knives. >> Yeah, I should be like Matt and carry multiple knives. Wood stove always feels good, but especially when you’ve been out on a cold morning like this morning. It was pretty cold, wasn’t it? >> It is. >> My hands are frozen. And we wasn’t out there long at all. That was a very, very short walk. I was just anxious to see if since it was so cold, if the creek had frozen, but I guess it takes several days of that cold to actually make it freeze. The ice we did see though was pretty. That make you uh work up an appetite? >> Yeah. Everything makes me work my appetites. >> Yeah. >> You don’t getting out of the chair works up your appetite, doesn’t it? >> My appetite is ever present. >> Well, how would you like for me to go make you something really tasty? A surprise. >> That would be great. >> Really good. Something yummy. >> Oh, yeah. might even have a cup of hot chocolate to go with it. >> Be nice. >> So, it’s supposed to be this cold again for the next few mornings, but warm up during the daytime. >> It’s not going to be as cold. It’s but it’s going to quickly warm up during the during the days this week dramatically. Okay. uh the 50s, upper 50s. So, >> okay. >> Well, I’m glad we brave the cold then and embrace that cold and makes you feel good to have that fresh air. >> It’s good for you breathe in that cold air. >> Yeah, it was nice. I’d like to have kept walking. Of course, I got colder and colder, but being nice. But I’ve got to go to the post office. Matt’s got stuff he’s got to do. But at least we snuck off for a little while. >> Yep. >> And now I’m going to go up and make you something really tasty that you’re going to be surprised. Total surprise. So don’t come up till I call you. >> You may have to come get me cuz I may be napping next to stove. >> You and your buddy that’s meowing here. >> Yeah. He ain’t going to let you nap. He’ll He’s like that boy. If you try to take a nap, he makes sure that he puts an end to that. >> Yeah. >> Ain’t been a nap in this house in 30 years for me anyway. >> I tell Matt if you want a nap, you have to go somewhere and lock the door. That’s how you take a nap. It’s the only way you’re going to get it. That’s it. >> Yeah. >> You could go You could go take your sleeping bag and go out there to your shed and get on the loft. >> Yeah. I don’t believe I’ve got enough sleeping bag for that the way it is today. In >> fact, I know I don’t. >> Pretty cold. >> What you want, buddy? Huh? >> You want somebody to pet him? He’s going to your place. So, that’s where he wants Yeah. He wants me to get over and assume the position. >> Yeah. Okay, what I want to surprise Matt with is some bacon wrapped dates. We never had these. We do love dates. You see, we buy them by the big packs. We all love them. They’re like a If you’ve never had a date, they’re so sweet. They’re like eating candy. Ira loves them, too. Uh, so we all enjoy dates, but we never had them cooked anyway. We just eat them like that. Now, I might have had them like in a in a cake, like thinking of like a um you know, like a spice cake or something like that. that they might have raisins or dates or something like that, but I never eat them cooked like this until my nephew Mark, his wife Maddie, brought them to Thanksgiving. And so it’s you take a date and you put goat cheese in it. I guess you could use other cheeses if you don’t like it like goat cheese, but you might want to worry about if it was one that just melt it out. I don’t know. But she used goat cheese, so that’s what I’m going to use. And then wrap it in bacon. So, you’ve got the sweet, you’ve got that little tangy of the goat cheese, and then you’ve got the bacon. It was so good. They were I mean, they were just such a hit. They were delicious. They were so good. So, I’ve never made them, and she’s told me how to do it, but she didn’t give exact details cuz it is so simple. But, you know me, I have to I’m a rule follower. So, I looked up a bunch of different recipes. And some people cut their bacon in half and only use half a strip. Some people put toothpicks in it and then they turn them. I don’t know. It’s a lot of variations. Just like any recipe, you you know, you have to find what works best for you. So, I’m just going to see what happens and see how I like it. I think I don’t know if these have First, I’m going to try to cut one of my dates open here. I think that they’ve still got the pit in them. So, I’ll have to get that out. So, and I’ve got that out. And so, now here’s the date. These are really pretty big dates, but here’s the goat cheese. and Ira and Woodro both love goat cheese. I guess it’s because they both, you know, um couldn’t have cow’s milk, couldn’t have regular milk. So, I guess that’s why. So, they both have a taste for the the kind of um tangy tartness of things. They love also love crowd. Okay. Now, do I cut my bacon in half or not? Let’s cut one in half and just see what I think about how many times it goes around. That was another thing I read about was that it was kind of hard to keep them from burning. One person even said they cook their bacon like a little bit in the oven and then get it out and let it cool and then wrap them. But I don’t want to do that. Okay. So, I think that wrapped it almost twice. I think I’m going to go with cutting it in half. Let’s see. Let me do another one. It’s just such a such an easy recipe. And you know, if you’re being health conscious, it’s kind of health healthy, I guess, cuz you got the goat cheese and the dates, the bacon. I don’t know about that. But of course, we eat a lot of bacon, too. I’m making a mess with the goat cheese. Some of the other cheeses I saw just when I was looking at the recipes that people used was feta and blue cheese. And maybe I seen somebody using cream cheese. There goes my oven. So, okay, I’m going to I’ve done got this bacon out. So, I’m at least going to make this many. But they were such a hit hit. Everybody loved them. And it’s kind of a easy little thing to put together. I guess it’s this is the time consuming part. There’s probably a better I got a knife and I got a little spoon. There’s probably a better way to stuff it than what I’m doing, but this works. Okay. Okay. But Matt especially liked them. Now, when I was looking at all those recipes, and y’all can tell me because you maybe had them before, had this before. A lot of people made like a dipping sauce to go with them or they after they come out of the oven, they pour the sauce on them. Maddie didn’t do either of those, but um I can see how that would just add to it. Like, and some people said they just drizzled them with honey when they come out. I’m not I don’t think I’m going to do any of that cuz the date is so sweet. It seems like now that I’m thinking about it, Maddie said that. She said you can you can add stuff to it, but the you know the date is just so sweet. You really don’t need to add anything else. I didn’t need to get this big of a pan out probably, but oh well. I already already did. And that date didn’t have a have a pit in it. I don’t remember. We’ve been eating dates for years and I never ate them growing up. I didn’t even know what a date was. If you asked me, I probably would have said, “I don’t like it. I don’t want it.” Even though I hadn’t had it. I was picky. But um I think it was Corey that started eating them. And she got the rest of us to eat them. And of course once I tasted them, I’m like, “Well, that’s just like candy. It’s kind of like pimmens are so sweet like that. It’s the same for the dates. They’re just so sweet. Just like eating a really rich candy bar. So, when I was looking at the recipe, lots of varying uh opinions or suggestions about how hot to bake them. A lot of people said 350. I can’t really remember what Maddie said. I should have wrote down what she said, but I did see somebody that said or several people that said 400°. So, I’m going to try at 400 and just see if it cooks up quickly that way. Okay, try this one. Think I’m going to be one date. Let’s see. Is that one piece of bacon? Yeah, I need one more. I’m probably just going to make these few and then we’ll see how this it works out. If I should have used a whole piece of bacon or if I should have um cooked them at a lower temperature and I can make some more. I hear Matt coming. I think maybe we’ll look in here. I need one more day. My hands are all dirty. I’ll just grab one. I wasn’t mad. It was Katie. Interestingly, when I was looking at all the different recipes and just online trying to find it, I saw one person said that um those little pits that I’m getting out that you could actually grind them up and eat them if you wanted to. that they had a lot of fiber and maybe some I think they said they had oil in them. So you could do that and then also you could plant them if you wanted to grow a whatever kind of tree a date palm tree. I’m not going to do neither one though. Okay, how many did I end up with? One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight. Four a piece, which I can’t eat four of them. They’re too rich. But Matt might be able to. Let me wash my hands. Okay, I’m going to put them in the oven. I’ve got it on 400. And I’m going to let them cook about six minutes. And then I’m going to flip them over and let them cook, I don’t know, four or five more minutes. I don’t want them to get too hard, but of course, you want the bacon to be done, too. So, we’ll see how it turns out. I just got them out of the oven. It took way longer than what I I thought it would. You can see that’s the how the one side looks like this one. I can’t see what I’m doing for the camera. Sorry. That one you can see the bottom of it. So, in one way it looks like they could do a little bit cook a little bit more, but I’m not going to cook them anymore cuz I don’t want them to get too hard. But it took way longer than what I thought it would. So, I thought it would take like about 5 minutes on each side or something like that. So, I started out at 5 minutes, but really I cooked them about 15 minutes on one side and then I turned them over and cooked them about 5 minutes. Part of that would depend on your oven, you know, and what temperature. Like I said, some people suggested cooking them at 350. I I went up to 400. Maybe I could have went up to 425 or something. And then also, you know, how done you want your bacon, I guess, is part of it. But I think I’m going to leave them just like they are. I’ve cut us up an orange here. Wonderful sweet subscriber. Uh Lana sent us some oranges from uh not from Florida, from Georgia. So they are delicious. They are really really sweet. Really sweet. So that was very very kind of her. We’ve been enjoying them. I’ve been eating one about every day. So we’ve got the wonderful date wrapped bacon here, the orange, and I’m warming us up some hot chocolate. And then I’m going to call Matt up. This can be our our nice little dinner for today. Are you wondering what this is? >> Yeah. >> Look what I made you. >> You know what they are? Some of Maddiey’s. >> My goodness. >> And I cut you up an orange and I got you some hot chocolate. How’s that for dinner? I don’t know. Do you want a fork or you want to just pick it up and eat it? >> I can eat my finger. That’s I was uh born doing that. We do still have our Thanksgiving napkins though. That’s okay. I didn’t know if you wanted a fork or not. >> Are they hot? >> That’s why I’m Yeah, I’m afraid they’re hot. So that’s why I was going to get a fork. >> They’re really hot. >> Very good, >> boy. I never even heard of these till the other day. >> Me neither. Those >> are good. >> Once I started looking for the recipe or looking at all the recipes online though, it’s a very common popular thing for appetizers. >> It just takes a while for new ideas to get back into sticks. You know, we are I guess. >> Mhm. >> Man, that’s good. >> Mhm. >> Very good. If it’s got bacon on it, I’ll eat it. >> You think that bacon is cooked enough? >> I think so. >> Mhm. >> It just took longer to cook than I thought it would, but I think it’s okay. >> Mhm. >> Mhm. I think it’s actually perfect. >> Very good. Now, the ones that Maddie brought, of course, she’d had to travel from my brother and sister-in-law’s house, so they were not hot. They were room temperature, but they were good. They were still delicious. We all was just raving over them. >> They were really good still. >> Well, this has been a nice little day, hasn’t Matt? >> Now, we got to face real life. Or I do. Matt’s already been working. And I got to go package up a bunch of stuff. Thank you all for buying so much stuff. We appreciate it so much. I got to pack cookbooks and CDs and Opal books. Dear sweet opal calendars. Our calendars are back in stock for 2026. So, I got to go do that and head off to the post office. But this has been nice. >> Oh, yeah. This is >> We had a >> excellent >> Yeah. Matt likes this better than the cold walk. Well, I’ve been doing cold walks all day. >> Yeah, right. You’re not impressed with that. You’ve been out in the cold with the u with the deer hunting. You’ve been out doing that. So, these are good, ain’t they? >> Gosh. Yeah. >> To be so easy. I mean, just so simple. >> One thing you could do though, >> what >> if you ain’t careful, you bite into that too hot, that date will stick to the top of your mouth and it’ll be >> bad. Mhm. That is true. >> But they are good more. >> And this one I’m eating, I don’t even taste the goat cheese. >> No, I don’t. >> Cory’s um said she did she would like them if they didn’t have goat cheese in them. I’m like, I can’t even really taste it. >> Even in the ones Maddie brought, I didn’t really taste it. >> Delicious, huh? >> We hope you enjoyed spending time with us this morning on this cold day, cold Christmas day. It’s not really Christmas, but it’s the Christmas holiday during this time. I like to think about Christmas. We’ve got our house all decorated, beautiful. It’s cozy and nice. We hope you’re cozy and nice where you’re at. And we’re always happy when you come by to help us celebrate Appalachia. >> And oranges is good. >> Those are so good. Okay, I got some goat cheese in that bite cuz it’s not overpowering. Those oranges are just so good. >> Yeah. So the hot chocolate, >> huh? >> So does this. >> That’s the recipe I took to church. >> It’s good. >> It got ready in time. It got hot enough to melt all the chocolate. The only problem was just nobody much drunk it, so I brought it home. >> That’s a good thing. >> Yeah. How do you get the goat cheese inside the date? >> To cut it open. >> Oh, with >> just a little knife. >> I just split it open and then wrapped it back up. >> These have pits in them, so I to get the pit out anyway. When I looked up the recipes, I see a lot of people have variations. Some people put like an almond in it. That’d be all right. But some people put garlic. >> Oh, yeah. >> That’d be good, wouldn’t it? Mm. Oh, >> that would be good in it. What? A little a little chunk of deer tenderlo. >> Mhm. >> That has been rarely grilled. >> Mhm. >> Slice that and put it in there with the goat cheese and then wrap it up. Oh, that’d be good. Be >> good, too. It’d have to be little, but that would be mighty good. Mhm. Well, I’m going to go package stuff. I’m going to set these right here. You’re welcome. >> I knew you’d like that surprise. Oh, >> sure. Mhm. Neat thing is too, it’s such an easy. You just make a little at a time. >> Mhm. It’s really, really good. >> Shall I take one to Katie? >> Sure. I’m going to clean up and go package my stuff. Okay.