Northwest Flavors (MattMatt's Birthday) Part II

Time for appetizers! I made 3 bacon appetizers. They were all recipes I hadn't ever tried before, and the bacon bundles definitely need more tweaking, but here they are in a nut shell...




Bacon Garlic Bread sticks


I first saw Paula Deen make these on one of her shows with her sons. I thought to myself "who would ever eat these?!" But they went perfectly with my bacon theme, and I have to say, they were delightful! No one can eat just one. I didn't actually go look up her recipe online, so her recipe might have included other things...

Bacon

Freshly grated Parmesan

Garlic Bread sticks (the hard kind!)


Cut the bacon in half in long strips. Cover the bacon with Parmesan. You can't ever have too much Parmesan! Then wrap the bacon around the bread sticks. Place bacon wrapped bread sticks on a cooling rack in a cookie sheet, so the fat drips off the bread sticks. Cook in the oven around 400ish degrees for about 10 minutes. This is a very fudge-able recipe, and if you are cooking other things you can certainly adjust the temperature to accommodate the other food you're cooking. The time it takes to cook them will change depending on the temperature.




Bacon Wrapped Dates

I'm so sad that I didn't take pictures of this appetizer. They were so good, I didn't have time to take pictures before they were gone. This recipe I've always heard about, but I'm not a big fan of bacon, and I've never liked dates/figs. This past year at a Christmas party I went to, a couple brought bacon wrapped figs for an appetizer. I took one to be polite, and was amazed to find how good they were. Here's my version:

1 package pitted dates

almonds

bacon

toothpicks

Stuff one almond into each date. (It's really easy since the dates are pitted, just put the almond into the hole the pit came out of!) Wrap each date with bacon, secure with toothpicks. Place the bacon wrapped dates onto a cooling rack, and place in a baking sheet. Cook at 400 for about 10 minutes.

Bacon Bundles

This recipe I found on the Kraft website. I followed the recipe pretty much word-for-word, and didn't think it was the greatest...but I do think it has lots of potential and next time I feel like experimenting, I'll probably work on this recipe again. For now, I'll leave you with a picture.