Stuffed Medjool Dates

I picked up 1lb of Medjool dates at the Alemany Farmer's Market, 4oz of gorgonzola cheese and a block of cream cheese at whole foods, stuffed them and added some thins I had in the pantry like almonds, walnuts and bacon and had a nice appetizer to bring to a dinner party last night. Here is the recipe I used:

1lb of Medjool dates (cost-$2.50)
4oz gorgonzola (~5.00)
1oz cream cheese (.20. The whole block was $1.39)
Additions: 2 slices bacon ( I used the microwave bacon, although the real stuff is better), almonds, walnuts,etc.

Mix the gorgonzola and cream cheese together until creamy. If you let it come close to room temperature this is much easier t do. Separate small amounts into separate bowls and add in your "additions." Example bacon in one bowl, walnuts in another,etc. Do not do this with the almonds unless you are using crushed almonds.

Pit your dates one of two ways: slice off the top and pull the pit out or slice down the side and pull the pit out.

Put one of your cheese mixtures into a pastry bag or a plastic baggie (cut off the tip to create a homemade pastry bag) and pipe in the cheese mixture. For the almond version I pipe in the cheese and stick an almond in at the end. Pitting from the end provides much better presentation for the almond version.

I put them all into a microwave safe bowl and pop them into the microwave for about 1 minute prior to serving. Just enough to warm them through but not cook them. It is not necessary to heat them up but I think the sweetness of the date and salt of the cheese blend better with a little heat. Serve immediately after heating. If you have large dates you can cut in half before serving which yields about 70 pieces.

Total cost for about 35-70 pieces (depending on whether or not you halve the dates...7.70-10.00 which varies with the price of your additions.

Farmer's Market Fall Savings

I visit the Alemany Farmer's market every Sat. here in San Francisco and I know I spend very little but this week I actually kept track. Pictured are all of my buys and prices listed below:
Lemon grass, 4 stocks-$1
Walnut Blue cheese artisan loaf of bread-$3.75
Potatoes, lemon and red pepper-$2.70
5 persimmons-$3
Fennel-$1
Japanese cucumbers, 2-$.80
Cilantro, zucchini and 2 onions-$1.25
Jar of wild flower honey -$4.95
Grand Total-$18.45

Dog toys out of old clothes

We were going through and getting rid of old socks and other articles of clothing that had holes in them and were headed for recycling when our dog went for one of the socks to play his tug of war game and I decided to braid the socks together to create a new toy. I then took some boxers, shirt and t-shirts and cut them into strips, braided them together and voila, another tug-of-war toy!