The best appetizer ever, and why I'm an idiot

So here it is. The best appetizer ever. I have a cast of characters. I have the in process photos. I have the all ready to go in the oven photo. What I don't have is a photo of the finished product. Idiot. So, you're going to have to make these yourself and see what they look like.

Ready for all the ingredients? Here we go: pitted dates, parmesan cheese, thick-cut bacon.
Yup. That's it.

Pitted dates


Parmesan cheese cut into matchsticks



Thick cut bacon cut into thirds


Here's the instructions: Take a matchstick of cheese and put it inside the date. See how the pitting makes a nice hole just waiting for cheese? Ok, blurry hole.



And here it is all filled




Then you take a piece of bacon, wrap it around the date, and stick a toothpick through it. Strictly speaking, if your bacon is long enough, you don't need the toothpick. Put it on a foil-lined baking sheet. Put it in a 350 degree oven, and bake until the bacon is cooked. Usually that's around 20 minutes.



Now, if I wasn't such an idiot, you'd have a picture here of golden crispy bacon wrapped around a sweet, chewy date with just a hint of parmesan leaking out. These are best served warm. But seriously, even if they were cold I'd eat them.

They take very well to being made ahead of time. The day or two before you need them, but them together and throw them in a plastic bag and refrigerate. Bake them as needed.

I hope that was worth the build up! Enjoy!