Baked Figs with Bacon, Cheese, and Roasted Nuts - MAKE THIS!

This is NOT a recipe blog.  I think that is quite apparent in that, of the 445 entries I have written here, there are only a couple of recipes that appear…  But guys, I have one that I have to share!  You are going to thank me for it (if you make the dish that is).

  

The baked FIGS in the foreground is what you need to make!

But first, a little bit of background.

I like to call David and I “Urban Farmers”.  We live in an urban area, but have a coveted corner lot, meaning YARD SPACE!!  We choose to fill that yard space with STUFF TO EAT – that is, growing fruit and veggies.  We grow these items at our Virginia home:

·         Pears

Pear "in the wild" on our tree!

      ·         Peaches (on a tree named Peachy, naturally!)

Sometimes it is temping to eat peaches right off the tree, but it is best to wait until they are full grown and ripe...

·         Blueberries (this is not true anymore, because we let the bushes get taken over by weeds and strangled, but we WILL grow blueberries again, I swear…)

Don't tell the neighbors, but one year I picked the 1st blueberries of the season on my
birthday before I even had a shower and got dressed!

·         Strawberries (in an old pallet I turned into a strawberry patch!)

This was taken the first year I put in the "strawberry pallet garden" - it is more lush now

·         Figs (on a tree given to us by a stranger who came to our yard sale one year and complimented our peach tree, then went home and came back with the gift of a small fig tree he grew!  We have named it Pudding and it is thriving in our yard!)

PUDDING!  She is loaded with figs this year.  They turn brown when they are ripe.

·         Tomatoes

This is the tomato we had for dinner the night we made the fig recipe, deeelicious

·         Eggplant (pretty striped ones this year, from a plant gifted to us by a kind neighbor)

Produce from the garden, including an eggplant, from last year.  I don't have a
picture of the pretty striped one yet!

·         Hot Peppers

·         Green peppers

·         Lettuce

·         Basil (which did not make it this year…  We were not in town to tend the garden, and the automatic watering system we set up took care of a great crop of WEEDS where it should have been nurturing basil…)

Our annual PESTO MAKING DAY a few years ago - loads and loads of basil!  

·         Parsley (which, sadly, suffered the same fate as the aforementioned basil)

And at our “get-away” beach house in Florida, we grow:

·         Myer Lemons*

·         Persian Limes*

·         Tangerines*

·         Honeybells*

·         Grapefruit*

Farmer Dave with TRIXIE, the magical fruit cocktail tree

·         Papaya (The tree, named Shania, was grown from a SEED!  Our neighbor Carol sprouted several and gave us one.  It has grown really well, but sadly, hers all died…  Awkward…)

Farmer Dave with Shania

Papayas on the tree

·         Bananas (these are actually on a tree that is between our house and our neighbor’s.  We didn’t plant it, but I am not sure they did either…  It maybe just magically sprung up.  And the house is  rental, and just got rehabbed and flipped, so let’s face it, whoever ends up renting it is not gonna know if those bananas are theirs or ours, so I think it is fair that we try and eat a few, don’t you?)

Don't bananas on the tree look BIZARRE??

*All the tropical fruits listed above with an *ASTERISK* grow on ONE TREE – a magical tree we have named Trixie the Fruit Cocktail Tree!  She is a “hybrid”, growers grafted branches of different fruit trees onto one trunk.  The end results is, voila, TRIXIE!!!

The reason I have given you all of this background on our “farms” comes down to this:  FOOD TASTES BETTER WHEN YOU GROW IT YOURSELF!!!  No lie.  That’s not “fake news”, it is true, man!!!  An heirloom tomato picked, washed, sliced, and gobbled up is the best part of summer really.

So now that we are back in Virginia and settling back into “real life”, we are reaping what we sowed.  And boy is it yummy!!!  So, for dinner the other night, we cooked:  couscous (we did not grow this…) topped with mushrooms and garlic (we also did not grow those), eggplant (from the garden, sliced and cooked in the George Foreman grill), an amazing tomato (from the garden of course) sliced and served with salt, baby broccoli (broccolini) (from Trader Joe’s – reviewed here: Baby Broccoli Review and cooked with olive oil, juice from a Meyer Lemon from our tree, and TJ's Umami Sauce (not yet reviewed) ) and an AMAZING FIG RECIPE David found online!  And that finally brings me to the point of this piece:  YOU NEED TO MAKE THIS RECIPE!

Our dinner plate - the figs were the STARS!

David found the recipe on a website called whiteonricecouple.com. 

Baked Figs with Bacon, Blue Cheese, Roasted Nuts

Serves 4   Total time 30 minutes

Ingredients:

·         About 8 fresh figs, cut lengthwise in half (ours were from our fig tree, of course!)

·         4 slices cooked bacon, cut into small pieces (3 slices was enough for us, and we used the world’s most amazing bacon, from TJ’s of course, reviewed here: Black Forest Ham Review  )

·         3 – 4 ounces blue cheese or goat cheese, softened and crumbled (we used our favorite feta we have found outside of Greece, TJ’s feta in brine, reviewed here:  Feta in Brine Review )

·         2 Tablespoons finely chopped roasted nuts (pecans, walnuts, hazelnuts, etc) (we used some amazing praline pecan bit we scored at “Peach World” in Georgia recently)

·         2 Tablespoons honey

Directions:

·         Pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees.  Line a sheet pan with parchment paper.

·         Place cut figs on the lined sheet pan.  If any of the figs do not sit level, make a small flat cut across the bottom of the fit so that it sits flat when you add the toppings. 

·         Top the figs with the crumbled cheese and bacon.  Press the nuts into the cheese to help keep them from falling off.  (Note from Chef David – also try pressing the BACON into the cheese to keep it from falling off.)

·         Bake the figs for 10 -15 minutes or until they are soft, or to your desired texture, and the cheese is melted.  After removing from the oven, drizzle with honey.

·         Enjoy the figs warm or at room temperature.  Serve as an appetizer or spread them on toasted bread.  Serve with your favorite glass of wine (we served them with a lovely Trader Joe’s white wine, Monique (not yet reviewed).

You guys – MAKE THIS.  It is fast and simple, but amazing!!  So delicious!!!  It tastes (and looks) like something you would pay $40 for at some fancy schmancy restaurant, only you make it in your own kitchen and then watch crap reality tv while eating it!!  Perfect!

Enjoy these last few days of summer.  The seasons are changing far too quickly for my liking, but I will keep eating garden tomatoes and pretending it is still summer for as long as I can. 

TO SUMMER!!!