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!!!

Day 208 - Fig Bites

Let’s put this on the table from the get-go – these seem to be the Trader Joe’s version of Fig Newtons.  I propose a new name – FAUX NEWTON.  Don’t you think it is great?  Or or or!  Wait.  They could go with “Fewton”.  YES!  Fewton.  I like calling stuff that is copying other stuff the name of the thing, but replacing the first letter with an “F” (for “faux”).  It works well in this instance, no??  So for the remainder of this review, I will call these Fewtons (though if you go into a TJ’s to buy them, look for a bag that says Fig Bites, cuz the corporate office might not have had time to read this review, redesign packaging, recall all the bags with the old dumb name on them, and replace them with the shiny new FEWTON bags!!!).

This is the current bag - before Corporate reads and implements my great new name

So, I had never had a Fewton before, nor had I had what I presume is it’s name sake, a Fig Newton.  I always thought I would not like Fig Newtons, so like an idiot, I didn’t bother to TRY them.  Seriously, don’t NOT EAT something because you THINK you will not like it.  Only a three year old should do that.  Go ahead and TASTE it.  Then, if you really DO NOT LIKE IT, don’t eat more of it.  But for goodness sakes at least taste it!

So I thought Fig Newtons would be yucky, and I didn’t try them.  For 49 years.  In fact, I never had a FIG until last year!  A guy gave us a little tiny sprig of a fig tree the year before that, and we planted it, and it grew, and wouldn’t you know it it gave us real live figs!  And we ate them.  And they were delicious!  (Note:  there are small green figs on the tree now!  Not ready for eating yet, but aren’t they cute??)

Our adorable figs growing on Pudding, our fig tree.

I think my assumed dislike of Fig Newtons maaaay have gone back to my mother.  I remember hearing her tell the story of working in a Fig Newton plant in Omaha, Nebraska when she was pregnant with me.  The smell of cookies and figs and the heat, on top of her morning sickness, got to be too much, and she simply could not make another Fig Newton so had to quit.  So you see, I came about my distrust of Fig Newtons very organically.  You could say it was genetic!!  (FACT CHECK – I checked in with my two older sisters before publishing this review, and they have corrected my version of the story.  My mother was pregnant with my oldest sister, not me, when she worked in the Fig Newton plant.  But I prefer my version of the story, so let’s stick with that.)

Old school photo of my mom, wasn't she beautiful?

But back to the Fewtons.  Like I said, I have never had a Fig Newton, so I cannot actually compare this TJ’s Fewton to the cookie I presume it is a replica of.  It LOOKS just like the Fig Newtons I have seen.  But to do a taste test, well you will have to do that yourself.

Four Fewtons on a little plate

I can tell you that the Fewton is good!  I was surprised how “unsweet” it was.  The little cookie/cake “wrapper” thing around the fig paste is very neutral tasting.  And the figs are figgy tasting, but not really sweet.  The first one I ate I found to be a bit bland.  But after the 2^nd, and 3^rd, I realized I like them!  They are interesting.  They go well with coffee.  Would be a nice pairing with tea.  You can eat a couple mid afternoon for a pick me up without feeling guilty.  They are nice for breakfast.  Fewtons are cool!

Even the signage doesn't say "Just like Fig Newtons!!" :)

One thing I would recommend (besides the official name change) is a packaging update.  The Fewtons want to be soft.  And the current packaging makes it tricky to reclose them after they are opened.  We have rigged up a big clippy to try and hold the bag shut, but it is tough to get it to stay on.  Trader Joe’s needs to design a package with a zip top seal for these cookies.

Price -$1.99

Rating -3.75