Orange Goat Cheese-Stuffed Dates

As some of you may know, my life revolves heavily around food (sometimes more literally than I'd like). My first business (I get to say that now that I have a second business) was a personal chef service. I loved cooking for people... until I didn't, and now I focus my enthusiastic home cookery (not to be confused with gourmet - I assure you, it is not) within my home.

My food philosophy is by and large Slow Food which is beautiful both in its activism and hedonism. I want to eat really wonderful food that's good for me and that leaves the smallest possible environmental footprint - that's why I occasionally ramble about farmers' markets which easily achieve all those thing: fresh food, minimally processed (just whatever you do to prepare it at home), grown roughly 40 miles from where it was purchased, putting money in the pockets of local farmers.

I will admit that the picking are slim at the market these days but there is great food to be had: sweet potatoes, cabbage, dark greens, hydroponic lettuce and basil and Goat Lady Dairy is even back, selling a small selection of chevre and their cow's milk Gouda, the scrumptious Jersey Girl. Oh, and eggs, Middle Eastern food (from the chefs of Zaytoon), bread, sweets, including the incomparable Alita's Southern Cakes, and flowers. Just to name some...

Which brings me to perhaps the most important part of this post: the recipe. Solaris sells an amazing bacon-wrapped date tapa (sorry, mom) which inspired me for a snack/dessert - orange goat cheese-stuffed dates. (Goat Lady Dairy goat cheese is, of course, best but you could always stir a little orange marmalade into some plain chevre.)

These are really rich so you only need two or three dates per person. Slice them lengthwise until you hit the seed - leave the other side intact. Once cut, you can pick the seed right out along with any remaining stem, if there is any. They're fibrous on the inside - don't sweat it. Spoon a little orange goat cheese into each date - 1/8 - 1/4 teaspoon - and smush the date back together. If you heat them, say in a saute pan, they would get melty which would be even more decadent but I haven't actually tried that yet... That's it - eat up.