Bacon and Date Scones

Paul took my list and went to the grocery store the other day. Yay....although I can tolerate grocery shopping, I really dislike shopping altogether. I have come to accept grocery shopping as a necessity but am really happy to not have to do it once in awhile. Paul took the list, so that means that he has to decode my writing. And that's how we ended up with a container of dates.

I thought that my scawl..."DW deterg" was pretty clear so I was expecting him to come home with dishwasher detergent, but he thought it was a certain kind of date. I thought about taking the dates back to the store but instead decided to make something with the dates. OK...maybe my writing wasn't really clear about what we needed, but I didn't think it was THAT bad! I probably have spent too much time at work trying to decipher illegible writing so my scale may be a bit off!

The drive from Los Angeles to Palm Springs features a number of date farms. Last spring we stopped for a date shake since that's what helped make that part of the dessert famous. We had planned on going an a tour of a date farm but high winds and a sleeping baby made it seem like a better idea to stop and have a shake instead. We enjoyed walking around the store and seeing so many varieties of dates. It doesn't seem like date shakes are too common outside California...and that's too bad since they are good.

For years I wouldn't eat dates. Not because they are a wrinkly dried fruit most of the time I see them, but because I THREW UP DATES AS A KID! It's so strange how that sticks with you for so long. A couple years ago I decided I needed to try to get over that issue, and I think I have. I gorged myself on dates wrapped around almonds as a kid after my parents made those as a Christmas treat. I think I was in 2nd or 3rd grade, so it really was time to get over it....and I'm glad that I did! Maybe next I'll try root beer and French onion soup....or maybe I'm not ready for that yet even though it has been nearly 30 years! I know that I'm not unusual is struggling to get over this since I have had this conversation with a number of people. I even have a slight aversion to bread pudding since my friend Meghan has talked about her experience with that.

Anyway, I was paging through an older Bon Appetit magazine deciding if there were any recipes I wanted to put in my pile to try, when I came across this one. Perfect...I had just gotten bacon at the warehouse club, so fate seemed to dictate trying this recipe. Hmmm....bacon and dates in my at home food supply....

Eleanor is not a date fan...but all three of us really liked these scones. Maybe it has to do with the stick of butter, or the sweetness of the dates, or the bacon? Whatever it is these are really good!
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