Bacon Wrapped Dates Stuffed with Blue Cheese

Hosting a party can come with a slew of challenges. In most cases, the warmth and laughter exuded by your guests combined with the slight buzz you have developed from one too many drinks quickly erases the difficulty it took to get to that moment. We here at Nature’s Party have taken it upon ourselves to help you ease into your role as host/hostess with the mostest. While our speciality is food, we thought we would be nice and throw in some more tips to fight off typical obstacles that may stand in your way.

Keep Stress to a Minimum

If there is one piece of advice we think you should take away from this post, its to start early. Start to brainstorm at least a week before the party, building a menu, picking a playlist and thinking of entertainment. After you’ve mapped out the tasks, feel free to delegate. Be it a significant other, a roommate or just a friend who offers a helping hand, having a team will not only take the pressure off of you, it will also make the preparation process more enjoyable. During the day of the party, try your best to finish your tasks before the guests arrive. The last place you want to be is stuck in the kitchen and stressed!

Provide Entertainment

In a perfect party world, the conversation would flow as freely as the wine and all of your guests would just entertain one another. But let’s be honest, pulling people away from their smartphones these days is no easy feat. Start by building a music playlist that fits the ambience, then choose the appropriate activities for the setting. Whether you keep it simple with some ice breakers, offer up some creative DIY activities or offer up some Taboo ­ find the attractions that will keep your guests happy and active.

Focus on the Food

I recently learned that you can cover almost anything with bacon. Why is this relevant? Because I will never turn down a dish with bacon. When building a menu for your party, center it around ingredients and dishes that are overall crowd pleasers and difficult to refuse, like a cheese plate or small bites. Nature’s party has some great eco­friendly supplies that are perfect for party food. We offer up different kinds of small plates for individual servings, such as our drop shaped sugarcane mini dish, sugarcane egg shaped dish and sugarcane mini wave dish. We also have a solution for helping your guests keep their hands clean by offering up a wide variety of fancy skewers. If you’re feeling in a festive mood ­ we recommend the bamboo skewer with decorative red shape and the bamboo skewer with the pearl bead. Our final suggestion summarizes all of the suggestions we’ve provided up until. We recommend that you make this irresistible dish ­ dates stuffed with blue cheese and covered with bacon. It’s a dish that seems complex but is actually very easy to make. The only problem you may encounter is consuming it all before it makes it to your guests!

Bacon Wrapped Dates Stuffed with Blue Cheese

Makes 15 pieces

● 15 dates

● 15 slices of bacon

● 3.5 oz. soft blue cheese

● 1⁄4 cup sliced almonds, lightly toasted and crushed

● 1⁄4 cup of chives, thinly sliced

1. Preheat oven to 375 F.

2. Carefully slice the dates in half, trying your best to keep them intact. Using a teaspoon, fill up each date with the blue cheese and seal them. Wrap a piece of bacon around the date and secure it with a toothpick.

3. Bake in the oven for about 20 minutes, turning the dates over after 10. Remove from the oven when the bacon becomes crisp and top each date off with a sprinkle of almond and chives.

Enjoy!