Bathtubs and Dates…These two things don’t go together

Want to know what’s worse than driving 5 hours without a good night of rest? Driving 5 hours without a good night of rest….in.the.rain…the.whole.trip. That’s a guaranteed way to make you want to take a nap – tired or not. Now, you may – or may not – be wondering why I did not get a good night of rest last night. To that I would reply, because I slept in the tub last night.

Let me repeat that.

I slept in the tub last night.

One more time with word order rearranged and italics for emphasis.

Last night, I slept in the tub.

I almost feel like I need to say it one more time, but I will spare you. See what had happened was… we were visiting the brother and sister-in-law last night and staying in a hotel in their town. Which meant I shared a hotel room with my parents. I knew it was trouble when Dad walked in…and when I started channeling Taylor Swift songs on my blog. I know his snoring habits, but I thought maybe my sleeping habits had improved and I could tune it out. By the 5th time I yelled his name to wake him up and notify him of his snoring habits, I knew it was going to be a long night. I put the earphones in with white noise playing from my phone in an attempt to drown him out. No good. I could still hear the snoring over the white noise as well as feel the snoring vibrations floating across the room and coming through my pillow. The walls were literally shaking. It was at that point that I snatched up my blanket and two pillows and headed for the bathtub. I have no idea what put the idea in my head that the bathtub would be a good place to sleep, but people think really weird thoughts in the middle of a sleepless night. The really sad part is, I actually slept pretty dang well in that bathtub in the wee hours of the morning. Don’t get me wrong, that tub was rock hard, but it was also dark and quiet and snore-free and I put down some good sleep. Good thing I am a short little midget of a person or this could have turned out way differently than it did.

Needless to say, the drive today was a long one, made even longer by my drowsiness combined with the rain. I managed to keep myself awake by reminiscing every so often about me curled up and sleeping in the bathtub last night. I slept in the bathtub last night! (I just had to say it one more time)

The last thing I wanted to do after a sleep troubled night was drive 5 hours in the rain and then come home to work on a homework project – not one from school, but one from my boss at Backyard Produce. He handed me some dates last Wednesday and told me to find something cool/unique to do with them and to report back to him. My report is due in the morning and being the responsible little student that I am, the homework had to get done. Also, since I much prefer homework dealing with cooking as opposed to studying, I was ever so eager to do his assignment before any of my soon-to-be-due school assignments.

I narrowed the date assignment down to two options: A bacon wrapped date stuffed with almonds and a date nut loaf cake and that was as far as I got. I couldn’t decide between the two. And you know what that means….I had to make both of them. I only had a small portion of dates, so I had to do fractions of the recipes. That meant just two measly little dates used for the bacon wrapped dates. I also didn’t have almonds and was too cheap to buy any so I substituted with pecans. I am from the land of pecans! And I have a mother who loves to pick them up out of our backyard for me 🙂

So what did I think about these bacon wrapped dates? Hmmmm, they were unique and interesting and tasty, but I don’t know that they are something I would find myself craving or feeling like I couldn’t get enough of. The salty with the sweet mixed with the crunchy and the chewy was nice. Given the right event and occasion, they could be a hit. Truth is, my taste probably isn’t refined enough to appreciate them as much as they deserved.

The date cake deal was a little bit more of a success. Eaten warm and served with a warm, caramelish sauce it was quite tasty. I’ve got to take it to the boys at the Backyard Produce warehouse tomorrow and get their approval. They have called my cooking skills into question – for good reason, because of a butt nasty cake I brought in a couple of weeks back – so I am hoping for a little more approval this go round.

Update: The Date nut loaf was indeed approved by the warehouse workers! Yay!  You can find the recipe here.