December 21, 2015

posted by Linda

‘Tis the season for Holiday parties! My favorite time of year! A time to celebrate family, friends and food. How cute is a SNOWMAN CHEESE BALL! So fun, tasty and easy to make.

I’ll have to blame my French heritage for the love of cheese! Cheese balls, or in French, Fromage Fort, bring me back to when I was in high school working at good ole Hickory Farms at the local mall. Why I chose that particular store to work for I have no idea. Other than the fact I guess because I adore cheese. Not so much the elf outfit I had to wear around Christmas. Hickory Farms had and I believe you can still get those ever so popular gift boxes packed with assorted cheeses, jams and of course the all too famous Beefstick. I never cared much for Beefstick but I have to say I have fond memories of the beef jerky and cheese balls. Making a cheese ball, especially a Holiday Snowman, was a definite recipe on my list. If you have the time grating your own cheese do it! That will make any cheese ball all that more special. It can be overwhelming with all of the variations of cheese balls out there. Basic rule, roughly equal parts cream cheese to hard shredded, then mix in any extras that sound appealing. This one is simple and made with cheddar. Impressive, fun and yum!

Ingredients

• 1 pkg. (8 oz.) cream cheese, softened
• 2 cups shredded cheddar cheese
• 1/4 cup finely chopped fresh chives
• 1/4 cup toasted almonds. Roughly chop
• Toast almonds whole BEFORE chopping at 350 degrees F. Place nuts in a single layer on an ungreased cookie sheet. Bake for 8-10 minutes until they are golden brown. Let cool before chopping.
• 1/4 tsp ground cayenne pepper
• 1 cup shredded parmesan cheese
• black peppercorns
• 1 baby carrot

Directions

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Mix first 5 ingredients until blended. Refrigerate 1 hour.

Divide cheese mixture into 3 different size balls (1 small, 1 medium, 1 large)

Coat with Parmesan cheese. Arrange in a line on serving plate to resemble a snowman laying down. Largest ball at the bottom and smallest at the top.

Decorate with peppercorns and carrot to resemble photo above. Serve with crackers & fresh veggies.

Nov. 20, 2015

posted by Corinne

Who can resist Apple Roses. Gorgeous to look at and divine to eat. I’ll take a dozen of these please!

One fall day I convinced my whole family to join me in apple picking, as we have done every fall for many years. We picked macintosh, granny smith, yellow delicious, and even cortland apples! I didn’t know what I was going to do with all these apples… So I decided, Apple dessert time!

I was looking around the web for some inspiration, and saw so many recipes including apple pie, apple crisp, baked apples and it was all too traditional. Then, stumbled upon a beautiful picture of an apple dessert that looked like a rose. I decided that this was the one. I decided to take the recipe I had found and try and make my own version of this simple dessert. And I believe I got the cinnamon, apple, caramelized texture and flavor just right.

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Serves: 9-10 people

Serving Size: one rose

Cook Time: 45 minutes

Total Time: One hour

Ingredients:

• 5-6 Apples (preferable with red skin)
• One package of puff pastry, or two sheets of homemade
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 1 T cinnamon
• 3 T melted butter
• 3 T lemon juice
• 8 cups of water

1. Pre-heat oven to 350°F, and grease a muffin tin with cooking spray
2. Core and slice apples from top to bottom as thin as you can. make sure skin is still on! If you want, a mandolin would also get this job done.
3. Mix the water with the lemon juice and add the sliced apples. Microwave the apples for about 3-4 minutes, or until the apples are soft and flexible.
4. Take one of your puff pastry sheets and roll out a little bit so that it is a little less flat then it was. cut off all the extra puff pastry around the edge so it is a perfect rectangle. Cut the rectangle length wise into 5 separate long rectangles.
5. Take a little bit of the melted butter and rub it on one side of each puff pastry rectangle until just coated.
6. Mix the sugar, and cinnamon together in a small bowl, and make sure it is all combined. Sprinkle this mixture on top of the butter, you can notice the puff pastry anymore. DONT BE SHY WITH THE CINNAMON SUGAR!
7. Take the apples and pat them TOTALLY dry. If the apples are not dry they will wet the puff pastry and they will be impossible to roll up, and they will be VERY ugly.
8. Take the dried apples and place then on the top of the puff pastry, so that the tops of the apples are just hanging over. Overlap the apples slightly until you get to the end of the puff pastry rectangle.
9. Sprinkle more cinnamon sugar on top of the apples so that they are completely covered. AGAIN DON’T BE SHY WITH THE CINNAMON SUGAR!
10. Roll the bottom half of the puff pastry over the apples, so that part of the apple is showing, but not to much. Than roll the puff pastry from end to end the long way until you have rolled the whole thing.
11. Place all of the roses into a muffin tin and sprinkle with even MORE cinnamon sugar. Bake for about 40 minutes, or until they are slightly golden brown, and are nice and caramelized on top.