A Book Club Miracle

I worked late almost every day this past week (hence the complete lack of posting—blah) with the exception of Wednesday.  Wednesday also happened to be the date of this month’s  book club so the fact that it was my one non-late day was something of a miracle. A book club miracle, if you will. You know what else was miraculous? The cheese ball I made to take to book club!

That’s right I said cheese ball.

I don’t know about you, but when I think of cheese balls, I think of the highly processed versions my mom used to buy from Hickory Farms around the holidays when I was a kid. I did not care for cheese balls back then but I am decidedly a fan of this recipe from Cooking Light (I just so happened to run across it during the Great Thanksgiving Recipe Search 2010).

It’s so easy you can put it together after a long day of work without breaking a sweat. And seriously, cream cheese + blue cheese + shallots + lemon zest + parsley + walnuts = awesome.  Miraculous, even.

Miraculous Blue Cheese Ball with Walnuts
Adapted from Cooking Light

Ingredients:
1 8-ounce brick of 1/3 less fat cream cheese
4 ounces crumbled blue cheese
1 TBL milk
1 TBL finely chopped shallots
1 teaspoon grated lemon zest
Salt and pepper
¼ cup minced flat-leaf parsley
2 ½ TBL chopped walnuts

1.Place cream cheese, blue cheese, and milk in a bowl and beat with a mixer on medium speed for 2 minutes or until smooth. Add shallots, lemon zest, and salt and pepper to taste. Beat with mixer until well blended.
2.Spoon mixture onto a large sheet of plastic wrap. Form into a ball. Wrap and chill overnight.
3.Before serving, combine parsley and walnuts in a shallow bowl or plate.  Unwrap cheese ball and gently roll in nut mixture. Either serve immediately or cover and refrigerate until ready. Serve with crackers, bread, or veggies.

An Experiment in Cheesemaking

First--I know I have been posting pretty sporadically so far….I am going to try and post more regularly going forward (more for myself than for my currently non-existent readers :P ). The other day I mentioned a blog post I came across this week detailing how to make homemade goat cheese. Jason and I tried our hand at this fun project this afternoon to great success!

Given that all the details on how to make the yummy, creamy, cheesy goodness can be found on the Serious Eats website, I won’t go into that here (because as Jason said earlier tonight, doing so would be a little like “a snake eating its tail”). But I did take a few pictures of the process which can be found below.

 

  

We added grated garlic, dill, and parsley to our goat cheese

 

 

Verdict? A very mild but still tasty goat cheese with an amazing texture—soft and creamy almost like a spread. This would be great on a sandwich (maybe this one??) but equally good on crackers. Next time I make it, I might add more garlic, more dill, and some lemon zest. You could really get creative with this!

Oh, and the goat’s milk was not that hard to find…Jason swung by our local Whole Foods to pick some up while I was out performing my first act as Matron of Honor for my friend Lauren’s wedding (i.e. looking at wedding and bridesmaid dresses).  Unfortunately, all they had available was the ultra pasteurized version (which the recipe specifically said to avoid if possible) but I still think it turned out well.