Happy Friday my friends! I’m excited to kick off this new series, Gifts from the Kitchen! Each week, Doug and I will share with you recipes and gifting ideas for the upcoming holiday season. Last year, I shared Homemade for the Holidays, and had such a good time with it, that I thought it would be great to share some ideas here too.
We are going to try and keep it non-baking items, since I share those on Hoosier Homemade. On the “menu” is Party Mix, Spicy Nuts, Strawberry Jam, Mini Sticky Buns and more.
Today we have this yummy Homemade Cheese Ball that has been a favorite for many years in our home. Earlier this week, I shared how to make-ahead and freeze the cheese ball for your parties and get-togethers.
I love to think outside the box when it comes to gift giving. We found this old colander at Goodwill last week, and when we were looking around the house to share the cheese ball, Doug spotted it and thought it would work out great…and it did!
We added a couple sleeves of crackers and a small butter knife, filled it with crinkly paper and tied a ribbon around the cheese ball.
If you are not into cheese balls you could try and replace it with some ham and cheese pockets that are easy to make and to dress around for a delicious basket. If you are looking for soemthing more festive you could always try the fruit and cheese tree.
Homemade Cheeseball: Gifts from the Kitchen
- Total Time: 10 mins
- Yield: 1 large Cheese Ball or 2 smaller 1x
Description
Homemade Cheese Ball Recipe: A great gift for the holidays! PocketChangeGourmet.com
Ingredients
- 2 packages (8 oz. each) Cream Cheese, softened
- 2 packages of thinly sliced meat, pastrami or beef works best (I buy them at Aldi’s or Walmart, for less than .60 cents)
- 2 teaspoons Worcestershire Sauce
- 2 teaspoons Accent Salt (or regular salt) Accent has MSG in it, so if you don’t want to use that, regular salt is okay, but use a little less
- 3–4 green onions, chopped finely
Instructions
- Place cream cheese in a large bowl and gently stir with a wooden spoon or spatula until slightly creamy
- Cut meat and green onion into small pieces
- Add to cream cheese
- Add salt and Worcestershire Sauce
- Mix well
- Place plastic wrap on counter
- Add cheese ball mixture and form one large ball or divide in half for two smaller cheese balls
- You can also roll in chopped nuts if you want
- Wrap tightly and either place in a resealable freezer bag, wrap in another piece of plastic wrap or seal with FoodSaver System
- To serve, remove from freezer the morning or the night before you want to serve, place in fridge
- To give as a gift, add crackers and a small knife to a basket or colander
- Serve with crackers of your choice
- Prep Time: 10 mins
Join us each Friday for more Gifts from the Kitchen!
Linking to…Recipe Round-up
2 Comments
What a great gift idea! The colander is a neat packaging idea. Never thought to look at goodwill but it makes sense…
I have been looking for some homemade gift ideas and this one is perfect. Thanks for the inspiration. Visiting from the Sundae Scoop and I am now following you on Twitter and FB. Vicky from Mess For Less