Amanda’s Real Super Fancy Balls

Balls people.  So many balls.  Amanda’s balls to be specific.  Cheese balls you dirty birds!  I see you out there.  It was play time in the kitchen yesterday and we made cheese balls.  We like them so much that we’re going to do an array of them for Friends Giving.

For what?  Friends Giving.  It’s the Thanksgiving dinner we have with our chosen families on the Saturday after the regular event.  Last year, Hubs and I had to move the living room furniture out onto the patio to make room for about 20 people.  Same this year.  We’ll hobble together a bunch of tables and odd chairs and smoke a couple of turkeys.  But that’s for another post.

I’m not going to post specific recipes for cheese balls, but rather give a list of what went into each one.  We did it by taste and so should you.  Cheese balls are like pizza toppings….some people like a little, some people like a lot.  Or none at all.  It’s all up to you.  Don’t fret!  Just get out lots of tasting spoons.  Pick out your favorite ingredients and load up on them.  I’ve never made a cheese ball before, but Amanda has me sold.  We shredded and chopped and diced and toasted while making a giant mess and it was exactly what I needed.

First up….the classic herbed cheese ball.  This was a cheese mix of cream cheese, fine shredded gouda and jarlesberg and three herbs….chives, rosemary, and sage and she tossed in some smooshy roasted elephant garlic.  Simple and delicious and extremely versatile as a go to cheese ball for the beginning of any meal.

Next was the bacony ball.  The cheese mix was cream cheese, pepper jack, and gouda.  To that we added diced oven dried tomatoes, fine sliced green onions, crispy chopped bacon, roasted garlic, chopped buttery castelvetrano olives, chopped sage, and it was rolled in toasted pine nuts and chopped rosemary.  I could have eaten it as a meal.  It’s exciting in your mouth and hearty in a very satisfying way.

Then there was the dried fruit.  I like to keep dried fruit for cheese platters, so why not make a cheese ball?  The cheese mix was an even amount each of goat cheese and cream cheese.  To that we added chopped dried pears, cherries, and cranberries and then I mixed in a spoonful of quince jam and rolled it in chopped toasted pecans and dried cranberries.  It tasted like Fall…warm and not too sweet.

My personal favorite…if I was forced to pick one…was the lavender pepper ball.  I mean, it brought a tear to my eye.  The cheese mix was goat cheese with a little cream cheese.  To that we added a spoonful of meadowfoam honey, some lavender flowers, and some crushed pink peppercorns.  And it’s just so pretty to look at.  I’ll be making that one a lot.  Perhaps weekly.  Just for me.  And I won’t share it either.

Lastly, the dessert.  Because there always has to be dessert.  There does!  This was pure cream cheese blended with powdered sugar, vanilla, chopped white chocolate macadamia nut cookies and a touch of lavender flowers.  We rolled it in a mix of the chopped cookies and chopped Biscoffs that I keep in the house for Diane when she comes for tea.  I wasn’t sure about this one…it seemed kind of all over the place.  Mind blowing!  That tiny bit of lavender at the end brings it all together and the choice to use white chocolate was spot on.