Classic Cheeseball

This is my cheeseball. I made it on Thanskgiving and didn't get a chance to take a picture before some people got a hold of it. It's not usually in our Thanksgiving celebrations but my uncle used to make one for Christmas every year and I was really missing it. Sadly this is not his recipe but mine but it's still good.

1 1/2 packages of 8 ounces of cream cheese at room temperature
1 package of lipton onion soup mix
2-3 TBSP of Worcestershire sauce
1 TBSP of minced garlic
2 green onions chopped
1 bag of finely shredded Mexican cheese blend
2 tsp  of paprika
salt to taste

chopped nuts (I used flavor groove cashews but i think pecans are more common)

In a mixing bowl combine cream cheese, 1/2 of Mexican cheese blend, green onions, Worcestershire sauce, Lipton onion soup mix, paprika, onion, and garlic.

*I did this with my immersion blender and it worked wonderfully. I think an electric mixer would work too but it would just take more time and effort.

If its too thick try adding small amounts of milk to make it easier to work with. I added milk but I'm not sure how much. It did work well.

If it's too bland add salt or more paprika but beware the soup mix will add lots of flavor while it's setting up.

Once it's at the right consistency mix the rest of the cheese in. I added it separately because my immersion blender dissipated the first half of the cheese. If you are using a hand mixer this step may be unneccesary and you can add all the cheese in the beginning.

Next chop your nuts. If you have a food processor or a mini chopper put them in for a couple of seconds.

Put nuts on a baking pan and roll your cheese ball in them until fully coated.

Wrap the whole thing in plastic wrap and let set overnight.

Serve with crackers and veggies! Enjoy.

Happy December!

It's not christmas yet so I'm going to tell you Merry Christmas as it's not quite Christmas yet. Although, I have been already listening to my new christmas glee CD.Which my husband hates because it's not Christmas yet.




Now, I don't know about you but I have a bunch of random things I need to go this holiday season. And, I always struggle with what to bring. Yes, I like to cook but you know I work full time and am preggers so anything easy is a-ok with me. So, over the next couple days/weeks I am going to provide you with the easiest recipes I know that are crowd pleasers.

Thanksgiving traditions and pimento cheese

I LOVE pimento cheese. LOVE it. I have always loved it. Of course Mr. C can't stand it.

One of my family's traditions is eating pimento cheese on celery with Thanksgiving dinner.

Does anyone elses family do this?

I doubt it seriously. I have yet to meet anyone who doesn't think it's strange.

Well, this is the what we eat with the "relish tray."

The relish tray is basically the celery/cheese, black olives, green onions, and gerkins combo. (Now real Henderson style is also pickled okra, green olives, banana peppers, and dill pickles. All of which I have eliminated because I don't think anyone in my immediate family eats.)

This is something that my mom insist us having and Little J and I both try to manipulate my mom into assigning the other person it because it has no real cooking to it. 

It's sort of funny we try to assign the person the who is the worst cook it. When we were younger and tried to help mom and aunt cook we would always be assigned the relish tray and doing the dishes. I think eventually I wised up that if Little J did the relish tray and dishes I could do real cooking. I think this worked for approximately one year and she wised up too. My mom however if you still go into her kitchen to try to cook she'll have you doing the dishes.

Anyway this year I decided to go ahead and volunteer for it because I wanted to make homemade pimento cheese. We usually always buy the pimento cheese. I didn't even know it could be made until fairly recently. Well, when I did finally have the real stuff no store bought would be ok again.

So, I made it. And it's yummy. I kinda made up the recipe which I do alot and this time it worked out. It's not rocket science.

Bridget's Pimento Cheese:

1 package of cheddar cheese. Mine was 8 ounces and kraft.
1/2 c Mayo
1-2 teaspoons of lemon juice (it sounds weird but don't leave it out. I think it's key ingredient for making the whole thing come together.)
2 ounce jar of pimentos drained
Pepper to taste

Mix all together. Chill well for flavors to meld together. Enjoy, maybe even on some celery.

*I'll add a picture on Thursday so you can see a real and proper relish tray

By the way up next tomorrow is my Aunt Margie's Broccoli Cheese Casserole.

Happy Thanksgiving Week

Hello, neglected blog friends! I have missed you. Honestly the pregnancy has been a bit of a bugger recently. I have done no running and no cooking that anyone would blog about (boxed mac'n cheese, salad, frozen pizza, you get the picture). But of course this week is Thanksgiving! One of my favorite holidays because it can't be too commercialized (until black friday of course) and Mr. C's least favorite. Of course I love thanksgiving because it's all about the cooking. YUM. So, this year I am bringing to the perspective families:

Turkey cake x 2

relish tray (This is one of those my mom insist on but I could do without. I don't really feel it's a holiday food but if she wants it she gets it.  There's no cooking excepting I'm going to make homemade pimento cheese, double yum, and maybe deviled eggs)

broccoli and cheese casserole

maybe a cheese ball with veggies and crackers.

homemade rolls =( yup my breadmaker died yesterday and i know bread can be made outside of it but i'm just not that skilled. i guess it's store bought for us this year.

Obviously these are not outlandish holiday foods but they are my family's favorites. I'll post pictures and recipes as I go throughout the week.

What are you cooking this year?

What I'm Reading

Honestly, not much reading is going on around here.

I do have Your Pregnancy Week by Week that my Little J bought for me.  I really recommend this book if you are pregnant. It's informative and has pictures of how big is baby each week.

Also, Here's a ton of discounts on Real Simple "The Best Bargains You've Never Heard of..." Honestly, I had never heard of some of them.

Cleaning out your dishwasher. Who knew?

The last of the CSA

Well, last week is the last week of our CSA for the year. It's always a little bit sad for me but especially for this year. We're not a 100% sure but with KJ planning on coming the end of march I don't think we'll be able to do the CSA next year. It's sad but it takes a lot of time to cook all those veggies and I have a feeling we might be busy. Also, with me feeling under the weather most days I have not been doing much cooking. We still have lots of veggies. My goal this week is to try to use up what I've got left over try to put a dent in what we've still got. Looking at it we have a lot! 

Especially these, I didn't even know what these were. I had to google it.

Apparently it's delicata squash. It's a winter squash that is supposed to be sweet and nutty. It reminded me of butternut squash. I honestly don't know if we didn't get this last year or just threw it away without knowing what it was. Since it reminded me of butternut squash. I think I'm going to try to make this soup and substitute the two different squashes.

What we'll be eating this week:


Peanut noodle salad

Jambalaya

Delicata squash soup in the crockpot

Calzones with homemade pizza sauce


Small meal plan right?  Yeah, and I think it works for us. With my long work schedule we eat leftovers plenty of nights and we like it just fine. I'll post if any of my experiments are winners.

=) Bridget

Hello long lost friend...

I have been MIA from here lately. Maybe you noticed? Maybe not.

Well, this is because our life has been in somewhat of food chaos. You know, not real chaos YET but I'm more than embarrassed to tell you what we've been eating around this house. Let me just leave you with this... I have eaten ramen noodles twice since we last talked. I do not care for ramen noodles. Hate is a very strong word but I would almost say I hate them. But Mr. C offered and I was so weak.

So you say "What exactly have you been doing with your time? Have you been running?"

No, since we last talked I have not ran one lick. I have been sitting on the couch getting fat. But, it's ok. Don't worry. I have been doing a whole nother type of cooking.

I have a bun in the oven!

Yup, it's true. There's going to be another person in our family soon enough. (Soon as in 6 months.)

I'm now 3 months pregnant and it hit me like a ton of bricks. Man it's hard in the beginning but the internet said that usually second trimester you become a person again. I totally believe this. We went hiking on Saturday and I've been cooking again this weekend. It's crazy Saturday morning I woke up without any little desire to vomit and I had energy. I'm not 100% better but I'm better.

So, I'm back. I'll start blogging again maybe not every week but again.