Golden brown and ready to go
I had not made these in YEARS. Seriously, it's been a long time since we had a big enough family gather to justify the work that goes into making them. As I started getting ready for the effort, I looked high and low and could not find the printed out recipe!
Oh, well, I kind of punt on this one anyway, most years. But it looks (and tastes) like I got it right.
These are the famous (or infamous) olive filled baked cheese balls.
Amounts for those who were asking yesterday, from how I threw it together today:
1 lb. mild cheddar cheese, diced.
3 Tbsp butter (I used lightly salted today, being out of unsalted)
1 cup flour
1/4 to 1/2 tsp ground cayenne pepper
Sift the flour and cayenne together onto the softened cheese and butter. I cheated this year at this point: I used the food processor to mix the cheese (diced up), butter (softened), flour and cayenne (sifted together into the mix).
Then you work it into a dough, make balls of the dough, thumb press an olive into each ball, round it out, and bake at 450℉ for 10 minutes until golden brown.
And there you have it... a huge production... but done! Yield: 2 dozen. This recipe can be cut in half, by the way. In fact, it's really doubled from the original which back in the early 1960's called for a blender, not a food processor, to combine.
Rapid test, "if you can get it"
I had one on hand from the last time I tested. They are saying omicron will only show up at your highest viral load on this one, so test hours ahead, not the day before.
About 1 p.m. I did my BinaxNOW test. After the 15 minute wait, it came up negative, so I figure I'm safe for the gather at 4!
See you all on the flip side: A very Merry (and safe, too) Christmas to all!
Be good to yourselves, this one and only Friday December 24, 2021 we'll ever get. With hopes and prayers that a year from now we won't be having to be quite so careful!
🎄🕯
Merry Christmas Eve! That recipe is a delight, thank you very much. Enjoy everything you do. ((HUGS))
ReplyDelete💖 Merry Christmas. Sometimes reading recipes is like reading novels, and making them allows some free-lancing, re-writing.
DeleteOh, yeah, I could get into those! Lucky me since I'm the only one here who would eat them....I'll just dream.
ReplyDeleteWe tested ourselves up, too before we went over DD1's house with grandkids. Nicely negative.
No so lucky were the UK travelers. SIL 2 was negative Sunday, upon arrival in the UK on Tuesday and tested positive at his mother's house this afternoon! Off to get a PCR test hoping it was a false positive.
His mom is laughing. They are all 'jabbed 3x" and she's so happy to see her kid after two years, she'll deal with it.
Merry Christmas!
Guess those UK doctors that make the YouTubes knew their stuff. The one I listen to put out a video today in which he said about half the colds in the UK were in fact Omicron, and that it's more transmissible than the common cold. Yikes.
DeleteThe good news is that he made it "home" to see his mom before testing positive, and yes, were it you or I, we, too, would deal with it for the chance to see our children!
Just home from a great time with my "pandemic 5"... it was lovely, but overshadowed by an ailing bird. Poor Skittles was not feeling well, which means GF's father left early to go be with the little birdie. The rest of us had a post-unwrapping round of video mini golf.
Her mom's sister works as a nurse in Nebraska City, and declined the invite to do Christmas with their family because she did not want to risk widening her co-workers' exposures.
Oh, the cheese balls were a hit, but you should have seen the spread... I left most of them with the host and hostess, only bringing four home to pass along to Alicia's family.
And now I'm winding down and watching church on YouTube while I play catch up here!
Merry Christmas!
Those cheese/olive balls look delicious -- and thank you for sharing the recipe and not just teasing with the photos! Have a wonderful Christmas.
ReplyDeleteLOL! Considering it's a process that has evolved over time from an Electric Company's complimentary cook book in the early 1960's, it was time to write down at least ONE version of it!
DeleteMerry Christmas!
Cheese balls sounds yummy! A negative Covid test is a nice
ReplyDeleteChristmas present.
Outside church service was beautiful. No white Christmas here.
At 11:46 p.m. it's 66* here. I'll take this warm Christmas any day of the week.
Merry Christmas!
Merry Christmas... glad your weather cooperated. I came home and streamed the Christmas eve service, as planned, and of course, music touches the heart-strings.
DeleteMerry Christmas to you and yours! The cheese balls look and sound yummy!
ReplyDeleteMerry Christmas back! Already exchanged Christmas morning greetings with my son's GF, who arises early, as I do. I'm sipping a coffee blend that was given to me last night. Peace in our hearts, moving into the brave new day!
DeleteOH my, those look delicious!
ReplyDeleteSo glad you were able to get an @ home test and it was NEGATIVE!
Have a beautiful Christmas
Hugs
barb
1crazydog
Yes, it is comforting, but I also feel my privilege in having found and being able to purchase that test. I bought it a few weeks back, and they come two tests in a package, so I had one left to us.
DeleteAnd... I left the leftovers with the host and hostess except for four little cheese balls that I'm going to go play Santa with today... Alicia spoke up for leftovers.
May your Christmas be blessed in Love and Peace!
I ate just enough of the lasagna my son-in-law cooked and my kids had NO snacks to munch on and no big desserts; a Christmas cookie or two. They avoid all those attractive nuisance foods and I appreciate that!
ReplyDeleteThe UK SIL got an email someone near his seat on the plane tested positive. He feels like he has a head cold and DD2 says she's getting stuffy even though her initial test was positive. Test kits are plentiful there and all free from the NHS. All their Christmas plans are thrown out as well. Friends they've been kept from for two years are now within arms reach and unreachable! New babies cannot be snuggled and hearty bear hugs and back-pats thrown in the closet. Yikes! Danged this thing!
Blasted virus! So sorry their trip has been so warped by it! It will certainly go in the memory books, though!
Delete