Pineapple-Sage and Green Onion Cheese Ball

Is there anyone that doesn’t love a good cheese ball? In my family, every New Years Eve found us with a counter full of chips, chocolates, Christmas cookies, pretzels, dips…and a cheese ball. Always a cheese ball. They were those yellow ones, covered in slivered almonds.

 

Those are tasty, of course, and will always hold a special place in my heart, but now that I have made my own a few times…I don’t think there’s any going back.

 

I started out in the garden, where I have a rather robust Pineapple Sage plant. I had never heard of Pineapple Sage before this year, but it’s exactly what it sounds like. A sage plant with emerald leaves…that taste like pineapple.

After that, I took a few hints from a recipe I found in a Better Homes and Gardens cookbook. Some cream cheese, some butter, handfuls of a shredded cheddar and Monterey mix, plus some green onions from my windowsill.

I wrapped the whole thing in plastic wrap and left it in a round bowl overnight to cure in the refrigerator.

In the morning, it got a good roll around in chopped toasted pecans and more chopped pineapple sage.

It was quite a hit!

   

Aunt LoLo’s Pineapple Sage and Green Onion Cheese Ball

Makes one large cheese ball, appropriate for a large party. Recipe can be adapted to your tastes, and the size of your group.

In the bowl of an electric mixer, combine:

 

16 oz. cream cheese, softened

4 oz. butter, softened

2 c. mixed shredded cheese

2 T. milk

1/2 t. salt

1/4 t. cracked pepper

1/4 cup snipped green onions

1/4 cup chopped pineapple-sage

 

Mix with the paddle attachment until the ingredients are well combined.  Line a bowl with plastic wrap, letting it hang over the edges of the bowl, and press your cheese mixture in. Wrap your overhanging wrap over the cheese and press. Leave the cheese ball in the refrigerator overnight to cure.

 

On the day of the party, unmold your cheese ball and cover with:

 

Toasted, chopped pecans and extra pineapple sage

 

Serve with crackers.

Creamed Tuna with Peas

When I was a little girl, I adored something called Tuna Wiggle. (I think it could also be called Tuna Noodle Casserole, but I had my trusty little Klutz cookbook, and they called it Tuna Wiggle. So…Tuna Wiggle it is.)

Tuna Wiggle was one of the first things I learned to cook. It usually came in the form of Creamed Tuna on Toast. This was even easier to make, and the recipe went something like this: In a medium saucepan, combine one can cream of mushroom soup, one drained can of tuna, one 1 lb. bag of frozen peas. Add a little milk if it’s too thick. Serve it on toast, and eat with a knife and fork.

 

As tasty as that was, when I was craving something creamy and warm and tuna-ish the other day, I knew I could do better. (Besides, I had not one can of cream of anything in the pantry.)

 

And I think I’ve done it. It starts with a basic white sauce, using the recipe that my father taught me. He, in turn, learned it from his grandmother. Add to that a can of your favorite tuna, as many frozen peas as you like, and a few generous handfuls of cheese, and you have a delicious and grown-up version of a childhood favorite!

 

We served this over rice because I’d been craving some creamy, cheesy casserole-type rice, but it would be equally delicious over noodles, toast or quinoa!

 

(Ok, so nothing’s different from the original recipe except that I used a homemade cheese sauce instead of the canned cream of mushroom soup. Still, it’s something that I don’t keep in the pantry anymore. If you do…well, then, follow the recipe above.)

Creamed Tuna with Peas

Ingredients:

2 T. butter

4 T.  flour

2 cup milk

2 cups grated cheese

1 pound frozen peas

1 can tuna, drained

salt and pepper, to taste

 

In a skillet, melt your butter. When it is good and melted, add your flour and stir it up. Cook this for 2-3 minutes to make sure your finished product doesn’t have a Raw Flour Taste. (Not good, my friends!) Pull out your milk jug and add milk, a little at a time, whisking as you go to make sure you don’t get any lumps. Continue to stir in milk, whisking like mad, until you get the consistency that you want. (2 cups is really an approximation. I usually just pull out the jug, and keep adding milk until it looks right.) As the sauce continues to cook, it will thicken, so this whole process will take a few minutes.

 

Once your sauce is to the consistency that you like, it’s time to add your peas and tuna. When the peas are cooked through, then it is time to add the cheese. Make sure it doesn’t boil after this point, because the sauce will revolt and leave you with…something not great. (I’m not sure what will happen. This fact was so drilled into me as a child, I’ve never let it boil! I think the cheese will cook and fall apart, leaving chunky, oily sauce.) Season with salt and pepper, and you’re golden!

Serve over rice, noodles, quinoa, boiled wheat or anything else that would benefit from a creamy, lovely sauce!

Ham and Cheddar Biscuit Pockets

I originally found a recipe for these way back when, in Readers Digest.  (I'm pretty sure I was in middle school at the time.)  The recipe said Grands "thwack" biscuits, and that's what I used.  Hey guess what?  Like most foods in this world, these taste better when you make them yourself!

So.

Ham and Cheddar Biscuit Pockets

Ingredients:

1 batch of biscuit dough

diced ham

shredded cheddar cheese

Roll your biscuit dough thin as you can, and cut large circles (I used a 4" round tupperware.) Really roll these thin- biscuit dough puffs a LOT.  Not paper thin, but definitely pie crust thin.  Place biscuit rounds on a cookie sheet and top with ham and cheese, and another biscuit round.  Pinch the edges shut- make sure there aren't any holes!  Top biscuits with a little more grated cheddar cheese- my husband really likes crunchy cheese, this is his addition.

Bake at 450 for 10-15 minutes, until lightly golden.

The kids and Daddy like to dip these in ketchup.  I prefer a mixture of honey mustard and plum jam.

Macaroni De-Luxe

Yes, De-Luxe is a word. Why? Because I say so. And because I tweaked this recipe out of a Southern cookbook that my grandmother found for my sister and I ages ago. (I think she actually stole it off one of her sister's shelves...but I could be wrong about that. Heh.)



I had volunteered last week to make some dinner for a friend who was expecting a baby. (As luck would have it, she had her baby right at dinnertime, on the day I had volunteered to cook. Her husband called from the hospital and said their doctor would like me to deliver the food there - lobster and steak please, with a good bottle of champagne. Pff. As if!)



However, the dinner was already made, so now...it sits. In my freezer. Awaiting the day when my friend no longer has enough food in her refrigerator to feed an army, and hasn't the will to cook anything. For, my friends, that day will come. And when it does, I'll be ready. Why?



Because I have the largest pan of macaroni I've ever seen, waiting for her in my freezer.



I wanted enough for my family, as well as hers, so this recipe makes two 9x13 pans. Please don't laugh at the ingredients. And please don't make the same mistake I did - if you serve this as a main course, it will serve 4-6 people, and you'll gain about 19 pounds.



Don't say I didn't warn you!



Macaroni Deluxe
(Adapted from "Macaroni and Cheese Deluxe", out of The Energizers' Powerful Good Cooking: a collection of recipes from retired employees of Alabama Power Company)



Ingredients:

2 pounds macaroni noodles, cooked and drained

1 can cream of mushroom soup

1 can evaporated milk

1 cup mayonnaise

1 tsp. minced garlic

1/2 tsp. black pepper

3 1/2 cups grated cheddar cheese, divided



In a large bowl, whisk together the cream of mushroom soup, evaporated milk, mayonnaise, minced garlic and black pepper. Stir in 2 1/2 cups of grated cheddar cheese. Stir in your cooked macaroni, folding to coat.



Divide the macaroni between two 9x13 pans and sprinkle 1/2 cup of cheddar cheese on top of each pan.



Bake at 350 for 20-30 minutes, or until the noodles are heated and the cheese is melted.



Alternately, this can be covered well with tin foil and frozen.



*The thing I love about this recipe is that it I can make it at a moment's notice, because these are all ingredients that I generally have in the pantry. So, when someone needs a dinner...I can whip this out and have it on their doorstep within 45 minutes.

Paneer Cheese

I used this recipe for my brother's birthday dinner this past weekend- it was really simple, and had a very creamy (if slightly flavorless) result. Of course, for cheese to really have flavor it has to be aged, which this isn't. It's lightly lemony, and very creamy. The neat thing about this cheese is it doesn't melt- you can fry it, and it will retain its shape. Original recipe can be found here, but there are identical recipes all over the web. Directions include my own comments.

Paneer Cheese
10 cups whole milk
2 tsp. salt
1/3 cup lemon juice

1)Bring the milk to a full boil in a 6 quart pot, stirring occasionally. It will foam up at the end- a bigger pot might even be better. I ended up needing to stir, blow, and turn down the heat to keep this from boiling over.
2) Add the salt and lemon juice, and remove from heat. Slowly stir around the edge of the pot as the curd forms in the center, then let sit for 2 minutes. You'll be left with a mess of curds floating in yellow, clear liquid (curds and whey!)
3) Pour into a colander lined with a triple thickness of damp cheese cloth. Gather up the edges of the cheesecloth around the curds, and twist gently to get as much liquid out as possible. Wrap the whole package in a kitchen towel and put in a bowl, then cover with another bowl either filled with water or some heavy cans- this will compress the cheese and push any remaining liquid out. Let stand at room temperature for an hour, or until firm. Pour off any accumulated liquid and store in the refrigerator.