A Pinecone Cheese Ball

Hi, All. I haven’t been around much this month. I had tons of pictures ready for a post or two or three, then Mr. Chickadee and I BOTH got sick and were out of commission for about 10 days total—3 1/2 of those days completely out of commission, in bed. Wow! That played havoc with the Christmas preparations! But it could’ve been worse—we could’ve been sick right at Christmas, like so many people are. We we were at almost 100% by our early Christmas in our home, and we had a nice, sweet time. I hope you had a nice, healthy Christmas.

Today I’m doing two quick posts, to share a couple of winter ideas that will work for New Year’s Eve too.

I made a pinecone cheese ball years ago, when I saw the idea in one of my beloved Christmas books. Getting my books out was one of the things that didn’t get done this year, so I turned to Pinterest for a refresher—they’re all over Pinterest! I’m still sharing it, though, with a bit of detail on the very simple how-to.

The beauty of this “recipe” is that it’s so pretty, yet so easy. I took it to my mother’s for our family’s traditional Cuban Christmas Eve dinner (27 of us for a sit-down dinner!), and even the guys thought it was pretty neat!

“Recipe”:  You can use any cheese ball recipe, or for that matter you can buy a cheese ball—how easy is that?! (Mine was a concoction my own creation of cream cheese, bleu cheese dressing, white-meat canned chicken, one packet of Hidden Valley ranch dressing, chopped walnuts and Craisins.) Shape the cheese ball mixture into a pinecone shape (it can be “lying” down or “sitting”) and set it on a large lettuce leaf. Starting at the bottom, work the almonds in rows until the whole cheese ball is covered (that part is a little tedious…)then cup your hands around the cheese ball and gently push the almonds up a bit until you think it looks like a pinecone. Garnish with rosemary sprigs and fresh cranberries or Craisins.

When you’re ready to bring it out make sure you have the due drum roll (a la Clark’s in Christmas Vacation). Serve with crackers and enjoy!!

My next post will also be a quick one of a reindeer and pinecones centerpiece, so this pinecone cheese ball would be perfect for it!

Did you come up with an easy WOW!! recipe this Christmas? Quick with a WOW! factor is the best, isn’t it?

I’m wishing you all a happy Christmas season and if I don’t “see” you before the new year I wish you the very best in 2015!

Thanks so much for stopping by. I hope you’ll leave me a comment to let me know you were here—I’m thrilled to know you stopped by, and I’ll always visit back and comment too. If you like what you see, I invite you to follow me (I promise to follow back), and please—Pin away and follow me on Pinterest too! Thank you!!

NOTE: Some of the items I use in my posts are in my Etsy shop, but many are not, simply because I haven’t updated my shop. If you see something you like and wonder if it’s available for sale, email me at coral5252@gmail.com and let’s talk!

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From my nest to yours~

Zuni