Cream Cheese: The Cheese that Pleases Me!

Cream Cheese Stuffed Jalapenos

These make a great appetizer at any party. One 8 oz package of cream cheese, with a few additions, will make up to 20 jalapeno halves. More if you select smaller jalapenos. However, in my experience, the larger the jalapeno, the milder the heat.

What You Need:

10 large Jalapenos, halved and cleaned
1 8oz package of Cream Cheese (softened)
1/4 cup shredded Jack and Cheddar cheese
4 slices of bacon
1 clove garlic (minced)
1/4 cup chopped white onion

To soften your Cream Cheese you set it on your counter. Do not microwave or heat.

Cut your bacon in small pieces. Begin cooking your bacon in a fry pan. When it is almost done add your onion and garlic to brown slightly. Drain the fat and set aside to cool.

Check your Cream Cheese. If it is softened, put it in a mixing bowl. Add the shredded cheese and cooled bacon, garlic, and onion mixture.

Use a butter knife to mix the ingredients together. Cut the additions into the Cream Cheese until the filling is smooth and evenly distributed. I've found a butter knife works better than a spoon or fork for mixing this. It also makes stuffing your jalapenos a little easier. Completely fill your jalapeno halves with heaping helpings of the Cream Cheese stuffing.

At this point you have two options. You can eat the appetizers as they are, which is really good; or you can heat your oven to 375 degrees and bake your Cream Cheese Stuffed Jalapenos for 10 minutes.

If you choose to bake these, do so just before your guests arrive. Serve them warm. They will sit well and remain good to eat as they cool.

Cream Cheese Ball

This Cream Cheese recipe is sure to please! It goes great on any cracker or even mini bagels. I love to serve this at Christmas parties because it is so colorful and good.

What You Need:

1 8oz package of Cream Cheese (softened)
1/2 cup shredded Cheddar Cheese
4 slices of Bacon (cooked)
1 clove garlic minced
1/4 cup red onion chopped
2 green onions chopped

Set your Cream Cheese out to soften on the counter. Do not microwave or heat. Cook 4 slices of bacon, drain, cool, and chop to bits.

Once your Cream Cheese is soft, mix in the shredded Cheddar, minced garlic, and a portion of your red and green-onion. You should reserve enough of the chive from the green onion and about 1 tbsp of red onion to coat the ball once it is formed.

Mix all the ingredients together using a butter knife. As I mentioned above the knife really makes mixing easier.

To form your cheese ball, you can use your hands. But it's rather messy. When I'm shopping for my parties, I like to grab a few extra produce baggies to use as "gloves" for this job.

Leave the Cream Cheese mixture in the mixing bowl and round it out. Once round, transfer it to your serving dish flat side down. Fix any distortions. Top with remaining green and red onion. Cover and chill until ready to serve.

(Image coming soon)

What You Need:

20-25 Cherry tomatoes
1 8oz package Cream Cheese (softened)
1/4 cup shredded Cheddar Cheese
1/2 cup frozen deveined Salad Shrimp (defrosted, drained well, and chopped)
1 clove Garlic (minced)
1 tbsp Parsley
1 tsp Lemon juice

Set your Cream Cheese out to soften on the counter. Do not microwave or heat.

Rinse and clear any stems or leaves from your Cherry Tomatoes and allow to dry well. set your tomatoes, stem side down, on a cutting board. Cut the bottom off and clean out the pulp and seeds. (Leaving the stem side intact limits rolling during display.)

A melon baller works well for this. If you do not have one you can use a small measuring spoon or a metal baby spoon.

Combine your softened Cream Cheese, shredded Cheddar, chopped Shrimp, Garlic, Parsley, and Lemon juice. Mix well.

Stuffing your Cherry Tomatoes is a tedious job. The method that works best for me is small scoops with a butter knife.

Some people have suggested I use a cake decorator with a large nozzle...I ended up clogging the nozzle with shrimp and breaking the bag. This was not a nice mess to clean up. It was also a waste of good filling. You can try it, if you want to take the risk.

Set your Cream Cheese Stuffed Cherry Tomatoes on a serving platter, cover, and chill until ready to serve.