Fisher Nutty Bacon Cheese Ball

This is one of the recipes I meant to blog about but never did. The pictures had been uploaded, so I figured I'd go ahead and post it. The Christmas party for my MOMS Club was one night last week, and everyone was asked to bring an appetizer or dessert. I chose appetizer, and was trying to come up with something to make when I remembered this cheese ball recipe I'd made once before several years ago. I saw it on an episode of Oprah around Christmastime and had bookmarked it. I don't know how I thought of it, but I figured it would be tasty. I mean really...cheese and bacon?! How can you go wrong?! Paula Deen prepared the recipe, but apparently it's from a KitchenAid mixer cookbook, so any of the mixer references in the recipe refer to that.

Fisher Nutty Bacon Cheese Ball

1 package (8 ounces) cream cheese , softened
1/2 cup milk
2 cups shredded sharp cheddar cheese
1/4 cup (1 ounce) blue cheese , crumbled
1/4 cup finely minced green onions (white part only)
1 jar diced pimento , drained
3/4 cup Fisher pecans , divided
10 slices bacon , cooked, drained, finely crumbled and divided
Salt and pepper
1/4 cup minced parsley
1 tablespoon poppy seeds

Place cream cheese in mixer bowl. Attach bowl and flat beater to mixer. Turn to Speed Two and mix 1 minute. Stop and scrape bowl. Turn to Speed Two and gradually add milk, mixing until well blended about 1 minute. Stop and scrape bowl. Add cheeses, onions, pimientos, half of the bacon and half the pecans. Turn to Speed 4 and beat until well blended, about another minute. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Transfer mixture to a large piece of plastic wrap. Form into a ball and wrap tightly.

Repeat with the remaining mixture. Refrigerate (or freeze) at least 2 hours.

Combine the remaining bacon and remaining pecans, parsley and poppy seeds in a pie plate. Then, remove the plastic wrap and roll the cheese ball lightly in the bacon/nut mixture until evenly coated. Wrap it back up in plastic wrap and refrigerate again until ready to use.

*****

Since it had literally been years since I made this I didn't really remember anything about the recipe. I questioned the addition of the milk, but I went with it...and then regretted it. I really don't think it was necessary as the mixture didn't hold together hardly at all. I put it in the freezer for two hours hoping that would help bring it together more than just having it in the fridge, but when two hours was up the outside of the ball was frozen and the middle was still really squishy. I reshaped it in the plastic wrap and let it go a little longer. I thought about taking something different, but I didn't want to have to stop at the store, so I went ahead and took it, even though it was more cheese blob than ball. THere were only a few bites left at the end of the night, so it tasted fine, it just didn't look the greatest. I think next time I will either skip the milk entirely or cut it back to 1/4 cup or less. I made two cheese balls out of the recipe and have the second one in the freezer, saving it for Christmas.





I have to say that I was pretty pleased with my "plating." Since I had to take it somewhere I wanted an easy way to transport it, so I stuck the cheese blog in a pie plate and then surrounded with crackers. I thought it was ingenious!!