• Recipes from the Road
• Appetizers
• Cakes
• Breads
• Havasu Cookbook
• Havasu Magazine

Appetizers ~ Cheese Ball

                For some reason this webpage, featuring my grandmother’s cheese ball recipe, is one of the more popular pages on this website.  Interesting, considering this site’s primary topic is Havasu, not cheese balls. This cheese ball recipe is part of the recipe section of our online magazine’s Home and Garden section.  But if our visitors want cheese balls, then we will give them cheese balls!
                As far as cheese balls go, this is an excellent recipe.  In fact, it is my favorite cheese ball recipe – better (in my opinion) than any of those pre-made cheese balls you can purchase at the grocery store or from those fancy food gift catalogue stores. It came from my grandmother, who gave my sister and myself each a cheese ball during the Christmas season.  I would normally save mine, and serve the cheese ball during New Years. 
                The only glitch in making this cheese ball recipe is obtaining the ingredients, they aren’t always available at our supermarket.  This cheese ball recipe calls for those little jars of Kraft cheese (you know the jars, our parents used to save them as juice glasses, after we used the cheese to make little finger sandwiches or fill up celery sticks).  I often have difficulty finding the Kraft Roka cheese, yet not the Kraft Olde English cheese.  But whatever you do, I wouldn’t get the cheese with olives or pimentos, who wants that in a cheese ball?
 
To make the cheese ball, combine the following ingredients in a large bowl:
 
1 glass jar (5 ounces) Kraft Roka cheese
1 glass jar (5 ounces) Kraft Olde English cheese
16 ounces cream cheese
2 shakes Lawry's Seasoning Salt
1 shake garlic powder
1 teaspoon vinegar 
 
The easiest way to mix the cheese ball ingredients, is to use your hands.  If possible, wear food handling gloves, then coat your gloved hands with butter, so your fingers will be slippery.  If you must use your bare hands, please, please, wash your hands thoroughly …and that goes for your fingernails too! Coat your clean hands with butter before mixing the cheese ball ingredients.
 
Now get in there and mash those ingredients!  Squish and mix, until the cheese ball ingredients are blended well.  Then pat into a ball shape, and set on a plate, cover, and place the cheese ball in the refrigerator, to firm up.
 
You will want to prepare some nuts, for coating the outside of the ball.  I use walnuts for the outside of the cheese ball.  Take the shelled walnuts, and  give them a whirl in the food processor, or throw into a plastic zip lock bag, and smack it (with the bag sealed!) with a rolling pin, until the nuts are little bits.  Toss nuts with some parsley flakes (for color) and spread on a plate.
 
After the cheese ball has been in the refrigerator for a few hours, and has hardened, take out and pat it into a more perfect ball shape.  If you over handle, it will warm the cheese, soften the cheese ball, and that will make it necessary to re-chill the cheese ball before applying the nuts.
 
Now that the cheese ball is nice and round, and chilled firm, roll cheese ball in the nut mixture, until the cheese ball is completely coated with the nut-parsley mixture.   Set the cheese ball on a small serving plate, loosely cover with plastic wrap, and refrigerate until you are ready to serve the cheese ball.
 
We usually serve our cheese ball with crackers, or toasted bread ovals. Enjoy grandma’s cheese ball, and remember to serve it this next New Year’s Eve!

Cheese Ball Recipe,
perfect for your New Year's Eve party!

1 glass jar (5 ounces) Kraft Roka cheese
1 glass jar (5 ounces) Kraft Olde English cheese
16 ounces cream cheese
2 shakes Lawry's Seasoning Salt
1 shake garlic powder
1 teaspoon vinegar 

Bring all cheese to room temperature. Combine and form into a ball shape. Refrigerate several hours. Roll in a mixture of chopped nuts and parsley. Serve with crackers.