Say "Cheese"

A friend posted this easy recipe on her Facebook status this weekend as she was cooking for Thursday. I know she is a fabulous cook so I was happy to get one of her recipes. I had (almost) everything on hand already. So I quickly made it when we got home from the family dinner on Thursday. It was our post-Thanksgiving treat.

It is supposed to be shaped into a ball with the preserves spooned over the top, but I really wanted to use this favorite serving dish so we re-arranged the assembly part. I will actually make it into a ball next time. Thanks, Jackie, for a wonderful recipe and for letting me share it here. We'll use one this again and again, I'm sure.

Rosemary Goat Cheese Ball

4 oz. goat cheese
8 oz. cream cheese, softened
1 teaspoon honey
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 tablespoon fresh chopped rosemary
fig preserves

Mix cheeses, honey, pepper and rosemary until blended. Shape into a ball. Spoon fig preserves over the ball and serve with crackers or crudites.


Jackie's recipe calls for fig preserves and I had a jar of homemade fig preserves in the pantry. I will say it's a perfect combination, but I'm sure you could use another flavor. What I didn't have on hand was the honey so I substituted some light corn syrup and that worked.  Don't be skimpy with the pepper or the rosemary. It took longer than I thought to grind a teaspoon of pepper, but I'm glad I didn't stop when I wanted to.

Tonight the "big game*" will be on television so we will pull this out of the refrigerator for a game appetizer. How nice to have it ready and waiting.

*The Clemson/University of South Carolina football rivalry dates back to the 1880s. The game series has been played uninterrupted since 1909.