I must take a moment from all of the recent Christmas and New Year’s hullabaloo and share with everyone the most wonderful holiday discovery I’ve made to date. A few days before Thanksgiving, my father made a cheese ball…and so it began.
This was not an ordinary cheeseball, but something much more, my first words upon tasting it were, “Ugh. It tastes like it has too much garlic!”. Then I tried some more, turns out there was no garlic at all. Then I tried some more…and have had at least one cheeseball a week since Thanksgiving. It’s an addiction, an addiction that starts with an unassuming glass jar full of Armour dried beef. A little glass jar that you will have en mass if you too fall under the cheese ball spell.
This cheese ball originates with Armour’s recipe for “Beefy Cheese Ball”. Here is Armour’s recipe:
- 1 2.25 oz jar Amour Sliced Dried Beef, rinsed, finely chopped
- 1 8oz. package cream cheese, softened
- 1/4 cup sour cream
- 1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
- 1 tsp. horseradish
- assorted crackers
Combine 1/4 cup dried beef, cream cheese, sour cream, Parmesan cheese and horseradish, blending thoroughly. Refrigerate mixture 15 minutes. Form into a ball and roll in remaining dried beef. Chill thoroughly. Serve as an appetizer with crackers.
Now, actually making a cheese ball seems like too much work, so here is my recipe for making this into a dip:
- 1 2.25 oz jar Amour Sliced Dried Beef, finely chopped
- 1 8oz. package 1/3 less fat cream cheese, softened
- 1/2 cup sour cream
- 1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
- 2 green onions, washed, finely chopped
- Ritz crackers
Place the cream cheese in a glass mixing bowl and place in microwave for 30 seconds. Mash/mix it with a fork until it is creamy and add in the sour cream. I am guessing it’s 1/2 a cup sour cream, it’s two heaping dinner table spoon’s worth. Mix the cream cheese and sour cream well. Chop up the onions and add them to the mix. Chop up the beef, I don’t rinse it because it sticks together and doesn’t mix well when rinsed. I keep the beef stacked and cut it into thin strips lengthwise and crosswise. Mix the chopped beef into the bowl, once everything is well blended, add in the Parmesan cheese.
The extra sour cream makes it a dip consistency…which comes in handy since I never actually rolled the cheese ball into a ball, I just ate it out of the bowl anyway. You can transfer the dip to a decorative bowl or leave it in the glass mixing bowl if you don’t have to impress anyone. Try it, it’s awesome.