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B3 Cheese Ball (Blue cheese, Boursin, and Bacon) is super creamy, has the perfect amount of blue cheese and garlic herb blend with just a touch of bacon.  Guests will ask for the every time they come over.

 

How was your holiday?  Ours was quiet.  It’s usually just us and dog now.  Dad and R have their own quiet holiday.  They’re the only family that’s close.  Everyone else is at least a day’s drive or flight from here.  Sometimes two days in Mom’s case.

 

Since we’re early risers, I assembled a delicious strata the night before with the left over garlic knots we had from Friday.  It was always my intention to use those suckers for something.  I was bound and determined to use Them this time, by God!  So, I did.  You’ll just have to wait for that one.  It’ll be along soon enough.

 

Usually I do a quiche.  It was a tradition in our family when I was growing up.  But this Christmas I thought I’d change things up a bit.  I mean, I didn’t even make the steamed pudding!  Sacrilege!  I know!!  I told you I really wasn’t in the spirit of Christmas this year, didn’t I?  There’s the proof.

 

 

Anyway.

 

This time, for breakfast, I made a delicious ham and cheddar strata with those leftover garlic knots.  It was delicious.  And it was early enough but not too early to sort of nibble our way through the day until the fabulous rib roast dinner.  That’s where this recipe comes in.

 

You see, I remember Mom doing a pine cone cheese log.  I think the recipe is in the family cookbook.  Don’t quote me on that one, though.  It always looked so pretty and, well, it’s cheese so of COURSE it’s going to taste delicious.  And that’s where I was headed with this recipe.

 

Her cheese log used whole almonds and I didn’t want to use whole almonds.  That’s an awful lot of nuts for just the two of us.  I saw several on Pinterest that used sliced almonds.  Well, that’s obviously the route I took.  Just look at how pretty it is!!!

 

 

Now, a word to the wise on the almonds.  Get the bag from the baking aisle.  It was my intention to cover the whole ball with almonds.  I thought I’d be all cutesy and get the sliced almonds from the produce aisle that’s a salad topping.  DO NOT DO THIS!

 

Those almonds, or at least mine were, almost ground to a pulp, extremely brittle, and just didn’t hold up to being stuck in my cheese ball.  The hubs thought the cheese ball was too hard.  Nope.  These almonds just kept breaking.  Get the ones from the baking aisle.  If you want them toasted, just toast them yourself.

 

 

The cheese combination is part of a recipe I made when S and I were first together.  I even think it was our first holiday together, but don’t quote me on that.  It was a blue cheese and butter recipe I found in a magazine, I think.  And it was oh so delicious!!

 

Since this was our first holiday together in almost forever, I thought I’d recreate that cheese ball, but a little different.  Most cheese ball recipes include some type of cream cheese.  I thought I’d skip that and combine the blue cheese with a garlic and shallot Boursin cheese, which wasn’t what I ordered.  The Harris Teeter I shop from was out of what I ordered, but had this shallot and garlic version that was NOT on their website.  I was tickled!  It was the exact flavor I was looking for.

 

I don’t know about you, but I can’t seem to have blue cheese without bacon.  Please tell me I’m not alone in this one?  It’s the perfect smoky flavor that just complements the flavor of blue cheese that is just delicious in my book.  So, I had to add some bacon to this cheese ball.

 

 

As if all this new stuff wasn’t enough, I tried out my Tupperware toy I got.  Oh?  You didn’t know I was selling Tupperware?  Well, I am, sort of.  You’ll see bits and pieces pop into my recipes every now and then.  I have a mini chopper I got as swag from the Food and Wine Conference which I LOVE!  Since the hubs got a swag bag, too, he had one that we gave to Dad.  He LOVES it!!  Uses it all the time.  And so do we.

 

It literally took seconds to whip this together.  A few pulls on the handle and voila a cheese ball is made.  And all these pieces and parts are dishwasher safe!  LOVE that, too.  I know that blade doesn’t look really sharp, but trust me when I say it is.  Just trust…

 

 

OH!  And the final new item to this recipe.  I took these photos with my new Nikon camera the hubs got me for Christmas.  Yup.  He knows how important this blog is to me.  He thought I should have a professional camera that’s light enough to take on events, like the Whole Foods one, and professional enough to take excellent photos for my blog.

 

It’s a bit of a learning curve again.  It’s been so long since I’ve used a real camera and not my phone.  LOL!  I have to drag out my tripod and all that photographer stuff have in my camera backpack.  It’s been so long.  I know I’ve said that already.  But it truly has.  And I’m just thrilled with his gift.  I’ve used it a few times.  The best part is I can transfer the pics to my phone! Through Wi-Fi!!  How cool is that?

 

 

See how pretty this B3 Cheese Ball is?  A new recipe made with my new Tupperware blender and taken with my new Nikon camera.  Oh, and let me tell you it’s delicious!  It almost melts in your mouth.  We devoured half of on Christmas Day and the other half on Monday.  So so good.  I can’t wait to make this one again.  Maybe we need a cheese ball for New Year’s.  What do you think?

 

I started with a family tradition, and made my own.  A bit of old, a bit of new, and whole lot of delicious!!  This cheese ball tastes amazing.  The blue cheese meshes with the creamy Boursin and its garlic and shallot flavor.  The smoky salty flavor of the bacon enhances the blue cheese.  The little bit of butter just makes it all melt in your mouth.  I’m drooling.  Anyone have a tissue??

 

Do you make cheese balls or logs for the holidays?  What’s your favorite recipe?