Once Upon a Snowman

Just take a little off the top, he won’t mind…

A classic appetizer at any of our parties, the cheese ball assembles quickly, is inexpensive, and is always a crowd pleaser.  Cheese balls tend to be workhorses of the entertaining scene, so don’t be surprised if people are still scraping away at it as the party is winding down.

Our snowman version was something our children developed when they wanted to take a treat to their hardworking teachers during parent teacher conferences.  A classic cheese ball is rolled in chopped nuts, but because our school is nut-free we found that bread crumbs offered an excellent alternative and actually added to the visual appeal of the snowman.

Ingredients

• 8 oz cream cheese (room temperature)
• 2 cups cheddar cheese
• 4 oz Deviled ham ¹
• 1/2 cup walnuts, chopped (optional)
• 1/2 cup green onions, sliced (optional)
• 1/2 cup bread crumbs
• 1/4 cup white cornmeal
• 12 black peppercorns ²
• 3 red pepper, sliced and skinned
• 1 wedge carrot

Preparation

1. In a small bowl, combine cream cheese, cheddar cheese and deviled ham.  Mix well.
2. If desired, add green onions and walnuts.
3. Form cheese mixture into three progressively smaller balls; just like making a snowman, only smaller.
4. In a shallow dish combine cornmeal and breadcrumbs.
5. Roll each ball in the cornmeal/crumb mixture, leaving the top and bottom exposed so that the balls will stick to each other.
6. Decorate will remaining ingredients.  Peppercorns for the buttons and eyes, carrot nose, and red pepper slices for a scarf.  When making the scarf I actually only use the skin of the red pepper.
7. Serve chilled with crackers