HOLIDAY TREE-SHAPED CHEESE BALL

Holiday Tree-Shaped Cheese Ball image

Provided by josamky1063

Time 4h20m

Yield 7 cups

Number Of Ingredients 11

3 (8 ounce) packages cream cheese, softened
4 cups shredded cheddar cheese (16 ounces)
2 tablespoons basil pesto
1 tablespoon grated onion
1/4 teaspoon yellow mustard
red pepper sauce
1/4 cup finely chopped parsley or 1/4 cup cilantro
1/4 cup pine nuts or 1/4 cup sliced almonds
2 tablespoons chopped red bell peppers
1 piece lemon peel, if desired
assorted cracker, if desired

Steps:

Stir together cream cheese and Cheddar cheese; divide in half. Stir pesto into 1 half; stir onion, mustard and 2 or 3 drops pepper sauce into other half. Cover each half; refrigerate about 4 hours or until firm enough to shape.
Place cheese mixtures on cookie sheet. Shape each half into cone shape to look like a pine tree.
If desired, wrap each tree, label and freeze up to 1 month. Twelve hours before serving, remove trees from freezer. Thaw in wrapper in refrigerator.
Just before serving, roll trees in parsley, pressing it evenly onto trees. Press pine nuts onto trees in string form for garland. Press bell pepper pieces onto trees for ornaments. Top each tree with star shape cut from lemon peel. Serve with crackers.

Nutrition Facts : Calories 637.2, Fat 58.7, SaturatedFat 35.2, Cholesterol 174.7, Sodium 691.2, Carbohydrate 5.3, Fiber 0.8, Sugar 0.9, Protein 24.4