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An easy, eye-catching way to serve a holiday cheese ball. The best news? You can make it up to a month in advance!

Holiday Tree-Shaped Cheese Ball
Serves 7
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Prep Time
20 min
Total Time
4 hr 20 min
Prep Time
20 min
Total Time
4 hr 20 min
Ingredients
  1. 3 packages (8 ounces each) cream cheese, softened
  2. 4 cups shredded Cheddar cheese (16 ounces)
  3. 2 tablespoons basil pesto
  4. 1 tablespoon grated onion
  5. 1/4 teaspoon yellow mustard
  6. Red pepper sauce
  7. 1/4 cup finely chopped parsley or cilantro
  8. 1/4 cup pine nuts or sliced almonds
  9. 2 tablespoons chopped red bell pepper
  10. Piece of lemon peel, if desired
  11. Assorted crackers, if desired
Instructions
  1. 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.
  2. Place cheese mixtures on cookie sheet. Shape each half into cone shape to look like a pine tree.
  3. 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.
  4. 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.
Notes
  1. * A combination of fresh basil and oregano instead of the parsley or cilantro gives this tree Italian flair!
NUTRITION INFORMATION PER SERVING
  1. Serving Size: 1/4 Cup
  2. Calories 165, Total Fat 15g, Cholesterol 45mg, Sodium 180mg, Total Carbohydrate 1g, Fiber 0g, Protein 6g
Christmas Kitchen https://christmaskitchen.org/
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