I hope you all had an awesome New Year’s Eve and are having a great start to 2013!
Bill and I celebrated NYE at home with a fondue party and these mouthwatering Smoked Salmon Cheese Balls. We like to stay pretty low key for all of the holiday festivities.
But boy, do we like to eat!
We usually make enough food for 12 people on NYE… if that tells you anything.
Aaaaaaaaaaand here’s the debut of my hand on the blog. Does this picture make me look fat?
If you’re anything like us, you’ll pretty much love any cheese filled ball covered in parsley.
This particular cheese ball is loaded with Neufchâtel cheese, a little Greek yogurt, lemon juice, Worcestershire sauce, and a few green onions. If you love green onions, it wouldn’t hurt to double that part of the recipe. The flavor of the salmon isn’t overpowering by any means, but the smoky flavor really stands out. It’s a good idea to look for a high quality brand of smoked salmon since it’s the star of the show here.
Just remember to plan ahead with this one – there’s a 4 hour chill time.
I’m bad at paying attention to things like that.
So how are you all doing with your resolutions so far?
I don’t really do “resolutions” anymore, but I do have a series of small goals for myself for 2013 which are:
- Redesign the look of Simply Fresh Cooking. Our 1 year anniversary is coming up in March, and I’d like to make it look more clean and professional. I’ll be making the switch to Thesis soon!!
- Lose weight and exercise more. Okay, it’s starting to sound like I do have resolutions, but I just don’t want to call them that! So don’t sass me on this one, peeps!
- Get myself healthy (like for real already). This should have been #1 on the list. By healthy, I don’t mean food-wise (I do okay with that generally). I mean that I have a loooooong list of chronic health problems that I need to get fixed in order to accomplish #1 and #2 on my list.
Without going into too much detail – I’ve been sick for about 5 years. I had 2 back to back surgeries to fix 2 separate issues back in 2011, and I finally started feeling better around the time that I first launched Simply Fresh Cooking earlier this year.
But then… things drastically changed for me, and now I have yet another surgery scheduled on January 10th to remove an infection I’ve had brewing somewhere in my nasal area. I’ve got my fingers crossed that this will solve a lot of problems for me!
Wish me luck, and thank you all for being here and for your support!! You guys are the best!
Rachael xoxo
Recipe Source: Whole Foods
- 1 (8 ounces) package Changing Seas Norwegian Smoked Salmon, roughly chopped
- 1 (8 ounces) package Neufchâtel cheese
- ¼ cup 365 Everyday Value Nonfat Plain Greek Yogurt
- 2 tablespoons lemon juice
- 2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce
- 3 green onions, roughly chopped
- ¾ cup finely chopped flat-leaf parsley, divided
- Place all ingredients except for parsley into a food processor and pulse until combined, but not perfectly smooth. Transfer to a bowl, cover and chill until very cold, about 4 hours. Arrange half of the chopped parsley on a plate. Keeping half of salmon mixture chilled, spoon other half onto parsley. Sprinkle parsley all over to coat, and shape into a ball. Repeat with remaining parsley and salmon mixture. (If you want to make smaller cheese balls, keep the cheese mixture very cold and work quickly.) Cover and chill until ready to serve.
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This looks delish – we love smoked salmon!! Good luck with your surgery – I wish you a fast and speedy recovery! xo
Thanks Liz! You’re such a sweetie pie!
I love anything salmon and anything cheesy, so of course I’m loving this dish! I’m crossing my fingers for your speedy recovery for your upcoming surgery too!
Thanks Mike!
I switched to Thesis a couple months ago – I had a couple issues in the beginning with plugin compatibility, so if you run into any problems, feel free to drop me a line!I’d be happy to help if I can
My first blogiversary is coming up too, in just a couple weeks! It’s weird, honestly. I can’t believe it has been that long
Hi Jennifer! Thanks for the offer! I really appreciate that! I think I’m going to have to hire someone to help me out. I was messing around in there and somehow I messed something up.. so when I activate Thesis, my site is blank. I can’t figure out how to fix that myself.
Congrats on your first year!!!!!! How exciting!
Delicious!!
I thought you’d like these Steve!
Hi Rachael ! Thanks a lot for your lovely comments and wish you a speedy recovery and see you in good health very soon.
Thank you Sonali!
This cheese ball looks good. Heck… any cheese ball looks good! I’ll be sending positive vibes your way as far as your surgery goes.
Thanks Katie!
Ah, so decadent. I imagine it tastes fairly similar to my smoked salmon pâté?
Lovely to sit with a mass of this and some crackers and reminisce over Christmas.
Xx
Looks yummy! I might try this with some fresh dill!
YES!! That would be perfect, Riley!
1. This cheese ball looks deeelish!! Your pictures are awesome!
2. I hope the surgery went well and that you have a speedy recovery!!
3. Excited to see the changes coming in March!!
Hey Nicole! Thanks for the compliment!
Surgery went great! Just laying in bed while the hubs tends to me. Thanks!
Hi , the salmon looks gorgeous, i am off to the shops !