Dog On A Root

 

 

 

 

Cheese balls are always a hit at parties. You can make them up a day ahead and then serve them with crackers for the enjoyment of all. But when you’re making a cheese ball for Christmas, why not turn your “Cheese Ball” into a “Christmas Wreath” in keeping with the season? This will really impress your guests or your host and their guests if this is your contribution to someone else’s party. Both recipes use the same ingredients. Or with the addition of some crushed Ritz Crackers you can also turn this recipe into smaller Cheese Balls to be presented as individual servings. Stuff Required: 16 oz cream cheese (2 x 8 oz/250 gm packs) 8 oz sharp cheddar cheese (1 x 8 oz/250 gm tub of MacLaren’s Imperial Sharp Cheese) 1 tsp Worcestershire sauce 1 tbsp onion, finely chopped 1 dash of hot sauce 3 tbsp red bell pepper, finely chopped, divided 1 dash red hot peppers flakes 3 tsp parsley Ritz crackers, crushed (optional for preparation as “Individual Cheese Balls” preparation. Do This: jim’s...

- jim Young "Gosh, oh gee, how happy I'd be, if I could only whistle." - Donald Gardner This is kind of wild. I recently uploaded to YouTube, a short video I made to accompany a Dog On A Root Article entitled “The Ghosts Of Christmas Past” . The background music in the video included four songs: “My Two Front Teeth” (written 1944) and performed by Spike Jones and his City Slickers in 1947 “Nuttin’ For Christmas” (written 1955) and performed by Barry Gordon in 1955 “Mele Kalikimaka” (written 1949) and performed by Bing Crosby in 1950 and “Christmas in Killarney” (written 1950) and performed by The Irish Rovers in 2002. Not that it counts for anything in the world of copyrights, but none of the composers of these songs are alive today. Performers Spike Jones and Bing Crosby are also deceased. When my video was uploaded to YouTube, I received a “copyright issue” notice. According to YouTube, “A copyright owner using Content ID has claimed some material in (my) video.” T...

- jim Young “Don’t it always seem to go, you don’t know what you’ve got till it’s gone?” - Joni Mitchell Tomorrow will be the first day of December, but Christmas has already arrived at our home in the little village of Loring in Northern Ontario. In fact, Christmas arrived a couple of weeks ago here with the official lighting of Santa’s Stable to announce the arrival of my favourite season. The older I get, the faster time passes it seems, so I like to extend Christmas for as long as I can to make sure I get the most out of it for each remaining season I have left. Just as all things do for everyone, Christmas has changed for me over the years. Some traditions have been passed down from generation to generation while some traditions have fallen by the wayside. Still other, newer traditions have been created that will generate fond memories of their own in years to come, for however long they may come. Sometimes I wistfully long to relive some of the old traditions.  So I do. ...