Chicariffic Cheeseball

Ingredients:

• 1 red bell pepper
• 1 yellow bell pepper
• 1 orange bell pepper
• 16 ounces cream cheese, room temperature
• 2 ounces powdered ranch dressing mix
• 2 cups shredded orange cheddar
• 2 cups chow mein noodles
• 5-6 black olives

Supplies

• Cutting board and knife
• Paper candy stick, chopstick, or popsicle stick
• Hand mixer (optional)
• Measuring cups
• Mixing bowls
• Mixing spoons
• Serving bowl
• Serving dish
• Small containers
• Wax Paper

Directions

1. Soften cream cheese by setting out at room temperature for an hour or so.
2. In a bowl, mix softened cream cheese and ranch dressing mix.
3. Set aside 4 tablespoons of the cream cheese mix to use as “glue” to attach peppers and make eyes.
4. Add 1 cup of cheddar cheese to the mixing bowl and combine until almost smooth. Chill for 15 minutes.
5. Use clean hands to roll a 4-inch ball and a 3-inch ball with your hands.
6. Roll both balls in shredded cheddar cheese, pressing cheese onto the ball with hands.
7. Set the smaller ball on top and attach together by pressing a chopstick, paper craft stick, or popsicle stick down the center (Paper candy craft sticks are recommended because they are the least sharp and breakable).
8. Wrap in wax paper and refrigerate for one hour. Press into shape after refrigerating if needed.
9. Use a paring knife to cut Chica’s crest from the red pepper, a belly and a beak from the yellow pepper, and wings from the orange pepper as pictured.
10. The belly should be a flat piece, the beak- two curvy pieces, the crest -a large flat piece, and the wings-two similarly shape pieces that curve in a little at the top like shoulders. Cut the ends of Chica’s wings into a zig-zag.
11. Compare the size of the cheese ball to the pepper pieces you are cutting as you work so that you make sure the pieces you are cutting will fit. Cut pieces larger than you think you need and trim down.
12. Using dabs of cream cheese like glue, press pepper pieces into the cheese ball to create Chica.
13. Add eyes with olives and cream cheese. Put plain softened cream cheese into a baggy and trim the tip off one corner like an icing tube.
14. Squirt a small dab of cream cheese where each eye will be, then add a circle of sliced black olive. Cut small strips of olive to make eyelashes and press on.
15. Press chow mein noodles into the cheeseball around the bottom, arranging them in a thick pile all the way around Chica, to look like a nest.
16. Serve with dipping crackers. You’ll have the best Chica cheeseball this Sunshine Barn has ever seen!
     

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