This year all of our children and two granddaughters will be home for Christmas. The last thing I want is to spend large amounts of time in the kitchen preparing complicated recipes. I want to spend as much time as I possibly can enjoying our kids and spoiling my granddaughters beyond reason. My list of fun holiday activities to do grows longer every day!

My goal this year is to find delicious recipes that are quick and easy to make. My family is going to love this Rosemary and Cranberry Cheese Ball. I’m a big fan of sweet dried cranberries, and I think just about anything tastes better with a little cream cheese. I was surprised to find the recipe calls for garlic salt. The combination of the garlic salt, rosemary and pecans give this spread a rich, robust flavor.

Serve this spread with bagel chips or your favorite crackers, it’s a great addition to any celebration or perfect for a decadent afternoon snack!

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Print

Rosemary and Cranberry Cheese Ball

Course Appetizer

Author Adapted by Made From Pinterest

Ingredients

• 8 ounces cream <g class="gr_ gr_55 gr-alert gr_gramm Punctuation only-del replaceWithoutSep" id="55" data-gr-id="55">cheese </g> softened
• 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
• 4 tablespoons dried sweetened cranberries
• 2 teaspoons chopped fresh rosemary
• fresh cracked pepper and kosher salt
• 1 to 1 1/2 roughly chopped pecans

Instructions

• In a medium mix cream cheese, garlic powder, dried sweetened cranberries, rosemary, <g class="gr_ gr_52 gr-alert gr_gramm Punctuation only-ins replaceWithoutSep" id="52" data-gr-id="52">salt</g> and pepper.
• Serve with crackers or toasted baguette slices.

Notes

Recipe adapted from Life's Ambrosia

 Enjoy more fantastic appetizer recipes at Made From Pinterest!

Bacon Wrapped Tater Tot Bombs

Mississippi Sin Dip

Pineapple and Ham Cheese Ball

The post Rosemary and Cranberry Cheese Ball appeared first on TGIF - This Grandma is Fun.

* We’re sharing our favorite links from last week’s party at the beginning of today’s party.  Check them out and then keep scrolling down for the link party.  Hope you’ve had a happy Thanksgiving!

Thanks for participating in the Best Recipes and DIY Projects Party last week!  We’re thrilled to share some of our favorite links from last week’s link party with you.

You may still be enjoying leftovers from your Thanksgiving feast.  What was your favorite part?  There are some parts of Thanksgiving that are just too yummy to give up after dinner’s over, and we can’t help but try to enjoy them as long as we can.  One of those would be cranberries.  Oh, how we love those tangy berries of perfect red!  We spotted some cranberry recipes that were linked up, and we can’t wait to try them!

White Chocolate Cranberry Cheesecake Bars from Simply Stacie

Fresh Cranberry Jam from This Simple Silly Girl’s Life

Cranberry Pecan Kale Salad from Practical Stewardship

Cranberry and Orange Hand Pies from Annie’s Noms

Holiday Mulled Cranberry Tea from The Kitchen Is My Playground

Now, let’s get this party started!

 Happy Weekend, everyone! We’re delighted that you came to our party. The link-up is live and ready for you to share your recipes, DIY projects and crafts, just make sure you follow these guidelines:

1. When you link up, you are giving us permission to feature your project and pictures on our blogs and social media with a link back to you.
2. We’ll feature our favorite projects from this weekend’s party at the beginning of next week’s link party.
3. Weekly favorites will also be pinned to our Link Party Favorites Board on Pinterest!
4. Add a text link back to the host blog.
5. You can link up any post you’ve created during this past week.
6. We’re excited about your handmade items, but this link party is limited to blog posts only. Please don’t linkup your Etsy shop.
7. Share the love and comment on two or more of the other projects that are linked up. We all love comments!

This party starts every Friday at 5 P.M. MST, and keeps going until the following Tuesday evening. Feel free to invite others to join in the fun!

Thanks for participating! Your Hosts,

Ruthie from Cooking With Ruthie, Jeni from Bakerette, Mandy from Mandy’s Recipe Box, Dan and Chris from Live Dan 330, and Deb, Tracy, and Sheri from Made From Pinterest

The post Best Recipes & DIY Project Link Party #72 appeared first on TGIF - This Grandma is Fun.

I’m sure our family is a lot like yours in the sense that there are just certain goodies that your family MUST have during the holidays.  What is on your absolute must have goodie list?  For my kids it is my mothers fudge, (which to this day I STILL can’t make right!)  English Toffee, Almond Joys and Snowball Cookies. So this week I will be making and freezing some goodies before everyone gets here.

But this year I am adding a must-have goodie of my own!

Enter these White Chocolate Cranberry Blondies that I pinned from Taste of Home.  I have read that they are almost exactly like Starbuck’s Cranberry Bliss Cookies and it’s no surprise that Starbuck’s would sell some scrumptious morsels like these!  The tartness of the craisins with the white chocolate and cream cheese frosting is definitely Christmas worthy!

I love that these are a bar-type cookie and can be made in one pan and then just cut and serve.  These would also make a beautiful presentation for a wedding or baby shower.

I would definitely recommend adding these White Chocolate Cranberry Blondies to YOUR must-have goodie list.  Your family will love you for it!

This Pin Rocks!

Print

White Chocolate Cranberry Blondies

Course Dessert

Author madefrompinterest.net

Ingredients

• 3/4 cup butter
• 1 1/2 cups packed light brown sugar
• 2 eggs
• 3/4 teaspoon vanilla
• 2 1/4 cups flour
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/8 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/2 cup dried Craisins
• 6 ounces white chocolate chips
• FROSTING:
• 1 package 8 ounces cream cheese, softened
• 1 cup powdered sugar
• 1 tablespoon grated orange peel optional
• 6 ounces white chocolate chips melted
• 1/2 cup Craisins chopped

Instructions

• Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.
• Melt your butter in the microwave and then pour into the brown sugar. Mix well. Let cool to room temperature. Next beat in eggs and vanilla.
• In a separate bowl, mix together the flour, baking powder, salt and cinnamon then gradually add the dry ingredients into the butter mixture.
• Stir in cranberries and white chocolate chips. (batter will be thick).
• Grease a 9 x 13 dish and press mixture in. Bake for 18-21 minutes or until an inserted toothpick comes out clean (do not overbake).
• Let cool.
• Frosting:
• Blend together the cream cheese, powdered sugar and orange peel if desired. ( I did not include the orange peel) Gradually add half of the melted white chocolate chips and beat until well blended.
• Frost the cooled blondies. Sprinkle with the chopped cranberries then drizzle with remaining melted white chocolate.
• Let the drizzled chocolate cool and harden then you can cut into bars. I like to cut into a rectangle shape then cut each rectangle in half into a triangle shape.
• These are also beautiful for wedding and baby showers!

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