Once there was a snow...cockapoo?

We hit another exciting milestone yesterday...10,000,000 pageviews! We never imagined this would take off in the first year like it has. Thank you everyone for being brave enough to send us your projects and for reading and sharing the posts. You all are awesome. Give yourself a high five! 

Okay, on to the post. 

I LOVE cheeseballs. Love them. They're just so yummy and pretty looking. Well, they're pretty looking until you dig into them and then it's just a pile of cheese...but then they taste awesome, so it makes up for the look. You pretty much can put just about anything in a cheeseball, and some people even get super creative with theirs. Take for example this one:

The Original Pin

http://lessthanperfectlifeofbliss.blogspot.ca/2010/12/sure-hes-cheesy-but-hes-oh-so-cute.html

Cute, isn't it?! When I first looked at it I thought it was a sweet cheese ball with coconut on it (to dip cookies in), but then I read the link and saw that it's a mozzarella garlic cheeseball, and that sounds heavenly too. Mel saw this and decided to give it a go. 

Mel said, "My pinstrosity occurred last year!" (small interjection...I love that she had a picture of this saved months before Pinstrosity ever came into creation) "I needed something to bring in to work for our Christmas get together. I found instructions to make a fabulous cheese ball and with my limited skills, thought even I could make it. Nope."

The Pinstrosity

"The first photo I have attached shows how mine turned out.

The second photo shows are remarkable resemblance to a cockapoo, don't you think?"

http://www.lancasterpuppies.com/puppy-for-sale/cockapoo/danny-1

Bahahaha, I love it. I love the resemblance to the cockapoo too. 

So let's dissect this thing. It's really just a few small things actually that would have taken this from a cockapoo to a snowman. 

First, from my limited experience with making cheeseballs, it can be so hard to get those dang things really round! In the original one the bottom ball is kinda squished, but the head is pretty dang good (or at least that could have been the good side of the cheeseball and so that's why she used it for the face). So a rounder head would have upped the presentation, but I know that's not the easiest. I found I get rounder cheeseballs if I just work it with my hands and I don't try to roll it in a bowl or on the counter (both tips I read online with the various cheeseballs I've made). Your hands get gooey, but you get a better "sphere". 

Second, the sizes of the cheeseballs. You've got to have a larger snowman body than head to get it to look like a snowman. Just a little smaller of a head on Mel's and the shape would have been perfect. 

Third, the cheese. The recipe calls for finely shredded mozzarella for the outside, and I think the finer you can get it the better. In the original you can see that the cheese is grated pretty thin. This will help give it the right look. Too thick of grated cheese and your snowman goes from snowy to hairy. And then as much mozzarella as you can get to stick, the better. 

Fourth, if you want to be nit-picky...the hat. If you do one large circle and two small circles of toast you'll get more of a top hat look and less of a beanie look. But the beanie look is cute to!

So go forth and create awesome snowmen...or cockapoos, because either way I'm sure they taste great.