The Cheese Ball Story

I spent 3½ years doing a PhD with a Scholarship from MAFTech Ruakura, an international research organisation where I did most of my scientific research.

During that time one of my friends from the laboratory became engaged – and asked me to organise a staff bridal shower (party) for her! Having no idea at all what this entailed, I devised a party for her to the best of my abilities, with games, vegetarian snacks and juices. When the guests arrived at the social club they found themselves playing charades, pass the parcel, musical chairs, balloon games, racing paper fish, guess the celebrity and many others. They threw themselves into it whole heartedly and enjoyed themselves immensely. To my chagrin someone brought along a cask of wine – but this was taken away unopened after the party because everyone had had such a good time, they had forgotten about it.

I found out later that a real bridal shower was supposed to be a party with loud music, dancing and drinking alcohol. In the remaining two years of my time at MAFTech I was asked to organize eight more of these parties by all of the girls who became engaged – and they were all big hits!

At one party one of the research scientists brought along a cheese ball – which was a popular feature of all of the ensuing parties – and the recipe is below:

SERIOUSLY NICE CHEESE BALL In a food processor: ½ onion, chopped a bit 1 clove fresh garlic, crushed Process until fine. Add: A good dash of vegetarian Worcester sauce Black pepper to taste 250g grated tasty cheese 250g cream cheese Process well. Roll into a ball (or a log) and roll in: Chopped nuts, toasted (peanuts are okay but my personal favourite is roasted cashews). Wrap in plastic wrap and chill overnight. Absolutely delicious on crackers!

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