Bestest Cheese Ball Ever!

OMG!  This is the very best cheese ball I've ever had.  I was looking for something tropical for my Bigelow Tea Life of Pi Oscars Party and this recipe from Just a Pinch fit the bill.  :)

The mixture of cheese, pineapple, apricots and candied ginger were absolutely perfect on crackers.  The next morning it was a huge hit with scrambled eggs wrapped up in a tortilla.  Major yum!

Party Time Tropical Cheese Ball

1 package cream cheese, soft
1 (18.25 oz.) crushed pineapple, drained
2 cups shredded cheddar cheese
1/2 cup chopped pecans
1/2 cup dried apricots, chopped
1/2 cup crystallized ginger, chopped
shredded coconut

Combine cream cheese and pineapple in a medium bowl, mix well.  Add everything else but the coconut and mix well.

Empty the ingredients onto a large sheet of plastic wrap, roll into a ball and seal.  Refrigerate until firm.  Unwrap and roll in coconut.  Serve with crackers or with hot scrambled eggs and a tortilla.  :)

Sweet and Spicy Chicken Bites

Another great recipe from my Bigelow Tea Life of Pi Oscars Party.  This one I actually came across on pinterest from Have Recipes-Will Cook.  They looked like a tasty island like food.  I could see roasting these over an open fire on a beach.  :)  Sweet and spicy chicken bites were a huge hit at the party.  There were no leftovers.  I think I only got one myself.  The combo of the cayenne with the dark brown sugar was absolutely perfect!

This was also one of the easiest recipes!  Cube the chicken, wrap it in bacon and roll in the sugar mixture.  Easy peasy!  I bet you could even do everything but coat it in the sugar mixture to prep it.

Sweet and Spicy Chicken Bites

1 1/4 pounds of boneless skinless chicken breasts
1 pound thick cut bacon
2/3 cup dark brown sugar
2 tablespoons chili powder
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
toothpicks

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  Line a rimmed baking sheet with aluminum foil and grease.  Set aside.

Cut the chicken into 1 inch cubes.  Cut bacon strips into thirds.  Wrap chicken cubes in bacon and secre with a toothpick.

In a shallow bowl, whisk together brown sugar, cayenne pepper and chili powder. Roll wrapped chicken in mixture until coated on all sides.  Place on prepared baking sheet.

Bake for 30-35 minutes or until the bacon is crisp.  Serve with ranch dip.

Korean Pulled Pork

We love all things Korean and pulled pork so when I saw this recipe, I knew it would be a winner.  It so was, not too spicy but oh so yummy.  This isn't the best photo of the actual pulled pork, but its extremely dark in color.  The only thing I have changed is to leave out the whole star anise.  It is impossible to find whole star anise anywhere and trust me I looked.

Korean Pulled Pork

1/2 cup light soy sauce
1/2 cup hoisin sauce
3 tablespoons ketchup
3 tablespoons rice vinegar
1 heaping tablespoon honey
3 cloves garlic, smashed
1 1/2 tablespoon grated fresh ginger
2 tablespoons sesame oil
3 heaping tablespoons gochujang
2 pounds pork shoulder

Grease your crock pot add pork shoulder, cutting to fit if necessary.  In a small bowl, combine rest of ingredients and whisk.  Pour over pork and cook on high until tender, 3-4 hours.  When done allow to cool and shred pork.

Wholesome Wednesday: Whole Wheat Hawaiian Rolls

Here's one of the many recipes from my Bigelow Tea Life of Pi Oscars Party.  I absolutely love Hawaiian rolls but wanted something a little healthier, hence my whole wheat version.  By now you know that I use my bread machine to cut corners whenever I can.  It's amazing to be able to throw all my ingredients into the machine and walk away knowing it will make perfect dough. :)

Whole Wheat Hawaiian Rolls

1 egg yolk
3/4 cup pineapple juice
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
2 tablespoons butter
1 cup bread flour
1 cup wheat flour
1 cup white flour
2 tablespoons dry milk
2 1/2 teaspoons organic sugar
2 1/2 teaspoons yeast

This is the order my bread machine uses for ingredients.  But if your's lists them in a different order, definitely follow the manufacturer's directions.  Put all ingredients in bread machine and set to dough cycle.

When bread machine beeps, remove freshly risen dough from machine to a floured surface.  Punch dough down, divide dough into 12 equal portions and shape into rolls.  Place seam side down in a greased 9 x 13 inch baking pan.  Allow to rise until doubled in size.  Bake at 350 degrees for 20-30 minutes.  When done you can brush the tops with butter.

Life of Pi Oscar Party with Bigelow Tea-tinis!

Alison:  So, the Oscars are a great excuse to throw a party.  Some glamour and glitz always pairs well with some good food and drinks.

Susie:  You speak the truth!  Any excuse to get together is a good one and why not celebrate some good movies like the Life of Pi.

Alison:  Luckily, I had a few new recipes I wanted to try out.  Including mixing some of our favorite Bigelow Teas into delicious cocktails.

Susie:  Off to Walmart we went to pick up party ingredients.  I'm betting they have a good selection of Bigelow Tea.

Alison:  They didn't have as large a selection of tea as I'd hoped.  For such a large retailer I was surprised to see only a few varieties of Bigelow tea on the shelf.  Also so poorly stocked.  :(

Susie:  But Walmart did have everything else we needed for our party.  Check out the rest of our trip on Google+.

Alison:  Since we recently saw the Life of Pi, we decided to go for a tropical menu.  It was nominated for quite a few categories and we loved the movie.

Susie:  So, we gathered up a few healthy choices with some lean meats and lots of tropical fruit.

Alison:  The Life of Pi is about survival on the open sea.  Not a bad way to structure a meal working to a full nutritional meal.  Pi and Richard Parker are limited to mostly fish for food.  Living in the Midwest, we opted for some crab.  We don't get a large variety of freshly caught fish this far away from the ocean.

Susie:  We paired our shrimp with coconut.  A magical food with all kinds of health benefits.  Not to mention a flavor we love.

Alison: We made some other island inspired foods with pulled pork sandwiches, crab rangoon and fruit salad.

Susie:  Basically, we had all the major food groups with pork, chicken, crab, and beef.  We had fruits, mushrooms, grains, dairy.

Alison:  Of course, all those dishes took time.  We had only two days to create everything from scratch.

Susie:  Luckily, we went simple and focused on flavors rather than fancy cooking techniques.

Alison:  We stayed away from the lure of oils and fats.  We opted to bake everything in the oven rather than fry it in oils.  It takes a little longer but it's a whole lot healthier.

Susie:  Not to mention that it's a lot safer.  Being spattered by hot oil is never fun.  Plus, it's almost entirely unavoidable.

Alison:  After two entire days in the kitchen it was time to set up for our Bigelow Tea Life of Pi Oscar party.  

Susie:  We love Bigelow Tea because of their variety of flavors.  They are always making new ones for us to try out.  There is no way that we could ever have too much of it.

Alison: With Bigelow we can get our caffeine fix without getting an overload.  We found their newest flavor White Chocolate.  Plus their Pomegranate Green allowed us some perfect drink flavors.

Susie:  We decorated with blues and greens to match our island themed food.  Then we set out to mix and set out all of our food.

Alison:  Our guests loved our Tea-tinis.  They even got a full meal while thinking they were only eating party food!

Susie:  We spent some time watching the pre-show while we talked about who would win what.

Alison:  Our bets weren't far off as we thought the Life of Pi would be a big winner this year.

Susie:  We even tried to take some ideas from the movie to play I-Spy but we were much too busy filling our plates.

Alison:  Right.  I-Spy something with coconut!

Susie: Is it the shrimp?  Or the the brownies?  Or the cheese ball?

Alison:  No, it's the white chocolate coconut tea-tini!

Susie: Luckily, we still have some more tea so we can mix up some more!

Alison:  Our party was definitely a hit!

Susie: We were able to spread some good nutrition and culture.


Alison:  Not to mention an amazing array of laughs.

Susie: No party is complete without some laughter!

Did you know that Bigelow Tea is having a Life of Pi contest?  You can enter up till March 20th!  Don't forget to watch for Life of Pi coming out on Blu-ray and DVD March 12th at your local Walmart!

We'll have recipes from our party to share soon!

I am a member of the Collective Bias® Social Fabric® Community.  This shop has been compensated as part of a social shopper insights study for Collective Bias® and Bigelow Tea #CBias #SocialFabric #AmericasTea All opinions are my own.