Savory Sweet Cheeseball

I made a delightful cheeseball for Thanksgiving! It's only about the second one I have ever made - I guess for the longest time I thought cheeseballs were some complicated matter...but no, they are so easy!  I doubled the recipe and stored half in the freezer to take to work and that worked out great, too.  So here is what I did:

Sweet and Savory Cheeseball
2 blocks cream cheese, softened a bit at room temp
4 c. grated cheddar (use the small grating holes)
1 bunch green onions, finely chopped
Small bag dried and sweetened cranberries from Trader Joe's (about a cup)
sliced almonds

 I mixed the cream cheese with the green onions on the lowest mixer setting,

 

 added in the dried cranberries...

 followed by the grated cheddar. 

 I hand stirred it, too, to be sure there were no big clumps of anything.

 I divided the mixture in half (froze one of the balls as is) and rolled the other half in sliced almonds, then covered it and stored in the fridge.

The next day we enjoyed it on my MIL's vintage cheeseball dish with crackers while we waited for the bird to roast and we played card games.  It was a huge hit - sweet, oniony, and crunchy with almonds.  So good!  And it struck me: you could change up this very basic recipe with any kind of mix-in's and seasonings, too.  I think another one will definitely be on the menu for Christmas!