Working with one ball at a time, roll the cheese balls in the bacon and paprika mixture and place them back in the container on fresh sheets of wax paper.
Refrigerate your bacon and paprika coated cheese balls until fifteen to twenty minutes before you want to serve them.
When you’re ready to finish your Cheese Pops, simply insert a pretzel stick into the middle of each ball and place them on a platter.
Hannah’s 4th Note: You can also make these Cheese Pops with sharp cheddar cheese. Simply substitute finely shredded sharp cheddar for the bleu cheese and proceed as directed. If you make both types of Cheese Pops, roll the bleu cheese ones in the bacon and paprika, and roll the cheddar cheese balls in finely chopped parsley.
Yield: 12 Cheese Pops that will delight your guests.
Hannah’s 5th Note: This recipe can be doubled or tripled for large parties. Use different kinds of cheese with the cream cheese and experiment with different coatings. I’ve used sesame seeds, ground nuts of various types, and even finely chopped coconut mixed with finely chopped dried pineapple.
PRETZEL PATTIES
(These can be made from leftover salted pretzels from Cheese Pops.)
Approximately 8 ounces of salted stick pretzels 2 cups (12-ounce package) of semi-sweet chocolate chips 2 Tablespoons (1 ounce, ? stick) salted butter Several handfuls of miniature marshmallows
Break each pretzel stick into small pieces and put them into a bowl.
Hannah’s 1st Note: The kids can help you with this, but you’d better put some extra pretzels into the bowl when they’re through! I can almost guarantee that some pretzels will be eaten during the breaking process.
Tear off several sheets of wax paper and stretch them out on your kitchen counter.
Put the chocolate chips in a large microwave-safe bowl.
Put the ounce of salted butter on top of the chips.
Melt the chocolate chips for 1 minute in the microwave on HIGH heat.
Let the chips sit in the microwave for 1 minute to rest.
Try to stir the chips and butter smooth with a heat-resistant spatula. If you can, you’re done. If you can’t, heat for an additional 20 seconds in the microwave, let the bowl rest in the microwave for 1 minute, and try again. Repeat as often as necessary until you can achieve a smooth mixture of butter and chocolate chips.
Stir the broken pretzels into the melted chocolate and butter mixture.
Stir in the miniature marshmallows.
Use a Tablespoon from your silverware drawer to drop patties of Pretzel Patties onto the sheets of wax paper.
Let the candy harden to room temperature. Then peel it off the wax paper and store it in layers, separated by more wax paper, in a plastic container in your refrigerator.
Yield: Several dozen Pretzel Patties, depending on patty size.
Chapter Ten
When Hannah woke up the next morning, she rolled over to give Ross a kiss. It was a promise they’d made to each other during their honeymoon. The first to wake up in the morning would kiss the other awake. But Ross wasn’t there! And, at that moment, she realized that the reason she’d awakened in the first place was because she’d heard the shower running.
Ross had gotten up without kissing her awake and he was already in the shower. No doubt he thought he was being considerate by letting her sleep a bit longer. And, quite honestly, Hannah wasn’t sure what her reaction to this change in their morning routine should be. Should she be grateful or disappointed that Ross hadn’t kissed her awake? And should she let Ross know how she felt?
Hannah thought about that for a moment and decided that it was best to forget the whole thing. Ross had already been in bed when she’d come home with Michelle last night after their talk with Tricia. She knew he’d been tired after his first full day back at work. Since she was also very tired, she’d simply prepared for bed, slipped under the covers beside him, and gone to sleep. Perhaps he’d been upset this morning when he’d realized that she hadn’t awakened him with a goodnight kiss, another one of their promises to each other. She had kissed him, but it hadn’t roused him. And since he’d been sleeping so peacefully, she’d decided not to wake him by kissing him again. That was another factor to consider.
As Hannah sat up and dislodged the last wisps of sleep from her consciousness, she became aware of a delicious scent in the air. Black coffee, certainly. And something else . . . perhaps cheese and breakfast sausage. Michelle must have gotten up earlier to make breakfast for them.
Her slippers were on her side of the bed and Hannah thrust her feet into them. Then she stood up and took her robe from the hook on the back of their bedroom door. It was a new robe, one of the robes that her mother and sisters had given her. So, instead of the old chenille robe she’d rescued from a lonely existence in a bin at the Helping Hands Thrift Shop, she donned a beautiful, fluffy, powder-blue silk robe. She gave a fleeting thought to that comfortable old robe that had been her companion on so many mornings and wondered what had happened to it. Perhaps she should drop by the thrift store this afternoon to find out if Delores or Hannah’s sisters had returned it to its former home.