Sunday Morning Projects- herbed cream cheese!
This yummie cream cheese was on the list. When I was making my scrambled eggs this morning, I used the last of a container of chive-onion flavored cream cheese. As I was putting the container in the recycle bin, I looked at the ingredients list. It had way more on it than cream cheese, chives and onions. It suddenly hit me that I have a whole herb garden (and chives are one of my most successful pots) and I never use them to make things like flavored cream cheeses. I vowed then and there never to buy flavored cream cheese again. From now on- I'll make my own, using far more wholesome ingredients.
My first go at it was this chive-citrus cream cheese. I had half of an 8oz. bar of cream cheese already in the ice box, so I took it out to soften it up. Meanwhile, I headed out and gave my chive plant one last good haircut. The weather here is getting cooler by the day. All of my herbs are slowly wilting and turning brown, so this week will probably be the last for the outside herbs at least. I brought in the chives and rinsed them off. I used my kitchen shears to snip them into little pieces in the bottom of a small mixing bowl. I ended up with too many, so I took some out and saved them for the mixed herb butter I'll post later. Next, I added the softened cream cheese and about 2 teaspoons of lemon zest. I stirred them together well and transferred the mixture to a small glass bowl with a lid.
I'm thinking of using this not only in scrambled eggs, but also on bagels topped with smoked salmon, or even as a base for simple tomato-basil toasts. There are hundreds of possible combinations out there, just waiting to be mixed up!
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