Goat Balls?

Castrated Blanco

You have heard how this transplanted suburbanite has been involved here in the End of the Rainbow Valley in   castrating our new goat kids each year, but those 'Goat Balls' are not the ones I am referring to today...

We knew it would eventually happen - Blanco and Mancha, our kid goats, have stopped nursing so we have an abundance of goat's milk. I, like most folk, was raised on cow's milk and goat milk just has a 'distinct' taste. Natureman would argue that it's the cow's milk that tastes 'funky.'  Anyhow, he can only drink so much goat milk in his coffee, so what does one do when drinking goat milk is not your thing? Make cheese. You see it takes a lot of milk to make a batch of cheese and that is one product we do now have in the throes of winter.

So this past week I made a delicious manicotti as our homemade goat cheese is just the right texture for stuffing.  But as soon as I used up a batch of cheese, we had another.  What to do with this next batch?

Lo and behold arriving in my email while in quandry, my Arkansas Master Gardener mentor and friend, Janet, who also happens to be quite an adventuresome cook,  posted an appetizer recipe using goat cheese of all things. What perfect timing as the kids(human ones) were coming for lunch and we also had a potluck to attend the next day.

This recipe is super easy and there weren't any leftovers out of the 4 dozen grapes and 3 dozen olives. 
I have a feeling you will like this one. 

You'll need:
  
goat cheese  (about 12 oz)
cream cheese (4 oz )
cracked pepper
grapes/olives ( 3-4 dozen each)
pistachio nuts / pecans coursely chopped

As suggested, I blended some cream cheese with the goat cheese in the food processor, adding cracked pepper to taste. (cheese's already salty)



Place a tablespoon of cheese mixture on your hand, patting it down, top flattened cheese with grape/olive and blanket it. 



Roll in palms to cover entire grape/olive surface with cheese.
(OK I couldn't roll it and take the picture.)

Then roll cheese ball in chopped nuts to coat surface. I actually was able to shake it around in a shallow container.

After I had already made them, Janet added a note about waiting to roll them in the nuts until the day needed as the nuts might soften... Now she tells me. :)

Refrigerate. That's it.  

Since some people prefer salty and sweet (grapes) versus the just the salty (olives) I rolled the two in different nuts to distinguish them.

The pistachio covered grapes pictured here on the left were a bit more colorful than the olives in the walnuts.

You probably notice some missing... Well come on, doesn't the cook have to have a taste test? 

* The real appetizer name is Goat Truffles. Wink, wink.