I work at home.
People get the wrong impression of the self-employed. It is harder to work at home.
I would prefer to work in someone else's building.
I do get up and dress for work every day, I just have a one minute commute.
I am what people call, tunnel visioned. I can get so wrapped up in a project that when I finally look at the clock, my day is over. People like us love jigsaw puzzles for that reason. I need to force myself to stop and walk away.
At 4:00 I clean and put away my brushes.
I also grab a package of cheese and crackers, pour myself a glass of wine and start dinner.
As Jacques always says, "dinner tastes better with wine".
My private Happy Hour. It is essential to define work and home. It is also essential to find a cheese you love and eat too much of it, on a daily basis. Only kidding peeps but not far off.
I was spending way too much $$$ on my cheese addiction. Happy Hour is supposed to be half-off everything, right?
Since my cheese drug of choice just happens to be Boursin's Shallot & Chive Cheese, and I have seen recipes for a copycat version, dipping my fromagerie foot into the cheese dip arena would go a long way to that Happy Half-off prize.
Emeril's recipe sounded like what I was looking for, so two bricks of cream cheese, a stick of butter and a few aromatics later, I had 8 servings of what tasted even better than the original. A single container of Boursin netted only two servings.
The difference? $5.00 for two vs. $5.00 for eight. Dere is gold in dem dere bills.
I purchased foil cupcake liners at Wally World, zip bag piped the mixture into 8 of them which were placed in a muffin tin for support. Refrigerate after wrapping in plastic wrap, for at least 2 hours, pop them out and into a large gallon zip bag to freeze. After eating one, I grab one from the freezer to defrost in the fridge. I am so crafty at times.
Chive, Shallot and Garlic Cheese
Prep time: 15 minutes
Cook time: non
Yield: 8 filled foil muffin liners
* 2 tablespoons garlic powder
* 1 tablespoon onion powder
* 1 shallot, minced
* 1 tablespoon freeze-dried chives
* 2 (8 ounce) packages cream cheese, soften
* 1 cup butter, soften
* 1 teaspoon Italian seasonings
* Salt to taste
* Freshly ground black pepper
Mix ingredients in a stand mixer or with a hand mixer. Fill a quart-sized zip bag with the mixture, cut a corner 1/2" in and starting in the middle of each muffin liner, squeeze until the mixture comes up to the top.
Repeat with each liner. Place a piece of plastic wrap in top of the muffin tin and refrigerate for 2 hours.
Remove, individually wrap in plastic and store in a gallon zip bag, in the freezer until ready to serve.
Note: My next batch will include goat in place of the butter. I like the crumble of the goat.
