Cozy Cottage Rum Balls

Nancy's fine-tuned wheat-free rum ball recipe shared!

Ingredients: 

• 3 oz. (85 g.) melted bittersweet baking chocolate (approx. 15 squares) 
• 1 cup icing sugar
• 1 cup ground almonds (almond meal) 
• 1/3 cup dark rum 
• 1 tsp. vanilla

Directions: 

Melt chocolate slowly. Add the rest of the ingredients. Refrigerate. Once cooled (thus more solid) roll into balls. Roll balls in ground almonds, chocolate sprinkles, cocoa or icing sugar (optional: dip balls in rum then roll in toppings)

Balls become even more solid when left in the fridge for a period of days, or frozen. 

Suggest eating before 2 p.m. to avoid being awake at 12:30 a.m. (the caffeine in the chocolate far outweighs the soporific effect of the rum!)

Hot cheesy mushroom dip

Hot cheesy mushroom dip

Ingredients:

2-3 cups of chopped mushrooms

½ cup diced onion

1T chopped garlic

2 T chopped fresh parsley

Butter

1 cup cream cheese

¼ mayonnaise

¼ cup sour cream

1 cup grated parmesan/Asiago/grana padano

½ cup grated cheddar

Salt and pepper

Directions:

Sauté onions in butter until translucent (3-5 minutes, medium heat). Add mushrooms and garlic and continue to sauté until mushrooms start to cook (when you see mushroom juice in the pan… yum). In a large bowl, combine cream cheese, mayo, sour cream and grated cheeses. Add cooked mushroom mix to bowl, parsley and salt and pepper. Mix with a spatula until only small lumps of cream cheese remain (or none). Spread in a greased shallow dish and cook until bubbly and golden (20 min at 400 degrees or so).

Serves 6-8 people. Enjoy!