Aunt Dorothy's Cheese Ball

 Aunt Dorothy's Cheese Ball

Ingredients:

· Two Packages of Cream Cheese (room temperature)

· One Jar of Dried Beef

· One Bunch of Green Onions

· One Tablespoons of Accent Salt

· Three Tablespoons of Worcestershir

Preparation:

On a chopping board, slice both the green onions and the dried beef into tiny bits; doing this helps minimize the risk of having the dip filled with chunks of either.

I always marvel at the precision my Nana uses to cut. Chop, Chop, Chop at lightning speeds and miraculously, she never cuts herself. Not to mention, she talks while chopping to so I do sometimes think she is blessed. Most conversation I have with my Nana are light hearted, filled with tidbits of wisdom disguised as humor. She always has a story to tell. The one she told me about recently was about Aunt Dorthy, the one who introduced our familly to this recepie.From what I’ve gathered, Aunt Dorthy was the model human being. She was intelligent, witty, and most of all compassionate. Nana said she had a way of bringing people together.

In a medium sized bowl, mix the chopped green onions and dried beef together with the two packages of cream cheese. It is best to mix with hand since the mixture tends to stick to any kitchen utensil.

While Nana was mixing the ingredients she recalled to me a christmas of her past. It was not necessarily a very bountiful christmas dinner nana recalled. In fact, a week or so before christmas her parents had sat down her and her eleven siblings and told them that not only where they not going to be receiving presents this due to the lack of income, but that their would be no christmas ham which was the pinnacle of christmas dinner. Their sadness would not last long though because that year the had a special very guest. That guest was Aunt Dorthy. Aunt Dorthy not only brought toys for Nana and her siblings but she also brought an entire christmas dinner for the familly. It seems Dorhty had a way of making things better.

Now, add one tablespoon of accent and three tablespoons of worcesterchir sauce to the cheese mixture. Then, mix all the ingredients again with hands. Finally, form mixture into ball, wrap in seran wrap, and refrigerate 24 hours.

The month of december holds many memories of Aunt Dorthy. Aunt Dorthy died December 15, 1994. I bring up her death because her death becuase she gave it willingly. She did not commit sucicide. When Nana’s mother was diagonosed with cancer the doctor recommended she be placed on kemo-therapy, but once again financial issues impeded what needed to be done. So, Aunt Dorthy gave all the money she could to her sister. Nana’s mother lived 20 more years after the treatments, but Aunt Dorthy lived only two months. Aunt Dorthy had gone two months without her diebetes medicene in order to pay for her sisters treatments and died from the lack of it. Aunt Dorothy gave all she could.