Olive Cream Cheese Stuffed Celery

This olive cream cheese stuffed celery is a throwback recipe from the Sixties but it’s still just as deliciously tasty today. Savory, creamy AND crunchy. Mix, fill and munch! 

Not too long back, a friend of mine celebrated her 60th birthday by throwing a Sixties theme party. Guests were asked to contribute a dish from that decade and come dressed in Sixties attire. 

The fun food included salmon mousse made in a fish mold, deviled eggs, several Jello desserts, a spiky cheeseball shaped like a hedgehog, a multi-layered savory sandwich “cake” and pistachio marshmallow fluff, just to name a few. 

It was a super fun party and a delight to see what everyone brought and wore. At first I thought I didn’t have anything to wear that was Sixties worthy but then I remembered, I own a caftan! We need to bring those back. It is the most comfortable outfit ever for a party.

Olive Cream Cheese Stuffed Celery

This recipe makes a bunch of filling! My pictures show just half of the stuffed celery I made. Feel free to halve the quantities if you don’t need that many. I used the already cut celery stalks one can buy in a bag. 

Ingredients

2 lbs or 900g celery stalks, washed and cut into 3 sections each

2 packages (8 oz or 225g each) cream cheese, at room temperature

¾ cup, chopped, or 120g pimento-stuffed green olives

2 cloves garlic, finely minced

A few generous grinds of black pepper

Method

Thoroughly dry each piece of celery with paper towels. 

Mix the  chopped olives and garlic together in a large bowl.

Add in the cream cheese and black pepper in and mix until completely homogenous.

Use a plastic bag with a corner cut off or a piping bag to put a generous amount of cream cheese filling down the center indentation of each celery piece. 

Serve immediately or cover with cling film and refrigerate till ready to serve.

Enjoy! 

It’s Sunday FunDay and today my blogger friends and I are sharing nutritious nibbles. Many thanks to our host, Wendy of A Day in the Life on a Farm. Check out the links below. 

• Culinary Cam: Adventures in Bliss Balls 
• Sneha's Recipe: Beetroot Tikkis 
• Karen's Kitchen Stories : Fresh Tomato Salsa 
• A Day in the Life on the Farm: Fruit and Nut Bars 
• Our Good Life : Healthy Pizza Bites 
• Food Lust People Love: Olive Cream Cheese Stuffed Celery 
• Amy's Cooking Adventures: Peanut Butter Energy Balls (No Bake)

 

We are a group of food bloggers who believe that Sunday should be a family fun day, so every Sunday we share recipes that will help you to enjoy your day. If you're a blogger interested in joining us, just visit our Facebook group and request to join.

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Roasted Asparagus Soup

Creamy and rich, this roasted asparagus soup is made with potatoes, celery and shallots. It's full of flavor, topped with sour cream and crispy prosciutto. 

I had a completely different plan for this post but when I saw the skinny little asparagus on offer at my local supermarket, I had to pivot. The little guys wouldn’t have made a great baked dish – my original intention - but I did think they would add a lot of flavor to a soup, especially if I roasted them.

And since I was preparing this as part of our New Year’s Eve menu, a dollop of sour cream and some leftover prosciutto from Christmas seemed like a good addition to fancy it up. 

Roasted Asparagus Soup

This recipe is adapted from one on Food52. It makes four servings. If you don't have white pepper, by all means sprinkle in some cayenne or black pepper. The soup won't be as purely green but taste matters more!

Ingredients 

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 lb or 450g green asparagus, trimmed

2-3 pinches flakey sea salt

8 oz or 225g waxy potatoes (like Yukon golds)

1 stalk celery

1 clove garlic

1 small shallot

2 tablespoons butter

4 cups or almost 1 L chicken or vegetable stock

White pepper, to taste

Optional garnishes:

Sour cream

Prosciutto or bacon, fried till crispy with a drizzle of olive oil

Method

Heat the oven to 400°F or 200°F. Drizzle the asparagus with the olive oil, using a basting brush to make sure they are coated all over with the oil. 

Sprinkle with flakey sea salt then roast for 15 minutes. 

While the asparagus are roasting, peel and cut your potatoes in pieces. Mince the garlic and finely chop the celery. Thinly slice the shallot.

When the asparagus are done, leave them to cool a bit, then cut into pieces, setting aside 8 tips to use later for garnish when you serve. 

In a large pot that will hold all of your ingredients, melt the butter and cook the shallots, celery and garlic over a low heat, until soft.

Stir in the potatoes and stock. 

Turn up the heat, bring to a boil, then simmer, uncovered, until the potatoes are tender, about 10 minutes.

Remove from the heat and stir in the asparagus.

Process in a blender, in batches, or with a stick blender in the pot until smooth. 

I used a stick blender and noticed that some of the more fibrous bits of asparagus were getting caught on the blades. I decided, in the interest of making this a smooth soup, to strain it. I poured it through a small colander first and then put it through a fine strainer, mashed all of the liquid out and discarded the fibers. If you don’t mind the bits in your soup, you can skip this step. 

Season to taste with the salt and white pepper. 

Garnish each serving with a dollop of sour cream and a few crispy bits of prosciutto or bacon, if desired. Put two crossed asparagus tips on top of each serving.

Enjoy!

Happy New Year and here we go again, starting at A for the 2025 rendition of the Alphabet Challenge! Many thanks to Wendy from A Day in the Life on the Farm for organizing and creating the challenge. Check out all the great A recipes in the links below. 

• Jolene’s Recipe Journal: Aglio e Olio Pasta
• Sneha’s Recipe: Aloo Phulkopir Dalna 
• Karen’s Kitchen Stories: Apple Latkes 
• A Day in the Life on the Farm: Apples and Greens with Apple Vinaigrette 
• Blogghetti: Apple Pie Tacos 
• Magical Ingredients : Artichoke Baby Greens Dip 
• Mayuri’s Jikoni: Avocado, Bean & Mango Salad 
• Faith, Hope, Love, & Luck Survive Despite a Whiskered Accomplice: Creamy Parmesan Acini di Pepe with Potatoes 
• A Messy Kitchen: Dianna’s Almond Cake 
• Food Lust People Love: Roasted Asparagus Soup 

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Amarena Cherry Lemon Muffins #MuffinMonday

Made with delicious Amarena wild cherries and their syrup, these fluffy cherry lemon muffins are perfect for snack or teatime. 

I'm guessing that most of you aren't cherry snobs because nor was I until just a few short weeks ago! A maraschino cherry was a maraschino cherry. Red, bright and sweet. 

But then I learned about Luxardo cherries and had to buy some. Guys, they are a world apart from the jarred cherries we can buy in a grocery store with a price tag to match. Enter the Amarena cherries at Costco! They are also more expensive than grocery store maraschinos but they come in a very large jar making them much cheaper than Luxardos. 

And, to make cherry buying decisions even easier, when I did just a little research, their reviews online are better too. We did a taste test and the Amarenas slightly outdid the Luxardos. 

Amarena Cherry Lemon Muffins

If you don't have fancy cherries though, by all means use the grocery store maraschinos. Lemon and cherries are a great combination. This recipe makes about 16 regular muffins.

Ingredients

2 cups or 250g flour

1/3 cup or 66g sugar

2 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 small lemon (for zest and 4 teaspoons juice)

2 eggs

1/2 cup or 120ml milk

1/3 cup or 75ml canola or other light oil

1/4 cup Amarena cherry syrup, plus extra to brush on, if desired

5 2/3 oz or 142g Amarena cherries (about 3/4 cup once halved)

Method

Preheat your oven to 350°F or 180°C.  Butter or grease your muffin pans or line them with paper liners.

Add the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt into a large mixing bowl.

Grate in the lemon zest and mix.

Juice your lemon. Halve your cherries and set 16 pieces aside for topping the muffins.

Put the bigger pile of cut cherries in the flour mixture and toss well to cover.

In another smaller bowl, whisk together the eggs, milk, oil, cherry syrup and lemon syrup.

Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ones and fold until just mixed through.

Divide the mixture between the muffin cups in pan.  Top with reserved cherry halves.

Bake in your preheated oven for 20-25 minutes or until golden. Allow them to cool for a few minutes then remove the muffins to a wire rack to cool completely.

Brush on a little extra cherry syrup, if desired. 

Enjoy!

It's the last Monday of the month so that means it's time for Muffin Monday! Many thanks to Karen of Karen's Kitchen Stories who stepped up and created this link list. Check out all the great muffin recipes we have for you today! 

• Amarena Cherry Lemon Muffins from Food Lust People Love
• Cranberry Eggnog Muffins from Jolene's Recipe Journal
• Honey Corn Muffins from Karen's Kitchen Stories
• Orange and Pear Muffins from A Day in the Life on the Farm
• Orange Poppy Seed Mini Muffins from A Messy Kitchen
• Sourdough Cranberry Banana Muffins from Zesty South Indian Kitchen

#MuffinMonday is a group of muffin loving bakers who get together once a month to bake muffins. You can see all of our lovely muffins by following our Pinterest board. Updated links for all of our past events and more information about Muffin Monday can be found on our home page.

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