Conference turris::cooks

    Seems to me you could just throw the vegetables of your choice, along
    with the light cream cheese, in a food processor (if you have one).
    Bagel Alley in Nashua has a vegetable cream cheese spread -- seems to
    have scallions, celery, carrots, etc. in it.  They also have a raisin
    and walnut spread, which seems easy to make.

    What about cream cheese and olive?

							-- Nina

    I'VE MADE SPREADS FROM USING CHERRIES AND WHOLE CRANBERRY SAUCE
    BEFORE AND THEY WERE VERY GOOD.  JUST CREAM THE FRUIT WITH THE 
    CHEESE.  I ALSO LIKE TO JUST SPREAD CREAM CHEESE ON A BAGEL AND
    TOP WITH A SLICE OF ONION AND FRESH TOMATOE.  THE VARIATIONS ARE
    ENDLESS.

    
    
    Re: .1
    
    	Yes, thats where I go (Bagel Alley) and their vegetable spread
    	is great!  I was wondering if I could use soup mix but thinking
    	about it, I'd probably be adding TONS of calories that way.
        Besides the calorie difference, what it the difference between
    	light cream cheese and regular cream cheese??  Cholesterol?? 
    	Saturated fat??	If its just the calories, I'm not going to worry.
    
    	My favorite bagel : garlic bagel topped with vegetable spread,
    	a slice of tomato, and some lettuce.  Served open faced.  I
    	have this every morning for breakfast (usually w/ cream cheese
    	instead of veggie spread) and its great!!  If its lunchtime
    	I usually add some onion but that is a bit too much for breakfast.
    
    	Karen

I like  the  one I got at the Bagelry in Durham, NH recently (and have since
made for dinner twice):

Garlic bagel with a slice of ham, a slice of salami, a slice of onion, and a
slice of tomato, covered with provolone cheese.

It's best  if  you  broil  it  a while without the cheese. If you don't, the
cheese  may  burn  before  the tomato and onion are cooked. I broil it about
seven minutes before adding the cheese, and three minutes after.

- Brad

    One of my favorite combinations is a cinnamon and raisin bagel with
    honey/walnut cream cheese. MUMMMM.................... 

    re .5
    
    Honey walnut cream cheese is better on whole wheat bagels.  The
    cinnamon raisin bagels make it too sweet.

    
    funny, I started this note years ago (before I got married, hence the
    different name).
    
    I'm looking for more ideas for bagel spreads.  The cafeteria is making
    a "spread of the week" and they are lacking creativity.  They always
    make the sweet ones like strawberry cream cheese or pineapple, or
    honey walnut.  I gave them a recipe for vegetable spread and they made
    it and it was great.  
    
    This morning I stopped at a bagel store and took note of their spreads.
    Here they are:
    
    Vegetable spread
    Chive Spread
    Olive and Pimiento
    Sun dried tomato and Basil
    Bacon and Horseradish
    Cucumber and dill
    Salsa
    Lox spread
    Algonquin spread (lox, scallions and something else)
    Fruit spread
    Honey Walnut
    
    Anybody have any others to add or do I have them all?
    
    Karen

    
    
    Karen,
    
    I can't think of anything to add to your list - it looks pretty
    complete!
    
    Could you post your recipe for the vegetable cream cheese spread?
    What type of bagel best complements this spread?
    
    Donna

    No recipes or ideas from me.  Just more questions.

    I tend not to like the low fat or no fat cream cheeses because the seem
    to have a much stiffer texture.  Not to mention they just don't taste
    as good (imho).  Reading this note has made me wonder if those
    objections could be answered by using one of these recipes.

    I accidentally bought fat-free cream cheese to make dips for a party. 
    These are dips I always make and that go "like hotcakes."  I had to
    throw them all away. They were awful.  My opinion is they won't help at
    all, you'll just wreck the other ingredients!  --S

	I also find the fat free cream cheese detestable, might as well just
chew on plastic bubble wrap.  The light ones are not too bad, but what I really
enjoy is Neufchatel cheese.  It's very much like cream cheese, I think 30%
less fat and great!

	Laura

    
    I like Philadelphia Neufchatel cheese.  It is a light cream cheese.
    
    Veggie spread is to taste:
    
    cream cheese
    carrots
    green onions
    radish
    (other optionals like green or red peppers)
    
    Food process it!                           
    
    Enjoy

    Another good cream cheese spread is crabmeat cream cheese.  We use this
    for a number of things, mainly for parties with crackers.
    
    1 block of cream cheese.  Leave it out for a little while so it's soft
    enough to use either a blender or mixer with it.  Take one can of
    crabmeat, drain it, rinse it, and drain it again.  Add it to the cream
    cheese and blend together.  Add a little bit of "red hot", to taste. 
    Blend thoroughly.
    
    If you want to make this into a dip for chips, etc. add a tablespoon or
    two of milk.
    
    It's REALLY yummy!!
    
    Holly
    

RE: .12

"Light" relative to real cream cheese, maybe.  But it's still nearly 
50% butter fat.

--PSW

    
    I count fat grams, not fat percentage.  If my total fat brams for the 
    day do not exceed 30, I'm happy.  That 6 grams/serving of fat in the
    Neufatchel cream cheese is my treat!
    
    Karen