Pumpkin Cheeseball

This cheeseball turned out quite tasty. It's an interesting assortment of ingredients that blended very nicely together. It's also festive looking as it's orange in color. The recipe doesn't call for the nuts, but the second time I made it I enjoyed rolling it in crushed pecans as pictured above.

1 pkg. (8 oz.) cream cheese, softened - do not microwave, just let it sit out on the counter for a couple of hours

1/2 cup. solid pack pumpkin

1 jar (2 1/2 oz.) dried beef slices, chopped. This was very easy to find in the grocery store next to the canned meats. It's an ingredient I've never used before, but it was easy to work with and necessary for the salt in the cheeseball

2 cups (8 oz.) sharp cheddar cheese, grated

1/2 cup crushed pineapple, drained

1 tbsp. chopped onion

Mix and form into a bowl. Roll in chopped nuts if desired and/or score the cheesball with a knife to look like a pumpkin and use a short celery stick to represent a pumpkin stem. Serve with crackers and enjoy.