"Boursin-style" cream cheese spread

You know how you put cream cheese in the freezer and then it comes out all crumbly and useless for spreading on bagels? I've had some bricks of cream cheese languishing in the freezer for a long time, for just this reason. Last night I took one out and made some "boursin-style" cream cheese for use on my bagels. I put it in quotes because I didn't have any fresh herbs to put in it, so I guess it's not all that authentic. But it's darn tasty.

I took about two tablespoons of butter and melted it in a tiny saucepan with two cloves of chopped garlic and some freshly ground black pepper, to infuse the butter with pepper and garlic flavor and slightly cook the garlic, so it wouldn't be quite so pungent. (This is also my secret for amazing garlicky mashed potatoes. Melt the butter with the garlic, then heat the milk to just under scalding in the garlic/butter mixture.)

Then I put the rest of a stick of butter my food processor, along with the brick of cream cheese and the melted butter, and processed until smooth. I added just a little salt, and it's so good! It tastes almost exactly like the boursin-style cream cheese spread that they sell at Whole Foods.

After I put the cream cheese spread away, cleaned up everything, and put all the food processor parts in the dishwasher, I looked in my pantry and saw sun-dried tomatoes staring me right in the face. OH! I should have added those! That would have been even better. Alas.

I hope this solves the yucky crumbly cream cheese problem we've faced in the past. I can't even tell you how many times I've passed up a good cream cheese deal because I find it gross after freezing.