Cause you're everything (bagel) to me

I have a soft spot in my heart for everything bagels.  One reason is obvious: they're incredibly delicious.  Everything bagels are crunchy, savory, salty; a perfect vehicle for a turkey and havarti sandwich or even just with plain cream cheese.  I love when you toast an everything bagel and the little bits on top get slightly charred, intensifying the sweetness of the onion and crisping up the already crunchy sea salt on its crusty exterior, while warming its fluffy blanket-like innards.

But the most intriguing part of the everything bagel is also what makes it so endearing - the everything bagel is a loner.  It gets quarantined in its own bag; segregated from the other bagels in the baker's dozen.  It wreaks of garlic and permeates through its surroundings like Edward Cullen on a balmy day.

Because of this, most see the everything bagel as the Brian Krakow of baked goods; however, I envision it as more akin to a Jordan Catalano.  I imagine the everything bagel not as one relegated to involuntary confinement and social unacceptance, but rather a brooding, perhaps even rebellious breakfast item.  "Whatever, sometimes I just like to be alone with my thoughts" everything bagel says while sulking chilling in his ultra-private, gated paper bag community.

So it only made sense to combine my benevolence for the everything bagel with my obsession with cheese and made an Everything Bagel Cheese Ball.  It's really more a deconstructed everything bagel.  By mixing all of the familiar "everything" ingredients like garlic, onion, and sea salt, with the cream cheese that would traditionally top the bagel, you're able to get all of that wonderful stank without all of those god-forsaken carbs.

RECIPE:

1 8 oz package of cream cheese, softened
2 tablespoons of chives, chopped
1 tablespoon onion powder
1 tablespoon garlic powder
2 tablespoons poppy seeds
2 tablespoons sesame seeds
1 teaspoon sea salt

Combine softened cream cheese with chives, onion powder, and garlic powder and form into a ball.  Wrap the ball in plastic wrap and let chill, about an hour.

Once cream cheese has hardened, combine the poppy seeds, sesame seeds, and see salt on a plate.  Roll the cream cheese ball in the mixture until well covered (add more seeds and salt if you'd like).  Serve cold with bagel chips.