Southern Pimiento Cheese

Believe it or not, I found yet another recipe for pimiento cheese, this one is southern style. I have been singing the praises of pimiento cheese for a long while. I grew up on this stuff; as a girl I had it as a filling for sandwiches, as an adult I find the benefit of enjoying it with fruits and vegetables. I mentioned a couple of posts ago that I’m trying to cut back on carbs, so instead of enjoying this as I usually would on crackers or a crusty roll, I am enjoying it with celery, grapes, and apple slices.  It is a delicious and satisfying snack.

Southern Pimiento Cheese

Slightly adapted from mash.com

  ⅓ c. Duke’s mayonnaise

2 oz. cream cheese, softened

1 t. grated onion

¼ t. black pepper

¼ t. garlic powder

¼ t. Creole seasoning

2 t. Worcestershire sauce

1 t. dill pickle juice

4 oz. diced Melissa’s Roasted red peppers

2 c. shredded sharp cheddar cheese

 In a bowl, mix together mayonnaise and cream cheese until well blended. Stir in the onion, salt, pepper, garlic powder, Worcestershire sauce, and pickle juice. Fold in the pimento and cheddar cheese.

 Serve immediately, or store in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 1 week.

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Josephinas

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If you are unfamiliar with Josephinas (also known as Howell’s Bread), you are missing out. These slices of French bread topped with a mixture of softened butter, freshly shredded Monterey Jack, mayonnaise, garlic, and canned green chilies, broiled until the bread is crisp and the cheese is melted are both delicious and versatile. They are also very easy to make, with the added bonus that the cheese mixture needs to be made ahead.

Josephinas

Slightly adapted from thekitchn.com

 1 stick unsalted butter, room temperature

1 c. shredded Monterey Jack cheese

1 t. Melissa’s minced garlic

¼ c. Duke’s mayonnaise

1 4-oz. can diced mild green chilies, undrained

½ t. kosher salt

1 small French baguette

 In a medium bowl, beat together the first five ingredients. Cover and refrigerate for at least 1 hour and up to 1 day.

 Arrange a rack 3 to 4 inches from the preheated broiler. Line a rimmed baking sheet with aluminum foil. Cut baguette crosswise into 1/2-inch-thick rounds. Arrange the slices on the baking sheets, spacing them at least 1/2-inch apart. Let the butter mixture sit at room temperature for a few minutes, then divide the mixture onto the bread slices (about a heaping tablespoon on each) and spread to the edges.

 Broil until the tops are browned in spots and the edges of the bread are crispy, 4 to 10 minutes. 

Kentucky-Style Pimiento Cheese

When you saw this post, I’m sure you said yourself, “Is this woman demented?! She has already given us recipes for pimiento cheese!“ And so, I have. And I may or may not be demented, that’s still up for debate, but I do like pimiento cheese, and my goal is to try every recipe I can find.

Generally I’m a purist when it comes to pimiento cheese. Just the basics are all I want. But recently I stumbled upon a recipe with a lot of ingredients that called itself Southern Pimiento Cheese. I don’t consider a pimiento cheese recipe with a lot of ingredients to be truly Southern, but because I hadn’t tried this one, and because my goal is to try them all, I thought I would make it truly Southern by adding some bourbon to the mix. Boy, is this stuff good! Because I used Kentucky bourbon, my version gives a nod to that fine state. If you’re a pimiento cheese fan the way that I am, you need to give this one a try.

Kentucky-Style Pimiento Cheese

2 cups freshly grated sharp cheddar
4 ounces cream cheese, room temperature
1/2 cup chopped Melissa’s Fire Roasted Red Bell Peppers
1/3 cup Duke’s mayonnaise
1 ounce Kentucky bourbon
1/4 t. garlic powder
1/4 t. onion powder
1/4 t. smoked paprika
1/4 t. Old Bay Seasoning
1/4 t. freshly ground black pepper
1/4 t. cayenne, more or less, to taste

Combine all ingredients in a medium mixing bowl until combined. Store in refrigerator.

PRINT RECIPE

For many more irresistible Pimiento Cheese recipes, click here.

This post is linked to:

Full Plate Thursday

Thursday Favorite Things
Pink Saturday
Snickerdoodle Create Bake & Create

Best of the Weekend

Grace at Home

Friday at the Fire Station
Create, Bake, Grow and Gather

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Fort Fromage

Do the words Fort Fromage mean anything to you? If they don’t, then pull up a chair, you are going to love this blog post. And before I say anything else, let me say you’re welcome. That’s how much you are going to love this.

I can’t tell you how many times when the late Mr. O-P and I were planning a dinner party that we completely forgot to consider snacks to serve with a cocktail before the meal. This would invariably involve my sending Mr. O-P to Sam’s hours, sometimes minutes, before guests were supposed to arrive to pick up a big jar of mixed nuts, assorted cheeses, and perhaps a container of hummus. This was always a frantic situation because Mr. O-P was easily distracted. Case in point, I will never forget the night we were fixing a birthday dinner for my dad. All Jim had to do was go out and buy dessert. I thought I had everything else covered so I sent him out around noon to pick up dessert. Four and a half hours later he came home with a sprinkler and two tickets to Baltimore. I couldn’t believe it. Not only that, but he was pleased with this purchase.

“Who wants to go to Baltimore?” I asked through gritted teeth.

“We can fly to Baltimore, rent a car, and drive to Virginia Beach,” he said with a smug smile.

Okay, I was softening to this, “But that sounds a bit expensive,” I countered.

“Not when you get the tickets for $30 apiece,” he reported.

“Are we riding in the cargo hold?” I asked, horrified. Knowing some of the strange way in which we had traveled in the past, I thought this might be a possibility.

“No,” he said, “It was a lightning deal. I got us two round-trip tickets to Baltimore for $30 each, and I got the senior discount on mine, so it really only cost $27.”

I blinked. “But what about dessert?” I asked him, not quite so willing to let him off the hook.

“Don’t worry, I’m heading out for it now,” he assured me.

I looked at him. “I guess you know they will be here in 10 minutes,” I snarled.

“I’ll be back in time,” he assured me, and he was off.

Where am I going with this you ask? Well, I’ll tell you. Had I known about Fort Fromage back in those days, I wouldn’t have worried about sending him out, last minute or otherwise, to pick up a pre-dinner nosh. Fort Fromage is something any of us can put together with the leftovers that we have in our fridge. You heard me, leftovers! Not only that, but it’s delicious. It can also be made ahead, and it only gets better with age.

I first learned of Fort Fromage when I read that a local restaurant was serving delicious sandwiches that were nothing more than slices of crusty bread, spread with Fort Fromage, and topped with pickled vegetables. At that time, with a crisper full of vegetables, the pickled vegetable thing quite appealed to me. But, having never heard of Fort Fromage before, I had to investigate. There are a variety of recipes — this one is based upon Jacques Pépin’s — but, truth of the matter is, that no two versions are ever going to be the same. The reason is that Fort Fromage is made up of a clove of garlic, dry white wine, and a half-pound of whatever cheese bits you happen to have left over in your fridge.

How many times have you looked at those little too-small-to-grate cheese bits and had no clue as to what to do with them? Here is your answer. Weigh out a half a pound of whatever cheese scraps you happen to have, toss them into the food processor with a clove of garlic, salt and pepper to taste, and pulse until it’s finely ground. Then, with the motor of the processor running, drizzle in 4-5 tablespoons of dry white wine until you end up with a creamy spread. How easy does that sound? Well, it is! Mine consisted of a little chunk of Brie, about a tablespoon of feta (boy was I glad to get that container out of the fridge!), some non-smoked provolone, and cheddar. It is absolutely wonderful! I wish I’d had this recipe before Jim passed away. He would have loved the quirkiness of it, the convenience of it, and because we were such cheese lovers and always had a wide variety in our fridge, we could have put some together every time we had guests — even the unexpected spur-of-the-moment ones —, and each time it would have been special. Well, at least I can enjoy it now, and share this recipe with you.

It is wonderful as is spread on crackers, pieces of toasted baguette, or with crudités, or, for a heartier snack, can be spread on top of slices of crusty bread, and broiled until the cheese melts. Delicious!

Fort Fromage

1/2 pound assorted cheese scraps
1 clove garlic
1/4 cup dry white wine

Salt and freshly ground pepper, to taste
1 tablespoon mayonnaise (optional)

Place cheese parts into a food processor and pulse 6-7 times until finely ground. Add garlic and pulse again.  Then, with the processor running, stream in white wine until a nice, spreadable consistency is reached. If you have used cheese that is particularly dry (as in the case of feta), add a dollop of mayo for creaminess.  Place into a lidded container and refrigerate for at least two hours. It gets better when refrigerated overnight.

Keep it cool and serve it attractively in this Chilled Cheese or Dip Server.

PRINT RECIPE

Another fabulous, spreadable cheese to keep on hand is this Homemade Boursin. It kicks the packaged variety to the curb and is far less expensive.

This post is linked to:

Full Plate Thursday

Thursday Favorite Things
 Funtastic Friday
Pink Saturday
Snickerdoodle Create Bake & Create

Grace at Home

Friday at the Fire Station
Create, Bake, Grow and Gather

Happiness is Homemade Sunday

What’s for Dinner Sunday

Dishing It & Digging It

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For the Love of Pimiento Cheese

The other day, someone asked me if I had a recipe for pimiento cheese. Do I have a recipe for a pimiento cheese? Boy, have you come to the right place! I consider myself a bit of a pimiento cheese fancier, and make a particular effort to try every recipe that crosses my path. To make it easy on those of you who feel the same, I am featuring all of the recipes that I have accumulated, to date, in this blog post. Click on the name beneath the photo to go to the recipe. Try as few or as many as you like, and let me know what you think. To have the most flavorful pimiento cheese, be sure to ditch those little jars of insipid pimientos and use Melissa’s Fire Roasted Sweet Red Bell Peppers instead. Delish!

Baked Pimiento Cheese Dip

Buffalo Pimiento Cheese

Zesty Pimiento Cheese with Ham

Tupelo Honey Café’s Pimento Cheese

Lee Brothers Pimiento Cheese

 

This post is linked to:

Full Plate Thursday

Thursday Favorite Things
Feathered Nest Friday
Funtastic Friday
Best of the Weekend
Pink Saturday
Snickerdoodle Create Bake & Create

Grace at Home

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Buffalo Pimiento Cheese with Moore's Original Buffalo Wing Sauce

There is nothing that I like more than a new recipe for Pimiento Cheese, and last week's Post-Dispatch had a bunch of them! Do you know that I have an entire binder full of Pimiento Cheese recipes? It's hard to imagine that something so simple can be changed in so many ways that it would result in a binder of recipes, but it has. Generally, I'm a purist; I like my Pimiento Cheese with only a handful of ingredients. That's the cheese of my youth, and that's what I turn to more often than not. But, I do like to mix things up a bit, and this week decided to make Buffalo Pimiento Cheese using one of my new favorite seasonings, Moore's Buffalo Wing Sauce. Moore's has a variety of marinades and sauces, one better than the next, from Original, Zesty Garden Herb, and Teriyaki Marinades, to Spicy Habanero Wing and Hot Sauce to Creamy Buffalo Ranch, to the Original Buffalo Sauce that I used here.

I find these sauces to be incredibly versatile. I've been stirring the Buffalo Sauce into ranch dressing, drizzling it on top of slices of avocado, mixing it into remoulade, and whisking it into sour cream for topping smoked salmon and baked potatoes. The uses for this tasty sauce are endless. You're' going to want some, and you can get it here.

You must try it, along with this recipe for Pimiento Cheese.  So easy, and so deliciously good!

Buffalo Pimiento Cheese

1/2 cup Duke's Mayonnaise
1/2 cup chopped Melissa's Fire Roasted Sweet Red Bell Peppers
2 teaspoons (or more to taste) Moore's Original Buffalo Wing Sauce
2 cups freshly grated sharp cheddar cheese

Whisk together mayonnaise, peppers, and wing sauce until combined. Fold in grated cheddar. Chill for at least an hour to allow flavors to meld.

This post is linked to:

Thursday Favorite Things

Home and Garden Thursday
Grace at Home

Coffee and Conversation

Friday at the Fire Station
Foodie Friday & Everything Else

Create, Bake, Grow and Gather
Share Your Style

A Bouquet of Talent

Paula's No Rules Weekend Blog Party

I received a complimentary sample of Moore’s Original Buffalo Sauce in exchange for an honest review.

This post contains affiliate links. 

Red Pepper and Herb Cheese Spread

The versatility of roasted red bell peppers never ceases to amaze me. My pantry is seldom without one or two jars (Usually more!), and, weekly, if not more often, I find myself digging into one. 

This week I was in the mood for a nice cheese spread. I love keeping it on hand, not just for spreading onto crackers, but also for filling celery, piping into pitted and drained black olives, and stirring into deviled egg filling. So, wanting something both replete with red peppers and lots of herb-y taste, I came up with this red pepper and herb cheese spread. 

You are going to love it, and you're going to love me even more when I show you the wonderful ways in which I used it. Be sure to come back tomorrow for a delicious lunch idea, and then check in on "Sip Some Soup Sunday" to see what I did with it then. In the meantime, gather your ingredients, and set to work.

Red Pepper and Herb Cheese Spread

1 stick unsalted butter, room temperature
2-8 oz. packages cream cheese, room temperature

1 medium garlic glove, minced

1 whole pepper from a jar of Melissa’s Fire Roasted Sweet Red Bell Peppers, chopped
4 tablespoons freshly grated Parmesan cheese
1 teaspoon dried dill weed
1/2 teaspoon dried marjoram
1/2 teaspoon dried basil
1/2 teaspoon dried chives
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

1/4 teaspoon dried thyme
1 tablespoon dried parsley flakes
 Pinch of salt

In a medium mixing bowl, beat together the butter and cheese.  If it is truly at room temperature, it will blend together quickly and be very creamy.  Add garlic and red pepper; blend.  Add all remaining ingredients and mix well.  Turn out into a lidded container large enough to hold the cheese, and store it in the refrigerator.  This will keep for two weeks.

This post is linked to:

Home Sweet Home
Weekend Linky Party
Grace at Home
Foodie Friday & Everything Else
Share Your Style

Simple Saturday Blog Hop

Share It One More Time
A Bouquet of Talent

Baked Potato Topping

Although I am loath to admit it, sometimes making dinner can be a drag. How inconvenient it is to have at the end of the day. By this time I'm tired and would really rather put my feet up and read (or watch TV, or do absolutely nothing). So, once or twice a week (or more often if I can get by with it), I make a meal that is really simple. Last night it was slices of Honey Baked ham, broccoli, and baked potatoes. To add a bit more interest to this rather boring meal I made this easy recipe for baked potato topping. It makes a plain potato rather special. It also makes a nice spread on biscuits, vegetables, or on an English muffin prior to topping it with slices of avocado or a poached egg. Why not whip up a batch and put it in your fridge? It keeps for five days, but probably won't last that long. Tonight I'm going to slather it onto a sliced baguette, and broil it to serve with another simple meal, spaghetti bolognese.

Baked Potato Topping

½ stick butter, softened

½ cup sharp cheddar cheese, grated

¼ cup sour cream

2 scallions, chopped

Salt and freshly ground pepper, to taste

Mix all ingredients together with a hand mixer until creamy. Serve at room temperature with baked potatoes.

PRINT RECIPE

This post is linked to:

Celebrate It Sunday

Silver Pennies Sunday
Merry Monday

Amaze Me Monday

Busy Mondays

What’s for Dinner?

Inspiration Monday