Farewell Pimento Cheese…. Hello Pimento!

It's a wrap!  After 30 days, I've tried nearly 30 different ways to enjoy pimento cheese.  Some I'll admit there were a few easy recipes whether a Ritz cracker, pita chip or celery stalk.  Some of the best, and most surprising included the meatloaf sandwich, baked stuffed oyster and my all-time bestie (well maybe) the Trefoil topped with Pimento Cheese.

So what's next?  Growing these little peppers which should lead to a bountiful harvest and then canning!  I've added (so far) 3 pimento plants to daGarden and I'm hopeful that the crop will overwhelm me beyond my wildest imagination.  I simply can't wait!!!  

The 30 Ways to Enjoy Pimento Cheese in 30 Days has been a true pleasure and as my friend Richard would say "I'll toast a sunset" to this adventure and I'll do so now.  

Cheers!  Until the harvest, meet me in daGarden!

Stuff Olive-me with Pimento Cheese Please

So here we are nearing the end of 30 Ways to Enjoy Pimento Cheese in 30 Days.  I've got just moments left to try some of the ideas I penned mid-March.  From Frosted Flakes to Girl Scout Cookies, a Meatloaf Sandwich to hearty and wholesome Pimento Cheese Grits, I've tried nearly all the crazy things I put on the list.  Except one….  

Olives, pre-pitted and ready to go, stuffed with Pimento Cheese.  Not terribly difficult to do and not bad either.  I will admit the saltiness of the olives over powered the pimento cheese just a bit more than I would have liked.  Nevertheless, if you're a fan of olives, and you're on a quest to dare to be different, stuff an olive with pimento cheese and enjoy.

It's as American as a Hot Dog Topped with Pimento Cheese!

It's as American as a Hot Dog Topped with Pimento Cheese???  Ever heard that?  Me either, but I figure why not.  People top their dog with all sorts of things.  In West Virginia (where I come from…) your hot dog must have a steamed bun and be topped with cole slaw, mustard and onion - at a minimum.  Add a little chili if you dare, and thank you I do.

So for Georgia, where the state food may as well be pimento cheese, I say top that perfectly grilled all beef hot dog with some great Southern goodness and enjoy.

Pimento Cheese Stuffed Celery - Light and Easy Wins Again

Heading to Chastain for the Santana concert, need a nice, quick and portable item.  Perfect for any picnic or outdoor gathering, it's gotta be celery stuffed with pimento cheese.

Make sure your celery is fresh and crisp!  If you've got celery that's getting a little soggy, you can always snap it back into action by dunking it in super ice cold water for about 30 minutes.  I just so happened to have both on hand and the celery was in great condition.

Cut the celery into manageable pieces.  Add pimento cheese.  Enjoy!

Freestyle Friday!

Looking in the fridge today I see a few remnants of cheese from previous efforts and not quite enough to make the full recipe as instructed.  There's one chunk of regular cheddar, three different pieces of white cheddar and even some Monterey Colby Jack!  Combining all together, I've got enough great cheese to make more pimento cheese and for lack of a better expression, I've cleaned out the fridge for this special Freestyle Friday batch.

Quite simply, it was a great effort and a great result!  

A Quick, and Perfect Snack - Pimento Cheese and a Ritz Cracker

Cravings come and cravings go, but when you've got one you just can't shake, reach for your pimento cheese and original Ritz crackers and go at it.  Given that the original recipe is taken from Weight Watcher's you won't blow your diet with just a few pimento cheese topped crackers.

Grab crackers, top with pimento cheese, enjoy in moderation (if you dare).

Roast Beef and Pimento Cheese Roll Ups

Simplicity wins this week!  Perhaps the easiest recipe thus far, the roast beef and pimento cheese roll ups also win the fight for flavor.

Take sliced deli roast beef, spread pimento cheese on top (go side to side vs. lengthwise), roll, add toothpick for stability, slice and enjoy.

Simple snack, light bite, satisfy the craving, be happy.

Pimento Cheese Stuffed Burger - Why Did It Take Me So Long to Make This?

One of the only things more satisfying than making your own Pimento Cheese is making your own ground beef.  While I recently started doing this, I can't imagine ever buying ground beef again.  I also recognize this blog is about the pimento cheese and not ground beef so I will skip instructions for that effort for now.

When homemade pimento cheese meets fresh ground beef, you have a two great ingredients for success.

Start with:

• Freshly ground beef (your butcher/meat cutter can also do this for you)
• Pimento cheese
• Buns
• Fixins for your burger - onion, tomato, lettuce, ketchup, mayo, mustard, etc.

Then:

• While your grill heats, make two small burger patties that when combined will make the size you want.
• Place pimento cheese on one patty, top with the other and seal all the way around.
• Place your stuffed burger on the grill and cook to your liking.
• Create the perfect burger and enjoy!

For my burger I placed sliced Vidalia onion and Mom's cole slaw on the bottom bun, topped with the burger and sealed the deal with a little mayonnaise on the top bun.

Pimento Cheese and Grilled Shrimp Crostini!

Suffice it to say, I love combing through cookbook after cookbook looking for new and unique ways to enjoy pimento cheese.  Today, I discovered yet another great light bite - pimento cheese crostini topped with grilled shrimp.

As usual, this is a super simple recipe with just a few ingredients.  Makes up quick and goes does even quicker!

For this recipe you will need:

• Uncooked shrimp - as many as you want to make
• Tony's cajun spice mix (or something comparable to flavor your shrimp)
• Pimento Cheese
• French bread
• Cooking spray

Here's how you'll do it:

• Sprinkle shrimp with Tony's spice mix
• Spray skillet with cooking spray
• Heat skillet and "grill" shrimp (if you really wanted to, you could actually grill the shrimp - this way saves a few steps and a little time)
• While shrimp cooks, preheat broiler, cut French bread into 1/2 inch slices and place onto cooking sheet lightly coated with cooking spray
• Top bread with pimento cheese
• Place one (or more to your liking) shrimp on pimento cheese topped bread slice
• Broil for 2-3 minutes or until cheese fuses onto bread
• Serve and enjoy!

Baked Pimento Cheese Bites (think Crab Rangoon)

In my vast collection of Weight Watcher's recipes I discovered yet another option for the great pimento cheese!  Instead of following the recipe for crab rangoon bites, I've made a few modifications to create Baked Pimento Cheese Bites.

This is a super simple recipe - short ingredient list and just as short instruction list.

Here's what you'll need:

• Package of wonton wrappers (found in a refrigerated section of the store)
• Cooking spray
• Pimento Cheese
• Mini muffin cups or a mini muffin pan

Here's what you'll do.

• Preheat oven to 400
• Coat both sides of the wonton wrappers with cooking spray
• Place a small amount (a well rounded teaspoon) of pimento cheese in the center of the wonton
• Fold the wonton around the cheese and place into the mini muffin cup
• Bake for 9 to 10 minutes or until the wrapper is golden brown
• Serve and enjoy! 

Wonton wrappers coated with cooking spray.  Dollop of pimento cheese in center of wonton.

Place wonton filled with pimento cheese in mini muffin cup.

The result!

Goody for Gouda!

Pimento cheese made with Smoked Gouda is a great change from the standard recipe.  For this batch I subbed smoked gouda for the sharp cheddar and a gouda/cheddar blend for the white cheddar.  All other ingredients remain the same.

It's very rich and tastes great with crackers, pears, grapes and other such foods where you want just a bit of contrast.

Enjoy!

A New Comfort Food Is Born - Meatloaf, Bacon and Pimento Cheese Sandwich!

What's a girl (or guy) to do when the weather suddenly turns cold and you're faced with a mean craving for comfort food?  You look in the fridge and let your imagination run wild!  And that's exactly what's happened when I took a peek in my fridge and found Mom's Meatloaf, left-over turkey bacon and of course, a generous stash of home made pimento cheese.

Take 2 slices of white bread and toast them just ever-so slightly.
"Grill" the meatloaf in a nice hot skillet.
Warm up the bacon using the same skillet.
Add a wee bit of mayonnaise to the bread (just because I'm making comfort food…)
Place bacon, meatloaf and pimento cheese between the slices of bread and get ready for a full-on melt-in-your-mouth feast.

This was absolutely delicious!

I may want to fix another one just to enjoy it all over again.

Omelet with Pimento Cheese and Tomato

Getting the day off to a great start is a breeze with an omelet made with pimento cheese!

Start by dicing one vine ripe tomato.
Then whisk together 2 eggs and 2 egg whites.
Spray skillet with cooking spray; heat skillet.
Add eggs and swirl pan to ensure an even distribution.
When eggs start to become firm, add chopped tomato and pimento cheese.

Once eggs are cooked well and cheese starts to melt, fold egg in half to create omelet.  Cover and reduce heat until egg is completely cooked and cheese is fully melted.  Slide onto a plate and enjoy!

You, and others you love (if you dare to share), will quickly become a member of the clean plate club with this great dish!

Buon Appetito! Pizza Made to Order with Fresh Jalapeño and Pimento Cheese

Pizza fans take note!  Making pizza at home is a project, it's fun and allows you to completely think outside the box (pun not intended).

For the 30 Ways to Enjoy Pimento Cheese in 30 Days I'm thinking why not?  We've all tried the "white pizza," there are fans using everything from Gorgonzola and Blue to Gouda and Goat.  As my friend Ramona would say "what's the worst that could happen?"

• Preheat oven to 425.
• Get your pizza stone ready, or if you don't have one, get the baking sheet ready.
• I once read that you should spray your baking surface (stone or sheet) and then lightly coat it with cornmeal.  Totally prevents sticking and keeps the crust nice and, well, crusty.
• In order to keep the pizza dough from rising too early, get all ingredients ready to go. 
• Sliced tomato and fresh jalapeño is what I'm using here.
• Affix pizza dough to stone.  As you can see, I like a nice thin crust on the inside and hearty crust around the edge.  
• Spread pimento cheese liberally onto dough.
• Add tomato and jalapeño.
• Bake for 20-25 minutes or until the crust is to your liking.  I recommend rotating at the 10 minute mark so you have a nice evenly baked edge.

Buon appetito!  

Oysters on the Half Shell with Pimento Cheese

With the culmination of the Masters, I felt compelled to honor Bubba and his comrades with another true #Southern staple.  But what?  And that's how I arrived at Oysters on the Half Shell with Pimento Cheese.

Preheat oven to 450.
Shuck as many oysters as you possibly can.
Combine Panko, fresh oregano, fresh parsley and fresh minced garlic.
Top oysters with Panko-herb mixture.
Top with pimento cheese.
Bake for 7 minutes.
Cool and enjoy!

Pimento Cheesy Mac!

There's pimento cheese and then there's cheesy mac.  Why not combine the two and have one fabulous meal?

Made using the Weight Watcher's recipe for Cheesy Mac -

Prepare 2 cups of uncooked penne pasta according to directions, omit fat and salt.
Cook 1/2 lb of ground beef in a cast iron (or broiler-proof) skillet
Add: 1/2 C chopped onion, one 14.5 oz can of roasted diced tomatoes, 1 C diced fresh tomatoes
When pasta is cooked, add to beef mixture.
Stir in 2-3 oz of pimento cheese (orig recipe calls for 5 oz shredded cheese overall)
Preheat broiler.
Stir and simmer until all flavors are blended.

Place dollops of pimento cheese on top of mixture.
Broil for 2 minutes or until cheese is well melted and incorporated into dish.

Makes 6 servings.

Enjoy!

Beef, onion, roasted tomatoes and tomato mixture.

Top with 2-3 oz of pimento cheese (after stirring in 2-3oz).  Then to broiler.

The end result!

Catfish and Pimento Cheese Grits - *That's* What's For Dinner

In keeping with true #Southern tradition - like with the #Masters and pimento cheese, it seems like the right thing to do in enjoying good ol' catfish with grits for dinner.  But, with a twist.  Many of us like our grits with #cheese, and we call this dish "cheese grits."  So why not incorporate #pimento cheese into this great Southern favorite?

Here I coated the catfish with #Tobasco.  Dredge fish through combo of cornmeal and #Tony's #cajun  spice.  Bake in a 350 oven for 14 minutes or until the fish flakes.

While catfish bakes, cook grits.  When grits are just about done, spoon a heaping helpin of pimento cheese into the grits and stir until well incorporated.

Serve and enjoy!

Back to Basics - In Honor of the Masters, A Nice Simple Pimento Cheese Sandwich

As most golf fans and lovers of pimento cheese know, the Masters is the place to get the best in golf and the best pimento cheese in the South all at one great annual event.  A long-standing tradition, concessions at the Masters is as close to excellent as you can get and as far from the normal over-priced fare you expect at any major sporting event.

And so, without further ado, I encourage everyone to leave visions of Girl Scout cookies, smoked salmon wraps and stuffed jalapeños behind, get back to basics and enjoy a few slices of heaven today.

Pimento Cheese on White Bread

Fore!

Sliced Apple with Pimento Cheese

It has been said that an apple a day keeps the doctor away.  And hopefully this is true.  But an apple a day with pimento cheese… now to me that's the picture of good health and good living!

This combo has several great benefits - it's healthy, easy and above all else, delicious!

Slice an apple.  Give each slice its own little bit of pimento cheese and enjoy!

Pimento-Cheese Rugelach, Weight Watcher's Does It Again!!!

Whether you are a devout Weight Watcher or not, you're going to love this fantastic snack.  Taken from the Weight Watcher's quarterly recipe guide, the pimento cheese rugelach is easy to make, only one PointsPlus per serving and as it says in the recipe intro "salty and creamy, this savory rugelach pairs well with a glass of cold riesling."  What could be better than that!?!

The original Weight Watchers pimento cheese recipe and one 4-ounce can of refrigerated reduced-fat crescent rolls is all you need.  

Preheat oven to 375.

Make the pimento cheese (or if you're like me, pull your stash from the fridge)

Unroll the dough, divide along perforations into triangles.  Cute each triangle in half (so you have twice as many triangles -  shown below).

Spoon 1 founded teaspoon of pimento cheese onto the triangle.

Fold tightly and make sure to pinch the sides so nothing will seep out in the baking process.

Bake at 374 for 14 minutes or until browned.  

This recipe makes 16 servings (1 PointsPlus each!!!).

Perfect for a mid-afternoon snack or to share with company at your next get together.  

Cut the triangles into mini triangles, place the pimento cheese on top in the center.  

Fold dough around the cheese, pinch the sides so nothing oozes out while baking.

Remove from oven, cool and enjoy!  These are also wonderful as a cold snack straight from the fridge.  

The Egg and the Pimento

To celebrate the arrival of Spring, today I've created a pimento cheese stuffed egg, also known as a Pimento Cheese Deviled Egg.  However, rather than stand pat with "just" pimento cheese, I've added three different flavors - jalapeño, bacon and a sweet gherkin pickle.

For the Pimento Cheese Deviled Egg with Bacon, I have used the standard pimento cheese recipe and topped the egg, once stuffed, with a few small pieces of crisp turkey bacon.  The flavors blend together very nicely.  Just like bacon and eggs!

For the egg with gherkin, I subbed the green onion with a chopped sweet gherkin.  Add to the egg, top with another pickle slice and enjoy. As the first time trying pickle with pimento cheese, I may have been just a wee bit too shy with it and could have used a little more gherkin.  If you decide to try this one (which of course, I recommend), use your imagination and add pickle to satisfy your taste.  

And now for the grand finale!  Pimento Cheese Deviled Egg with Jalapeño!  Yummy, yummy, yummy!  As with the former jalapeño effort, swap the green onion for minced jalapeño.  Add to the egg, top with a fresh slice of jalapeño and go nuts!  

I can absolutely see serving this at a get together any time of the year.  I've placed four of each egg on a serving dish.  And if I don't say so myself, it looks good enough to eat!

Southern Sushi - Smoked Salmon with Pimento Cheese

Friends and neighbors might accuse me of being crazy, but trust me, when you try this, you're going to say the same thing they did - this is fantastic!

Think outside the box.  Think what might taste great with pimento cheese (besides turkey bacon, a Girl Scout cookie, jalapeño pepper, etc…).  Already having tried the smoked salmon faux bagel treatment (bread, salmon, red onion, capers and pimento cheese), I thought why not try the smoked salmon and pimento cheese rolled like a little piece of sushi.  And the result was oh my goodness gracious good.

Flatten pieces of smoked salmon.
Spread the pimento cheese on top.  Smush it down so it's nice and flat.
Roll the salmon.  Cut, serve and enjoy!

Pictured here with fresh chive garnish from daGarden.  Simply delicious!

I admit, this is getting more and more fun with each passing day.  Already looking forward to making this week's tasty treats!

Sotaliano! - Pimento Cheese with Garlic

For a new twist and a kick I’ve combined two of my favorite things – pimento cheese and garlic!  Using the basic pimento cheese recipe, swap the green onion for garlic.

Mince one large clove of garlic, mix it in and enjoy! 

Instead of garlic bread, I’ve toasted a few slices of a baguette and placed a dollap of pimento cheese on top. 

It’s delicious!

Smoked Salmon on Toast with…. Pimento Cheese!

TGIF Pimento Cheese lovers!

For the 4th day, which also happens to be a Friday during the period of Lent, I've created a delicious treat featuring smoked salmon and of course pimento cheese!

Here's how:

Toast 2 slices of bread (I've used white)
Spread pimento cheese on one slice
Add chopped red onion (go crazy or hold back - dealer's choice)
Sprinkle on capers (as much or as little as you like)
Add smoked salmon
Top with remaining piece of toast
Enjoy!

Makes a wonderful breakfast sandwich, lunchtime treat or dinner!

Muy Caliente! Baked Pimento Cheese Stuffed Jalapenos!

This heat is savory sweet!  For the 3^rd day in the Ode to Pimento Cheese I decided to stuff fresh #jalapeño peppers with pimento cheese.  I had heard and read about this, but had not had the chance to try it.  The result: goodness gracious great balls of fire!

Turn up the heat by modifying the pimento cheese recipe just a bit.  Sub the green onions with freshly chopped jalapeño pepper.  Naturally this kicks it up a notch.  And, if you don’t use all of the pimento cheese with jalapeño, you can always add the rest to crackers, celery or your other favorite treat (sadly, I am out of Trefoils so I cannot give this a try).

Pre-heat oven to 350.

Line a baking sheet with aluminum foil.  Spray with cooking spray. 

Slice the jalapeno down the center.

Scoop out the seeds (be careful if you are sensitive – wear gloves).

Stuff the jalapeno with the pimento cheese.

Bake for 20 to 30 minutes or until the cheese is browned.

Remove from the oven, cool slightly and enjoy.

Note – should any cheese run over and bake onto the aluminum foil… scoop it off with a knife once it’s totally cool and enjoy!  It’s like a yummy cheese crisp!

This would make a perfect little appetizer, might even be better done on the grill!  Looking forward to harvesting a fresh crop of my own jalapeño peppers later in the season. 

Ole!