Making Pimento Cheese

I'm afraid I've officially turned into an old lady. I made some Pimento Cheese today. I think of it as an old-lady-food. I suspect this is because my grandmother was the only person I knew who made it. She always kept a 4-oz glass jar of sliced pimentos in her pantry and could whip up a portion of the southern-speciality cheese for an impromptu lunch. She'd spread it on white bread, cut off the crust, and cut the sandwich into four neat triangles.

Years later, I started buying the Doll's Market version of the spread that came with a small container of some kind of raspberry jam. The combination was genius. But alas, Doll's Market closed, leaving me with few options for really good pimento cheese.

I decided to make some of my own. How hard can it be? I looked in a dozen regional cookbooks from my collection and not a one of them had a recipe. Thank goodness for Google. It turned up a dozen recipes for me to compare. Seems like the biggest difference was that some used mayonnaise as a binding and some used cream cheese.  I chose cream cheese.

Maggie had canned some sweet peppers from the summer garden and I had yet to find a use for them until today.  I can't swear that they are pimentos, but I do know they are red and have a sweet flavor, much like pimentos.

I diced them up and added them to brick of cream cheese. To that I added a teaspoon of my secret ingredient: Hot Pepper Butter from Wild Carrot Farm, which is located just a mile from Farm Dover. We bought a case (yes, it is that good) from our neighbor, but I know he also sells it at the Bardstown Road Farmers' Market.

Grated extra-sharp cheddar cheese went in next and then a bit of salt and pepper.

Blend it all up. I taste-tested it on a cracker but am planning to use it for our lunchtime grilled cheese sandwiches.

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Debbie's Pimento Cheese

My favorite way to serve this Southern Classic is mounded on a Carr's Whole Wheat Cracker with a dab of wild blackberry jam on top. Yum!

ingredients
1 8 oz block of Tillamook Sharp Cheddar Cheese, grated coarsely

1 8-oz brick of Philadelphia Original Cream Cheese

1 7-oz jar of diced pimento peppers, drained

2 T homemade pepper butter 

salt and black pepper, to taste

preparation
Combine ingredients. Blend briefly by hand or with a mixer on low.