The tastiest thing that was brought to my small group last night was these cream cheese blueberry cookies.  My soul those were yummy.  The chicken stew was good too,  I must say.  I did not bring either of those.  Instead I brought pimento cheese sandwiches.  I thought it was delicious and enjoyed it, but after small group was over one of the women in the group confided that, “She hadn’t had pimento cheese since her great grandmother made it for her as a child.”   I thought it especially interesting that she said “great-grandmother” not just grandmother.   My foodie fashion was so old it went back FOUR generations.  Awesome.

We had a good laugh over it, and let the record show she wasn’t being mean, she was being funny, but truthful.  So there you go.  I brought grandma food.  I guess pimento cheese is not cool and hip, as it is not infused with anything, pan crusted, seared, or marinated in a brine.  I wonder what other foods classify as “grandma food”.  I made a small list:

1. Egg Salad
2. Meatloaf
3. Ovaltine
4. Polk Salad
5. Hominy

Of course, some old fashioned foods are making a comeback of sorts.  Who would have ever thought eggplant would be as trendy as it is now.  For the record, I hated eggplant back in the day and I hate it now.   Then there is soul food such as pork bellies which are faddish and then Greek yogurt is hip.  I’ve always liked Greek yogurt, but didn’t that used to just be something people on WeightWatchers ate?  Pork bellies is what we ate when the bacon was all gone.

By the way, for a fun look at trendy eating, consider this flow chart.

But back to my pimento cheese.  I liked it enough to share my recipe with you.  Its nothing fantastic, just simple and cobbled together from several different recipes and ideas.

1 and 3/4 cups of EXTRA sharp cheddar cheese, grated

1/4 cup of havarti cheese, grated

Eight ounces of cream cheese, room temperature

1/2 Cup of REAL mayonaise (Out here it is Best Foods Mayonnaise, where I grew up it is called Hellmann’s Mayonnaise)

A shake or two of garlic powder

1/4 teaspoon of onion powder

1/4 teaspoon of ground cayenne pepper, and then one more shake for good measure

A dash of Tabasco sauce if you like it a little spicy.

4 ounces (one of those small jars) of pimentos, drained.   

Throw all of those ingredients in whatever order you come to them in a freestanding mixer and mix on medium speed for about a minute, then scrape the bowl down and mix it for another minute.  If the coloring is not to your liking, add a little more of the grated extra sharp cheddar cheese.

I served it as sandwiches on white bread and on slices of crisp celery.  The way my mother used to serve it (note, she probably learned it from my grandma) was to spoon it up on hollowed out jalapeno halves.