You’ve heard the adage, “Everything old is new again” well that goes for food trends as well. Now for Southerners of all ages, pimento cheese has been and always will be part of the food chain along with mayo, sliced tomatoes and white bread. How else would a respectable Southerner eat the stuff? Answer: by the spoonful which is also totally acceptable.

So it came, as somewhat of a surprise to learn that the latest trend in fashionable restaurants up and down the east coast, as well the fashionable ones here in Dixie, is the pimento cheese sandwich.

But hold onto your hats “y’all”, as the reigning high priestess of artery clogging recipes
might say, because this is not your traditional sandwich but one that might include everything from bacon to avocado or both with jalapenos thrown in for good measure
heaped on 7grain bread redolent of flax seed.

Personally I remember my aunt sitting on the big wrap around porch of her home down on Pine Street, when the street ran all the way to the river, chopping away at the pimentos she had just dumped from a glass jar into her ever faithful wooden mixing bowl.

That jar of pimentos along with the hunk of sharp cheddar came from the Easy Way Supermarket at the corner of First and Market, which was a great social as well as shopping experience. That’s digging back in time sixty years but that kind of pimento cheese is the sort of gourmet treat you never forget.

If obesity is the catalyst for spiraling health care costs then you can thank all those media savvy chefs and their imitators for tipping us over into a true cataclysmic disaster. On the other hand I feel that my reason for hitting the gym as often as possible is to indulge in something as decadent as those little red pimentos swirling around in real cheddar cheese and honest-to-goodness mayo Note that all that fat free stuff is delusional poppycock for the SUV crowd.

While on the subject of “what’s going on here”? check out all the trendy new burger palaces that offer not just a burger and fries but turkey burgers and tofu burgers and for those with any remaining wealth the Angus or Kobe Beef burger laced with truffles.
I guess those truffle sniffing pigs figured that will take the heat off the “ham”burger!

I’m all for experimentation except for the dude on television who eats the most reviled ingredients on his travels around the world. I personally feel his stomach has been replaced with some 23rd century robotic innards or maybe he is someone from the Syfy Channel.

While there are certain recipes like pimento cheese that remain sacred, in the sanctity of my own kitchen, when no one is around to comment or pass judgment, I will play with combining ingredients much in the same way I take a recipe and rethink it and add my own personality. The fun of cooking is to be able to read a recipe and then interpret it your way. I might add that is not always an interpretation that meets with applauds by members of my own family.

However ask yourself this, did people immediately go gaga over Lady Gaga? My answer… with a name like Gaga she better be good.

As for pimento cheese, the next time you see fat free pimento cheese in the dairy case nix it and go home and make your own. If the arteries must be clogged do it the right way!

Recipe
8 ounces of medium sharp cheddar cheese, grated - do it yourself and do not use the pre-grated cheese
6 ounce jar of diced pimentos with juice (but pick out the seeds)
Mayo - about 3 heaping tablespoons –I prefer Helmans
Cracked Black pepper optional

Mix all the ingredients together until well combined then taste to be sure it meets
your expectations. Take another taste to be sure. Well maybe one more but that’s it!