The giant and I were watching a TV show,
"The Best Thing I Ever Ate", and Tyler Florence brought up Pimento Cheese. My mouth has been watering ever since. I had no clue though, that Pimento Cheese was a "regional" food, particular only to the Southern US, and no where else. So I asked the giant, and sure enough, he's never had it. Oh the sorrow of not experiencing a pimento cheese sandwich. :o( So it's on my list to make for my darling husband, and most especially for myself. I'll share my recipe with you. Give it a try, either on white bread, or served up with crackers and veggies. Trust me, everybody will be wondering where you found this fabulous cheese.
Did you know "Pimentos" are actually red cherry peppers?
Ingredients:
1 pound Sharp Cheddar Cheese (grated)
1/2 pound Monterey Jack Cheese (grated)
1 4-ounce jar of Pimentos
1 3-ounce container of Cream Cheese (softened)
2 medium sized Kosher Dill Pickles (chopped fine)
2-3 cloves of Garlic (adjust to your taste, mashed up)
3 heaping tablespoons of Duke's Mayo (okay you can use another mayo, but Duke's is best)
Cracked black pepper to taste
Chopped parsely / or nuts for garnish if making a cheese ball
Directions:
I love to use the food processor for this, as it makes things easier, to grate the cheeses and pickles, but you don't need it. Whip up your softened cream cheese and mix/fold in all the other ingredients, except the chopped parsley or nuts. Then place the mixture in a small bowl, cover, and store in your fridge for a few hours (or go ahead and make your sandwich). This will firm up your cheese (though it will remain soft). Then you can pull it out, and roll it in chopped nuts or parsley to make it pretty, wrap with plastic wrap and store. As long as you keep it in an airtight container, your Pimento Cheese should keep for 6 weeks.
Pimento cheese is awesome as a dip, as a sandwich, spread on top of a hamburger, baked in the oven on some toast points, topping deviled eggs, spread on celery sticks, and much much more. Gosh I can't wait. I hope I leave some for my husband to try. :oP
I love to bead. I love to crochet. What could possibly be better than combining my two loves? Not much, honestly. After experimenting with different gauges of wire, I've discovered 28 gauge is pretty much the best, along with a metal crochet hook. Of course, if you try this, do not use a much loved crochet hook. It will wind up getting scratched, and won't make a smooth tranistion back to yarn. So, you have your crochet hook, your beading supplies, what do you do? Bead your wire. Place all your beads on the wire first. Since this is a bracelet, once I had roughly 7 inches worth of beads on the wire, I then placed a toggle ring on the wire. I then placed a lobsterclasp on the wire, and placed it in the center of my slip knot for my crochet hook. I then chained until I had 7 inches of loops. I slid the toggle ring up and chained once more with the ring being in the center of the loop. I then turned the piece. Then I chained one, and then single chained into each one of the the loops, sliding a bead up onto the wire to be clasped within the loop. To finish I wraped the wire around the end and used my wire pliers to ensure it was secured tight. I have plans to do much more with combining my two loves into some fabulous crafty projects and accessories. I love the look of the crochet loops in the wire. 
