It hit me hard. A craving for pimento cheese just came out of nowhere and wham! I had to have some.
The mother of one of my good buddies from my childhood in Hawkinsville made the best pimento cheese… and that’s the recipe I wanted to try. I couldn’t remember exactly how she made it, so I tried to recreate hers. Low and behold, I came out with a version I’m quite proud of. Like any dish, simple but good ingredients make the difference, and with pecans falling, a fall spin on this Southern classic was born.
Toasted pecans make just about anything better...tomato soup, any dessert, salads, and now pimento cheese. That essence, that flavor of goodness from a toasted pecan makes my taste buds sing.A slight salting doesn’t hurt either. A few of these from the farm goodies tucked into my pimento cheese sandwich were quite good my friends, quite good.
Now on to my next pimento cheese condiment…Wickle’s Pickles. Those of us who attended Auburn or are from that neck of the woods know what I’m talking about. These Dadeville, Alabama exports are pickles with a kick and are super right out of jar or on a sandwich or burger. (Try my pimento cheese and these pickles on a burger…wow!) Many of the major grocers are now carrying this brand so go get some as soon as you can! Be sure to try them with my pimento cheese and toasted pecans too...yum!
Not too long ago I was a bittersweet chocolate snob. I would only eat
chocolate bars with a very high percentage of cacao, the higher the
better. But I've discovered some milk chocolate recently that I really
love. If you only eat high percentage cacao, I urge you to try some of
the more exquisite milk chocolates on the market. They may surprise
you. They certainly surprised me. 
This time of year in Maine the soft shell lobsters are “in” season and are very plentiful and inexpensive. You ask what is a soft shell lobster? Is it like a soft shell crab, do I eat the whole thing, shell and all? No, no, not all all similar. In order for a lobster to increase their size, ie. “grow” they have to shed their old hard shell. Two weeks before this happens they form a soft, thin shell under their hard exterior. Once the thin shell is formed under the hard shell they dehydrate, shrinking the soft membrane shell which contracts to the lobster’s meat, then the pressure builds until the old hard shell breaks open and the lobster pulls it’s new body out. First they pull out the claws then the tail and finally the body. Once this happens they fill themselves up with sea water. They balloon up with water, especially in the claws which are half water and the tail is about a quarter filled with sea water. The cooked meat of a soft shell is bright red and more tender then a hard shell lobster. The new shell looks exactly the same in coloration but it is as thin as syran wrap.
What I consider "a super bowl" is not THE Super Bowl. It's a sophisticated little serving dish from Villeroy and Boch that's perfect for serving onion dip. I'm of the opinion you can never have too many bowls. Perhaps there is a food stylist somewhere deep inside me, struggling to be free.
A couple years back i reported about a prize-winning, record-setting burger that weighed in at over 210 pounds. Well, apparently that record has been obliterated, shattered, knuckle-dropped, air-popped, heel-stomped and other synonyms for royally busted. A burger in Minnesota weighed in at just north of one ton. (It’s 2014 pounds.) Not just your basic lazy cook’s plain burger, this one featured 60 pounds of bacon, 40 pounds each of pickles and cheese and 50 pounds of lettuce.