Pimento Cheese and Strawberry Filled Cookies

February 27, 2012Carroll 3 Comments

I saw the cookies first, and knew I had to make pimiento cheese so I could make the cookies. I’m a sucker for crackers, crisps, biscuits, ect- especially when Sweet meets Savory! These cookies are delicious- if you prefer substitute the strawberry preserve for another- raspberry or lingonberry would be great! You could even use your basic grape jelly- who doesn’t love cheese and grapes!

Southern Treats

Pimento Cheese and Strawberry Jam Cookies Mise En Place

Ingredients

1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup refrigerated pimento cheese
1/2 cup pecans, finely chopped
1/4 cup butter, softened
4 tablespoons strawberry preserves

Preparation

1. Beat together flour and pimento cheese at medium speed with a heavy-duty electric stand mixer 1 minute. Add pecans and butter; beat until blended. Wrap dough in plastic wrap; chill 2 hours.

"Off the Hook" Dough Ball

Roll the dough thin for a crisper cookie

2. Preheat oven to 400°. Place dough on a well-floured surface, and roll to 1/8-inch thickness. Cut into 48 rounds with a 2-inch round cutter, rerolling scraps once. Arrange half of rounds 2 inches apart on parchment paper-lined baking sheets; spoon 1/2 tsp. strawberry preserves onto center of each round, and top with remaining rounds, pressing edges to seal.

Just a Dollop of Jam

3. Bake at 400° for 12 to 15 minutes or until golden brown. Cool on baking sheets 10 minutes; transfer to wire racks, and cool completely (about 30 minutes).

Cheese, Spice and Jam- Great Combination!

This recipe is from Pawley’s Island Specialty Foods, Palmetto Cheese, Pawley’s Island, SC. Found in Southern Living.

: Whenever a rolling pin is involved, good things follow!

Sweet Southern Beauties………………….

Pimento Cheese- “Southern Pate”

February 19, 2012Carroll 2 Comments

Pimento cheese in the south is a staple. Every southern cook has “the best” recipe, kind of like chili, meatloaf, and BBQ sauce!

Pimento Cheese, Pate of The South!

Southern Living recently ran a compilation of Pimento Cheese recipes from acclaimed Southern Chefs- I adapted Louis Osteen’s recipe. I somehow feel I have an attachment to him as I had a college roommate that worked at one of his restaurants, and I walked by the namesake restaurant daily. As a college student, I only had the opportunity to walk by Louis’s, never dine!

Pimento Cheese is a Southern Treasure!

Ingredients

3 cups freshly grated sharp Cheddar cheese ( 1/2 lb.)
2-oz cream cheese, softened
3 tablespoons mayonnaise
1 tablespoon grated yellow onion
1 teaspoon ground red pepper
3 oz whole peeled pimento, drained and rinsed
One bite is not enough!

Preparation

In a food processor combine all ingredients and pulse until desired texture. You can also use a electric mixer to blend.

Serve with fresh breads or crackers

Yield is about 1 ½ cups

A Southern Delicacy!

: Best with fresh baked breads or artisan crackers

Happy Eats Y’all!

Blue Cheese Truffles

February 12, 2012Carroll 7 Comments

I am a curious chef- I often wonder …Can this work? …Will this taste good? What if…? Streeeeeetch the imagination…..! That’s how good, better, and finally best comes around. I saw Blue Cheese Truffles on a chocolatier’s website a few weeks ago and have not been able to let go. Hmmm…sounds good… sounds gross…maybe…eh..

Blue Cheese Truffles

One bite and I was convinced. Blue Cheese Truffles are undoubtedly delicious. Forget Vosges.

Blue Cheese- Most people love it or hate it!

Ingredients

Blue Cheese Truffle Mise en Place

Filling

2 ounces blue cheese, softened
1 tablespoon sugar
2 ounces dark chocolate
1 teaspoon almonds, coarsely chopped
1 teaspoon dried cherries, finely chopped

Coating

4 ounces dark chocolate

I added dried cherries and almonds, but you can skip them if you want, or you can substitute with bacon.

Method

Bring cheese to room temperature; it should be soft enough to blend with a fork. You can microwave it for a few seconds if necessary. Add in the sugar and blend well. Add chopped almonds and cherries. Melt 2 ounces of chocolate in a double boiler and blend into the cheese mixture. Refrigerate until mixture is firm. Scoop into teaspoon size balls and place in refrigerator until ready to dip.

Blue Cheese Truffle Filling

Melt remaining chocolate in double boiler. Dip balls in chocolate and allow excess chocolate to drip off. Place truffles on parchment paper and let the chocolate set.

Dipped Blue Cheese Truffles

They are best served the same or next day. They do need to be refrigerated if serving the next day, but bring to room temperature before serving.

Blue Cheese Truffles- Take a chance!

This recipe makes about 10 truffles, delicious truffles…

Blue Cheese Truffles

Enjoy! And encourage your friends and family to step out of their comfort zone- this is where the best surprises are discovered!

Florida Key Lime Pie Dip

February 5, 2012Carroll 4 Comments

Another dessert dip- options are good!

Key Lime Pie is my favorite “non chocolate“ dessert, I love the zip of the little key limes!

Key Lime Pie Dip

Key limes are much smaller (ping-pong to golfball-sized) than Persian limes, nearly spherical, thin-skinned, and often contain a few seeds. Green key limes are actually immature fruits, prized for their acidity. As they ripen to a yellow color, the acid content diminishes greatly, resulting in a sweeter fruit

When you can’t get actual key Limes the juice makes a great substitute- just get some fresh limes to be able to include zest!

Some of my favorite ingredients!

Ingredients

2/3 cup sweetened condensed milk
8 ounces cream cheese, softened
1/4 cup fresh lime juice
1/2 cup heavy cream
5 tablespoons confectioners’ sugar
6 graham cracker halves, crumbled
Zest on 1 Lime

Directions

Beat milk and cream cheese together until fluffy. Add in lime juice and incorporate.
In a different bowl, whip the heavy cream and sugar together until you have firm peaks.
Fold whipped cream into the cream cheese mixture, add graham cracker and lime zest and gently combine.
Refrigerate until ready to serve! Fresh fruit, vanilla wafers, graham crackers, chocolate dipped pretzels all are great to serve with dip!

Serves about 10 friends.

A Florida Must Have!

You can use light cream cheese to if you aren’t forgoing your diet today! 🙂

Quick, Easy and Tasty

Wish everyone a safe and happy Super Bowl Sunday!!

Chocolate Chip Heath Bar Cookie Dough Dip! A Super Bowl Sunday First!!!

February 4, 2012February 4, 2012Carroll 2 Comments

I was born a Steelers Fan- actually born into a Steelers family, with both my parents growing up in Pittsburgh. So I have enjoyed many Super Bowl Sunday’s- some with victories and some with bitter defeats. Either way it is always a fun day that I look forward to every year! Super Bowl Sunday is not just for football fans- nope, it’s a day that even the most annoyed wives can enjoy, if not the commercials or the half time show then they definitely can enjoy the food! The best part, if the Steelers aren’t playingJ.

We plan for weeks, discussions of grilling, sandwich making and pizza assembling. We coordinate who will bring what, hopefully avoiding 5 bowls of salsa! Magazines are filled with ridiculously tempting pictures of food, tempting enough that you wish that photograph of wings was a scratch and sniff.

Speaking of too many bowls of salsa, or a bowl of onion dip, spinach dip, ranch dip, and Grandma’s dip (are there ever too many, I’m really not so sure). One kind of dip that has never graced any Super Bowl Party I have been to is dessert dips….What!!!