Some cookie! Pimiento-cheese with raspberry centers is a P.C.-lover’s dream

For a pimiento-cheese fiend such as I am, it was second-heaven. I’ve already spoken of how delirious I was to see Southern Living February 2011’s spread (pun definitely intended) on all the best ways with pimiento cheese. I’m working down the list to try every one of the five P.C. varieties shown there.

But two pages over is a feature that really goes above and beyond. Pimiento Cheese Cookies appeared in the middle of the page. Now that’s taking things to ludicrously enjoyable limits. A few days ago I pulled out my pastry board, rolling pin, and round cookie-cutter and got some of these going.

I would have baked them regardless, but I saw they would qualify for this column because they contained chopped pecans—that sore subject in these parts since our trees have produced so few the past two years. Ah, springtime is supposed to be the season of hope, so we are viewing our towering pecans with all the hope we can muster. Maybe this is THE year.

The Pimiento Cheese Cookies recipe actually lets you use store-bought, refrigerated pimiento cheese—the kind in containers in the dairy case. Mix a cup of it with flour and softened butter and stir in the chopped pecans. The dough needs to chill in the fridge for two hours before you attempt to roll it out, but once you do, it’s easy to manage and doesn’t stick to a floured board.

When the cookie rounds are cut, they are arranged on a cookie sheet that has been covered with parchment paper. Put one round in place, spoon on some sugar-free strawberry preserves (I subbed sugar-free raspberry because of Hubby’s strawberry intolerance), and top each with another round. Press the edges to seal the two cookie rounds together to hold in the preserves.

On baking, even while using the parchment, my cookies got a little too brown on the bottom, but I’ve since ditched my old, dark cookie sheets for some new fancy ones, which I believe will give them lighter bottoms next time.

Hubby and I went berserk-o over these darling cookies—imaginative and yummy. They were a cross between a cookie and a biscuit and were especially delightful when served with a little extra raspberry preserves on top. They made me glad to be a P.C. Gal!

Pimiento Cheese Cookies

1 cup all-purpose flour

1 cup refrigerated pimiento cheese

1/2 cup pecans, finely chopped

1/4 cup butter, softened

Parchment paper

4 tablespoons strawberry preserves (I used sugar-free raspberry)

Beat together flour and pimiento cheese at medium speed with a heavy-duty electric stand mixer for 1 minute. Add pecans and butter; beat until blended. Wrap dough in plastic wrap; chill 2 hours. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Place dough on a well-floured surface; roll to 1/8-inch thickness. With a 2-inch round cutter cut dough into 48 rounds. Re-roll scraps once. Arrange half of rounds 2-inches apart on parchment-paper-lined baking sheets; spoon 1/2 teaspoon preserves onto center of each round; top with remaining rounds. Press edges to seal. Bake at 400 degrees for 12 to 15 minutes or until golden brown. Cool on baking sheets for 10 minutes. Transfer to wire racks; cool completely, about 30 minutes. Makes 2 dozen.

Don't let summer slip away without filling your burger quota; try these!

I’ve already blathered on and on about my lifelong affection for burgers, which I believe I acquired from my mom, the queen of burger lovers. I’m always on the hunt for inventive ways to serve them up. Southern Living’s July 2011 issue warmed the heart with zillions of new twists on burgers; what wasn’t included in the magazine (13 more ways to prepare burgers) was available on the website, southernliving.com/grilling. I was in hamburger heaven!

After offering the recipe for Basic Turkey Burgers, the article then featured a variety of burger dress-ups. Since I love pimiento cheese almost as much as I do burgers themselves, I was drawn to Pimiento Cheese Bacon Burgers as a way to add some special pizzazz.

I absolutely adored the fact that the Best Turkey Burgers recipe featured both chopped fresh parsley and fresh mint. I almost always have some fresh parsley in the veggie bin of my fridge; seems as though I buy some for a recipe and then have a ton left over. And the mint—well, it grows, indestructable, right outside my door. We grab it to go in iced tea and look for recipes that give us an excuse to trim some off.

Pimiento Cheese-Bacon Burgers calls for topping the Best Turkey Burgers with your favorite Pimiento Cheese mixture (storebought or mixed up with your own shredded cheese or cheese blend.) I ran my fave in the very first blog entry I ever wrote for this column—May 16, 2010. But for grins I’ll repeat it here today—295 blog entries later!

Pimiento Cheese-Bacon Burgers

2 pounds lean ground turkey breast

1 teaspoon salt (or salt substitute)

1 teaspoon lemon zest

1/2 cup mayonnaise

1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley

1/4 cup chopped fresh mint

Preheat grill to 350 to 400 degrees (or use countertop grill). Combine above ingredients gently. Shape mixture into 6 (5-inch) patties. Grill, covered with grill lid, 4 to 5 minutes on each side or until beef no longer is pink in the center. Top each burger with your favorite pimiento cheese recipe (mine appears below), cooked bacon slices, lettuce, and tomato slices. Makes 6 servings.

Old South Pimiento Cheese

1 cup chopped/broken pecans

1 (8-ounce) block extra sharp cheese (grate on small side of cheese grater)

1 (8-ounce) block sharp cheese (grate on large side of cheese grater)

1 1/2 cups mayonnaise

1 (4-ounce) jar chopped pimiento, drained

1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce

1 teaspoon grated onion

1/4 teaspoon ground red pepper

Set oven to 350 degrees. Toast the 1 cup pecans for 8-10 minutes. Stir halfway through the toasting. Mix the grated cheese, mayonnaise, pimiento, worcestershire sauce, onion, and red pepper. Add pecans. Spread on bread.

When with Romaine, do as the Romaines do . . .

Our spring/summer garden 2010 is making its debut. From early observations it seems to be shaping up to be our most prolific in years--certainly since the Texas Deluge of 2007 practically wiped it out and stripped the soil of nutrients.

(My new book, Way Back in the Country Garden, contains a chapter, "Peach Trees and the Wedding Plywood", that details exactly why that garden was so memorable.)

My hubby was determined that this year, he would get back in the full swing of things for the first time in those three intervening summers. Early on he applied a high nitrogen fertilizer after he visited with the wise folks at Roach Feed & Seed (an institution in Downtown Garland. They can help with anything!). Already the cornstalks are high and green, the tomatoes look as though they'll be lush, and the okra looks promising. And that's just the beginning.

Anyway, this year, we got so carried away, we decided to grow romaine lettuce--our first attempt at this food item. The first crop arrived a few weeks back. We picked our first bunch and COULD NOT BELIEVE we simply could walk a few steps out our back door and haul in a crunchy head of lettuce that would last us all week. Absolutely NOTHING like fresh romaine on a sandwich.

To celebrate our first romaine pick, we just had to have a special kind of sandwich. I had just read the latest issue of Southern Living and had seen a recipe for Old South Pimiento Cheese. I am a pimiento-cheese addict from the word GO--loved it all my life and am always looking for new ways to prepare it. No one will ever fix pimiento cheese like Betty Ewing, for years the society columnist for the Houston Chronicle. Betty's work cubicle was next to mine during my days as a writer for the Chronicle's Lifestyle section. Probably once a week Betty, who was generous to a fault, brought in a giant jar of pimiento cheese spread and shared it with the rest of the office as we made our lunchtime sandwiches. Again and again she would disclose to her co-workers what was in her magic recipe, but her ingredient list always varied a little each time she described the mixture. I would try to write it down, but the next time she would recite it slightly differently than she had the previous time.

This recipe in Southern Living (it appears below) seems the closest to Betty's that I've run across. It was absolutely perfect with my fresh-beyond-fresh romaine from our very own garden.

If you want a gardening treat that will REALLY make you feel as though you accomplished something, put a little romaine in your gardening life. We did and are thrilled with our romaine crop!

Old South Pimiento Cheese

1 cup chopped/broken pecans

1 (8-ounce) block extra sharp cheese (grate on small side of cheese grater)

1 (8-ounce) block sharp cheese (grate on large side of cheese grater)

1 1/2 cup mayonnaise

1 (4-ounce) jar chopped pimiento, drained

1 teaspoon worcestershire sauce

1 teaspoon grated onion

1/4 teaspoon ground red pepper

Set oven to 350 degrees. Toast the 1 cup pecans for 8-10 minutes. Stir halfway through the toasting. Mix the grated cheese, mayonnaise, pimiento, worcestershire sauce, onion, and red pepper. Add pecans. Spread on bread.