Summer Sandwiches: the Pimento Papers

I haven’t posted in a while. The kitchen and I have been strangers except to whip together chicken nuggets or lettuce and tomatoes. So, I decided to write about my Dad’s version of Pimento Cheese. This is a simple recipe that lasts as long as you want it to (this rarely means longer than a day or two in our house.) Kristi loves this Pimento Cheese and P-man always comes back for more.

First ingredients will be the cream cheese. I put that one first because it needs to sit and warm up a bit before you throw it in to the processor. All you need is one 8 ounce package. Then you’ll need an 8 ounce package of sharp cheddar (I prefer the already shredded bags) and an 8 ounce package of seriously sharp cheddar (aka extra sharp). After that you will need a little garlic powder in the palm of your hand (a teaspoon?) and 7 ounces of pimentos. To finish it off you will need a cup or so of mayonesa [sic]. You will find that either with the mayonnaise or in the aisle with the Hispanic food.

After you get all of the goodies together you will need to get your food processor out and do the hard work. If you were unable to find pre-shredded cheddar you will need to have the grating blade out and shred it up. Don’t worry about the little pills and left over pieces, they will be taken care of when you put everything together. Now, with the shredding done put in the chopping/mixing blade. Get the cream cheese and put it in with the cheddar and pulse it around a little. Plop a scoop of mayonesa in the mixer and pulse again. Add the garlic powder and a half of the pimentos (and all of the juice). Dad reserves half the pimentos so there will be chunks of pimento in the end product. Run the mixer and get the texture you want (add a little more mayonesa if the spread needs to loosen up). Now throw in the rest of the pimentos and give it a good pulse to mix ‘em up good and you are done.

Get a good spoonful to tide you over until you can get the sandwich made. Now use the Pimento Cheese however you wish; on a sandwich, with celery, in a spoon.

Tour of the Basque Country

I made a paella of my own dreaming up in honor of the Tour of the Basque Country (a bicycle race) that was held last week. I started with my beans and rice process... well as I think about it the whole thing is my beans and rice just tweaked a little.

I start with some olive oil in the bottom of the pan. I cut up whatever meat I feel like using; this time it was chicken and anduille. I sautee the meat while I cut up an onion. Again that would be your choice. I used a yellow onion, but have used white or red. I like to use huge onions just so there is lots of it with a minimum of effort. When the onion is chopped up add it and the rice (however much you are using) and sautee that with the meat for 2-3 minutes. Now open up two cans of beans...

Digression: The type of beans is entirely up to you and yours. I have used all kidney, all pinto, all black and will probably use several others in the future. I rarely buy beans for this dish and I almost always use cans (lazy). This time I bought a can of chili beans and a can of black. I did this for spicyness and color.

...I used one can of chili beans and one of black. I drained the black and did not drain the chili (get all the flavor you can). Before you put the beans in add stock or water, whichever you prefer and remember to put twice as much liquid or stock than rice. Liquid to rice ratio should be 2:1. After you add the liquid put the beans in and stir.

Now the easiest part. Bring to a boil for about a minute then turn it down to simmer for 20-25 minutes or until the rice is tender.

Oh, I forgot the best part. When I put the rice in I liberally coat everything with hot sauce, sautee and then add the liquid and beans. The cooking reduces the spicy heat and leaves just the flavor.

Once the rice is where you like it throw it in a bowl and eat it.

What Are Herbs de Provence

I realized I might need to explain what Herbs de Provence are since I had no clue until yesterday or the day before. Well, here they are in list form.

Thyme
Wild Thyme
Marjoram
Oregano
Rosemary
Basil
Chervil
Savory
Lavender
Fennel
Bay Leaf

I did not find proportions for these so I guess you just have to decide for yourself how much of each. Remember "use what you have." If you don't have all of them everytime I'm pretty sure it won't kill the recipe. Just put more wine in the cook.

A Night in the South of France

Tried a new rendition of a crockpot Provencal Chicken that I had tried before. This one was as good or better than the last. I love to take a recipe and work on it to come up with something that is all me. I think my starting point was a thrive crockpot recipe that was just a little boring to me. I even doctored it up the first time now that I think about it with the wine from my wine glass.

Tonight's version started with a Provencal Chicken I chose at random from the internet. It looked pretty good and reminded me of the recipe I used before. Preping the ingredients I found a hard copy of the original recipe I used and was reminded that I like beans in this dish (beans rock they allow for any dish to go that much farther).

Oh, yeah, all this preping is going on at 5:30 in the morning with a 21 month old darting around the kitchen. Well, this morning he has just set up camp in the middle of the kitchen with his milk and a bowl of broken up pop-tart.

I thawed the chicken strip pieces (use what you got) overnight in the sink. Amazingly no cat damage. Broke out the cutting board and chunked up an onion (chop sounds so dainty), sliced the two bell peppers (use what you want I used red and yellow), mashed and minced the garlic.

Starting off I put some olive oil in the bottom of the crockpot. Salted and peppered the chicken strip pieces. Then layered it on the bottom of the pot. Next, I put the garlic and onion down with the peppers on top. Then I poured two cans of pinto beans on top (use what you got)of that and rinsed out one can with Walasiyi Blood Mountain Red and poured that in. Tomatoes, got to put tomatoes in. I had a can of diced tomatoes with green chilies so I put that in there and kind of stirred it up a little. Actually, I just put my hands in (washed of course) and turned a little of it over. Last of all the recipe calls for Herbs de Provence; well, I used Herbs de Italia (it was really a bottle of Italian seasoning).

At this point I put the lid on and turned the crockpot on low for 8 hours and left to go to work.

For the interlude signifying the workday here is the ingredient list
8 pieces of chicken (depending on the size)
4 cloves of garlic (give or take) minced up
2 bell peppers sliced (color depends on you)
2 onions chunked up
1 cup pitted green olives (or more if you like)
1 can diced tomatoes (I think Italian style would be best)
2 cans beans (whatever type you want or have on hand)
1 can wine (I rinse out a bean can with the wine) red or white.
olive oil (use what you need)
2 tbsp Herbs de Provence
salt and pepper

Now, back home after a wonderful day of teaching and rescheduling soccer matches due to rain that went away before the matches should have started, I get out the bag of brown rice and forget how long to cook it. Oh, I remembered eventually. At least I forgot on the short side. I did think of one thing after I had cooked the rice and finished the first bowl. Try cooking the rice in the juice from the crock pot instead of just water. I felt that the rice kind of blanded the dish up just a tad bit.

It smelled awesome. It tasted great and everybody had enough. I love this dish to distraction because it gets better every time I try it. Next time I intend to make sure some bay leaf and rosemary at least get into the herb mix. Especially the rosemary since I have a great honking bush in the middle of my backyard (I was just lazy and it was kind of dark that early in the morning). Also, I shall try white wine if there is any in the house.

So, that is what was for dinner. Provencal Chicken served over rice with sweet tea. I do dearly love my peasant food.

A Nice Oriental Evening

I really like cooking and want to share my adventures with others. Cooking is one of the creative outlets I indulge in that I get to share and know others really enjoy.

When I try a new dish I will try and get on here and talk about it. I'll also be posting the recipes so you can try it as well.

We had fried rice for dinner tonight. This is the first time I tried this recipe. I even think this was the first attempt at a Chinese dish. I usually stick to Italian or Southern, but I saw this recipe and decided to give it a try.

3 tbsp oil
2-3 large eggs, lightly beaten
1 diced onion
1 cup cooked meat (shrimp, bacon, chicken, etc.)
1/2 cup bell pepper
1/2 cup English peas
3 cups cooked rice (1.5 cups uncooked rice)
2 tbsp soy sauce
1 tsp chili-garlic sauce

- Heat 1 tbsp of the oil in a large skillet over medium heat
- Add eggs and gently stir until the eggs are softly scrambled. Remove, chop and set aside.
- Heat remaining oil then add onion and bell pepper. Stir fry 3 minutes.
- Add meat and peas stir fry for 2 more minutes.
- Add rice, soy sauce, and chili-garlic sauce for an additional 5 minutes.
- Stir in eggs

Serves about 4

The above recipe is a tweaked version of the one I tried tonight. The original called for 1/4 cup of soy sauce. Kristi and I thought that was a little too much. You can always add the soy sauce in after it is served. The amount of meat can be varied depending on what you want. I used brown rice making this recipe.

BTW rice and pasta are the best creations on this planet (as well as potatoes)