Homemade Pimento Cheese

One of Skyguy's coworkers gave us some little cherry peppers, AKA pimento peppers. I decided I would make some homemade pimento cheese, or as we say in these parts, "perminner cheese", and attempted to google a recipe. Lo and behold, it appears that pimento cheese is a Southern thing. I had no clue. Who would have thunk that and why would that be so? Surely pimentos grow other places in the country, and surely others eat sharp cheese?

http://www.answers.com/topic/pimento

I had to pause and look around the web to try and answer my own questions and found this site which states that Georgia is the only state that really grows pimentos. That is just amazing to me. I have never grown these little peppers because I thought they were sweet peppers and I am a chili lover, but I know tons of people that grow these things in their backyard. Who knew they were pimentos??? Not I. Who know it was a Southern thing? Not I.

I grew up disliking the stuff, even though I LOVE cheese. My folks would spread storebought pimento cheese on their white bread and I would gag. It wasn't until a year or so ago that my friend from LA (Lower Alabama) introduced me to homemade pimento cheese from her grandfather's recipe. It is really simple: sharp cheddar cheese, grated fine, a jar of pimentos, mayo, (I also add a dash of garlic and onion powder), and a dash of tobasco. Oh my...whiz that around in the food processor and it is heavenly.

So now, I have the real peppers, not a jar, and I scour the internet looking for a recipe and cannot find one. How weird is that? So I took the peppers, removed the seeds and the insides --- saved those seed!!! --- and cut the peppers into strips. I threw them in a small frying pan with just a splash of olive oil and some garlic and salt. OH MY GOD, they were to die for!! I can't wait to make real pimento cheese in a bit. I don't think I will need the tobasco as these fresh peppers have just the right amount of heat. I simply cannot wait until next year to grow these peppers!

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=6877304

I did find this NPR page, which gives a bit of cultural background in the way of stories. Apparently, it is popular in the Philippines and in Hungary, too, or at least they eat something similar.

But yeah, before summer wanes, I want a big tall glass of milk, a homemade perminner cheese samwich, a huge dill pickle, and some tater chips. Good eats.

I keep reminiscing about summers past and wondering why I would eat only cheese (Cheez Whiz was my childhood favorite, but I don't like it now) and not pimento cheese sandwiches. Man, that was crazy.