CLASSIC PIMENTO CHEESE SANDWICH + #GIVEAWAY by Korina Moss

 

This is a recipe that comes with opinions. 

The upcoming fifth book in my Cheese Shop Mystery series, FONDUE OR DIE, takes place at the Dairy Days Festival. My protagonist, Willa Bauer, needs a quick lunch in between selling cheese from her Curds & Whey booth and sleuthing to catch a killer. I decided to give her a pimento cheese sandwich. I'd never had one before and it sounded straightforward, so I tinkered with the recipe to add a few extra cheeses and included it in the book. Months after doing that, I decided I really wanted to try one of the classic southern recipes I'd first come across like The Masters Famous Pimento Cheese Sandwich. However, most were adamant that the mayonnaise had to be Duke's. I'm a New England girl who grew up in New York on Hellmann's--was there a really a difference? I took to my social media to ask my readers and boy, did they have opinions! After a fun and lively discussion on Hellmann's vs. Dukes, I felt compelled to go in search of Duke's. Once I had the promised Duke's (which was recently crowned best overall mayo by Food & Wine), I did a blind taste test on Facebook Live using egg salad, and surprised myself with the results! (Click the link to discover which I crowned the winner!)

Regardless of the outcome, I was still determined to make the classic pimento cheese sandwich that my southern grandma would make... if I had a southern grandma. Since I don't, I consulted my dear friend, Cheryl Pelicano, from South Carolina, who uses Trisha Yearwood's recipe and adds Lawry's Seasoning Salt liberally. Her children swear it's the best pimento cheese they've ever had. Because this type of spread is already taxing my sodium limit, I didn't buy the seasoning salt myself, but for the rest of you, I suggest you trust her judgment. I also didn't use a mixer because 1. I'm a lazy cook and 2. I wasn't making enough for a crowd. So the measurements below are for one sandwich or an individual bowl of dip. If you'd like to make enough spread for more, follow one the recipes above or just multiply the ratios. 

CLASSIC PIMENTO CHEESE SANDWICH 

Ingredients:

1/4 cup of Duke's mayonnaise

1/4 -1/3 cup of pimentos, drained and chopped

1 cup good quality sharp cheddar cheese, freshly grated

white bread (or crackers if you want it as a dip)

Lawry's Seasoning Salt to taste (optional)

Instructions:

1. Shred cheese. Since I didn't use a mixer, I used my fine grater to shred the cheese. 

2. Drain and chop pimentos. 

3. Put Duke's mayonnaise, shredded cheese, and chopped pimentos in bowl and mix. 

4. Spread a thin layer on white bread and enjoy as a sandwich. 

5. Or eat with crackers and enjoy as a dip. 

(I prefer it as a dip with crackers. I feel it needs the crunchy element and is overly rich as a sandwich.)

I thoroughly enjoyed my unintentional deep dive into pimento cheese spread and Dukes vs Hellmann's. I'm a fan of the spread and could imagine the addition of crab meat for my next venture into making it. Who knew an overlooked food like pimentos--the perpetual wind beneath green olives' wings--could be the star of a dish? As a cheese girl, I'd be remiss not to remind you to spring for a good quality cheddar. 

READERS: Where do you stand on Duke's vs. Hellmann's? Or do you go rogue with a third choice? 

PREORDER NOW

COMING OCTOBER 22ND

Look for FONDUE OR DIE in October and another pimento cheese sandwich recipe, this one using Hellmann's and some additional cheeses. 

*GIVEAWAY: One person who comments will be randomly chosen to receive my new bookmarks featuring FONDUE OR DIE! 

KORINA MOSS is the author of the Cheese Shop cozy mystery series set in Sonoma Valley, including the Agatha Award winner of the Best First Novel, Cheddar Off Dead and the finalist for Best Contemporary Novel, Case of the Bleus. Her books have been featured in USA Today, PARADE Magazine, Woman’s World Magazine, AARP Magazine, and Fresh Fiction. 

For the past several years, Korina has been on her own Eat, Pray, Love journey, which seems to have stalled at the Eat phase. When not writing or sampling new cheeses (a perk of the job), she can be found with a new favorite cozy, doing jigsaw puzzles, or discovering new travel destinations. She has an affinity (some might say addiction) to coffee mugs, loves cats, and can't pass up a new notebook or journal with all those fresh, empty pages. 

The Cheese Shop Mystery series is available wherever books are sold. To find out more and subscribe to my FREE monthly newsletter, visit my website and follow me on Facebook and Instagram. 

How to Make My Favorite Smoky, Zesty Mexican-style Veggie and Chip Dip by Cleo Coyle

This deliciously smoky, zesty Mexican-style dipping sauce is insanely easy to make. As a dip, it goes with everything from celery sticks to potato and tortilla chips. I eat it with French fries, chicken tenders, raw veggies, and shrimp (fried, grilled, and boiled).

I also use it as a spread on hamburgers and to jazz up cold deli sandwiches. I even mix it with tuna fish for a tasty twist on tuna (and sometimes chicken) salad.

The essential flavor ingredient in this dip is chipotle (aka chilpotle), a smoke-dried jalapeno pepper, used in Mexican and Tex-Mex cooking. Chipotle provides a rich earthiness and tangy bite when added to mole, salsa, chili, soups and stews. The peppers are also used for marinades and braising sauces for meat.

Once upon a time only dried chipotle were available, and they had to be reconstituted prior to use. Today it’s more convenient to buy chipotles processed and canned with adobo (a mixture of spices and crushed dried chili), which you’ll find in the ethnic or specialty food section of supermarkets all over the US and Canada.

This quick dip recipe uses canned chipotle, which means it's a snap to make. So let's get started...

Cleo Coyle, author of
The Coffeehouse Mysteries
has a partner in crime writing:
her husband.

Cleo Coyle's Easy

Chipotle Dipping Sauce
and Sandwich Spread

I like my chipotle (aka chilpotle) dip on the smoky side with only a slight bite of heat. Marc likes his dip much spicier. I'll show you how to "control the heat" with this dip so you can make it as mild or as hot as you and your family want it. First let's gather the ingredients...





To download this recipe in a free PDF that you can prints, save, or share, click here.

Ingredients

1 cup mayonnaise 

1 teaspoon ground cumin 

1 or 2 tablespoons of the adobo sauce found in a can of
         "Chipotle Peppers in Adobo Sauce"

1 or 2 tablespoons sour cream (to reduce the heat)

(OR) 1 or 2 chipotle peppers, chopped (to increase the heat)



Directions:

Into a small bowl, measure out your mayonnaise and ground cumin. Open the can of Chipotle Peppers in Adobo Sauce. Dip your tablespoon in and drain off 1 tablespoon of the adobo sauce. If you see any seeds floating around in there, pick them out.

Mix the adobo sauce with your mayo until well blended. Now give it a small taste. If you'd like a more powerful chipotle flavor, measure out a 2nd tablespoon of the adobo. Mix it in and taste it again. 

How to Control
the Heat...

Mild Side (smoky with zero to slight heat):

If the dip tastes too spicy for you: Add sour cream, 1 tablespoon at a time until the smokiness and heat are balanced. 

Wild Side 

(spiced up with more heat):

If the dip tastes too mild for you: Add the chopped chipotle peppers to your dip. Here's how...

(1) Pull a whole chipotle pepper from the can. Place it on a plate and slice it open with a knife or kitchen shears. Start at one end and open the pepper to expose the seeds...

(2) Use a spoon to scrape out the seeds and discard them. Chop the pepper finely and stir it into the dip. 

Serve immediately, or chill in an airtight container. The sauce will keep in the refrigerator for about a week. So whether you like it smoky or spicy, I hope you will...

Eat (and read) with joy! 

~ Cleo Coyle

New York Times bestselling author of

The Coffeehouse Mysteries

Yes, this is me, Cleo (aka Alice). 

Friend me on facebook here.

Follow me on twitter here. 

Visit my online coffeehouse here.

To view the
Coffeehouse Mystery
book trailer, click here.

 

Quiz Contest
for my readers!

Take the quiz at Goodreads.com 
based on my new bestseller
(A Brew to a Kill)
by clicking here and you will
be entered to win some fun prizes

(You must sign in to be entered)... 

To take the quiz now,
click here... 

Random drawing of winners will 

take place September 23.
For more info, including info on the
prizes, read my Labor Day newsletter.

Our bestseller in hardcover (2 printings) 

is now a bestseller in paperback!

"A foodie's delight . . . and a 
satisfyingly rich mystery."

~ Kirkus Reviews 

The Coffeehouse Mysteries are bestselling

works of amateur sleuth fiction set in a landmark

Greenwich Village coffeehouse, and each of the

12 titles includes the added bonus of recipes. 

 

The Ghost and
Mrs. McClure

Book #1 of 
The Haunted Bookshop
Mysteries, which Cleo writes
under the name
Alice Kimberly
To learn more, click here.

Easy Peasy Olive-Anchovie Aioli Dip

Congrats to our very own Lucy Burdette who has a new book out as of yesterday, DEATH IN FOUR COURSES!  Love this new series about a restaurant reviewer in Key West. Yay, Lucy!

AND

Congrats to our very own Peg Cochran, who as Meg London, has a new book out, also as of yesterday, MURDER UNMENTIONABLE. A Sweet Nothings Mystery.  Oooh, la, la. 

* * *

This weekend, I had guests over and wanted something easy but fun to serve with a cheese platter. We were barbecuing. You all know I love to barbecue. Well, my husband received a new cookbook because of travel miles, go figure -- Food and WineAnnual Cookbook 2012.  He flipped through it and said, “Gee, honey, there are some pretty things in here.”

Because my new series focuses on cookbooks, I’ve been spending a lot of time paying attention to cookbooks lately (standing in bookstores and watching people browse – lots of fun) and I’ve noticed that the cookbooks with good photographs seem to interest most people. They flip to the pictures. Maybe this is why Pinterest has become so popular. 

So I took the Food and Wine cookbook from my husband and browsed. Lo and behold, I found a number of things that I tagged, most with photographs!  LOL

So I’m sharing one that was super easy, perfect for Labor Day or any day, and pretty. I even mimicked the pretty multi-glass display. 

Enjoy!

AIOLI WITH ANCHOVIES andOLIVES

and CRUDITES

(from Food and Wine Annual Cookbook 2012)

Ingredients

1 garlic clove, smashed

6 plump oil-packed anchovies, chopped

½ cup mayonnaise

1/3 cup finely chopped pitted green olives

1 tablespoon lemon juice

½ teaspoon lemon zest

¼ cup extra-virgin olive oil

1 ½ pounds mixed vegetables like string beans, carrots, celery etc.

Directions:

On a cutting board, mash the garlic. Add the anchovies and mash to a paste. Scrape the paté into a bowl and stir in the mayonnaise, olives, lemon juice. Gradually whisk in the olive oil. Cover the aioli with plastic wrap and refrigerate until chilled.

*** I tweaked the above a bit. I didn’t add lemon zest, and I used “jarred” garlic clove. It’s so easy and keeps for a long time. Also, I changed out the crudités they suggested. [The recipe called for all beans, many sorts and shapes and colors…I couldn’t find more than two.] The recipe also says to blanch the vegetables, but I didn’t. I served them raw. Delish.

So easy!!!

REMINDER: To save this recipe (and any that are posted on MLK,  click the Print Friendly button below 

(it looks like this but don't hit this one).  Choose PDF to print. 

* * * * *
The 4th in A Cheese Shop Mystery series: 

TO BRIE OR NOT TO BRIE.  

You can pre-order the book HERE. 

You can learn more about me, Avery, by clicking this link.

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 so you can learn about upcoming events, releases, and contests!


Also, you probably know about my alter ego.
DARYL WOOD GERBER... 
Daryl's new series: A COOKBOOK NOOK MYSTERY series
debuts July 2013

"Like" Daryl's page on Facebook and "follow" Daryl on Twitter.

"She" doesn't say all the same things "Avery" does. Promise.

LAST BUT NOT LEAST...okay, maybe least...:)

I'm pleased to announce that my short story, PALACE ON THE LAKE, 
in Fish Tales: A Guppy Anthology has been nominated for both
the Anthony Award and Macavity Award. 

Go Sisters in Crime Guppies! 

Without the Guppies, my career would not be on the right track.
The group support is invaluable!

You can read PALACE ON THE LAKE by clicking on the title above. :)

Say cheese!

***********