There is a litle retro wave in trendy restaurants. More than once lately I have seen pimento cheese offered in the Appetizer section paired with biscuits or specialty bread.

Oh, PIMENTO CHEESE! Does it bring back a couple of memories. For one, it was a staple sandwich filling in our student days in the early sixties. For another, how could I forget Woodbury’s Pimento Festival?

When I was in the last couple of years of high school my family lived in Manchester, Georgia, and my mother taught Spanish and English about 10 miles away in the little town of Woodbury. The Festival was one of those hometown things complete with a parade, and a group of girls who competed to be “Miss Pimento”. I don’t know how it happened but during my junior or senior year, I can’t remember now, I was talked into participating…of course I didn’t win the crown, but it was fun to ride in the back of a convertible and wave at the crowd.

This recipe does not include any mayonnaise and it is as easy as 1-2-3; well as easy as 1-2 because it only has two ingredients! Be sure and click on the red underlined entries for more information about pimentos and the Festival!!!

Ingredients:

1. One 8 ounce package of sharp cheddar cheese
2. One 4 ounce jar of sliced pimentos

1. Grate the cheese. ( I use the food processor for this which requires that I dump the grated cheese out to a bowl to change the blade)
2. Put the grated cheese into the food processor bowl along with the WHOLE jar of pimentos – liquid and all.
3. Pulse a few times scraping the bowl down to incorporate. Continue to process until the pimento cheese is the consistency you desire.

Spread on crackers it makes a good addition to vegetable soup for a satisfying lunch.