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Our/Your All-Country Meal!!?


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gfweb: in fact, my tuna salad always includes chopped pickled jalapenos. Since acquiring The Homesick Texan cookbook I have started making my own. Her recipe is great, but my best source for jalapenos varies considerably when it comes to heat level, so some batches are mild and some have been so scary hot only my husband can eat them. So it goes.

Sylvia, cheese and pickle sandwiches can run the gamut low to haute. I like mine simple, but with a good quality cheddar. When I was little I must have paid zero attention to what my mother stocked, but it could easily have been processed slices and wonderbread. Starter food, yeah? Truth be known my mother was a dreadful cook and there are few foods I had growing up that I remember with nostalgia or want to recreate. She did, however, eat one thing that was remarkable and yummy: cooked bone marrow on rye bread. That's pretty country, but some other country.

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with regard to the jalapenos: most heat has been bred out of 'supermarket' chiles. indeed if you 'grow your own' you can tell from the catalogues the heat you might get.

Im a big fan of 'green heat' which I prefer to 'red heat'

my local solution which is stunning for me: look for an Indian grocery store in your area. they tend to have small fresh (cheeeeeeeeeep) green chiles.

I freeze them and now Im all "Green" set.

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Cheese and pickle and mayo? On white bread? I think you have just changed my life.

If you used processed American cheese slices and bread & butter pickles you get the perfect stick-to-the-roof-of-your-mouth sandwich treat...:)

Heavens. It would have to be dill pickles for me (can't stand the sweet ones), but I'm drooling here.

Patty

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What? No one likes pimento cheese? Open faced pimento cheese sandwiches either broiled or a quick trip trough the toaster oven are great for those "I want a nice crunchy, cheesy snack that I can pretend is good for me" moments.

Edited by annabelle (log)
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Seems to me that whatever types of foods this thread implies (and I'm still not sure of the context) we are most of us talking about refrigerator-ready supplies, not esoteric groceries. I might have dills, I might have sweet chips, but the secret of cheese and pickle sandwiches is to use whatever you have on hand, which is usually what you prefer. Along the same vein, I've been known to eat a sandwich of cukes and radishes on almost any kind of bread but subbing butter for mayo.

I don't grow my own chiles, but here in northern CA the hotter ones tend to be found at Latino markets, like Mi Pueblo, the one I shop at often. Although these too vary. In the spring I often found there were some very hot jalapenos mixed in with a medium-hot batch. But just this week I bought a bunch and they were all very mild. I lived in New Mexico for several years, and the variety and heat of chiles were much more dependable there. In CA it's a crapshoot, and most of the fresh green types are mild, including serranos. In the late summer and fall I can often get some spicy poblanos from a Latino vendor at the Berkeley farmers market, but the same vendor will have milder one's earlier in the season. So this time of year I try to roast and freeze small batches to use during the winter. When feeling flush one year I did send away to a NM farm for Hatch and Big Jims, which were very good, but the reality is that mail-ordering chiles is an expensive proposition.

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What? No one likes pimento cheese? Open faced pimento cheese sandwiches either broiled or a quick trip trough the toaster oven are great for those "I want a nice crunchy, cheesy snack that I can pretend is good for me" moments.

Pimento cheese is great!

But pimento in cream cheese is a Yankee aberration. I believe is usually cheddar + mayo + pimento... +/- Worcestershire +/- horseradish.

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I've been on a southern food kick for a couple of years now (Paula Dean style ain't mine, just so you know.) Last year in Atlanta visiting my daughter we went to a great bar. Most of the bar-food there was pretty decent, and since neither my husband or myself or our daughter had ever had pimento cheese we ordered it. We all hated it. After looking at a variety of recipes--more or less standard--I don't think there is any way on earth that I could tweak it that would make it appetizing. It's just plain weird. It is the one thing southerners have a ferocious dedication to that is completely incomprehensible to me!

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Katie, weird how? Needs zip? Hot sauce. Needs onion, but no crunch? Microplaned Vidalias to taste. Needs crunch, but no additional flavour? Finely minced waterchestnuts. Crunch AND flavour? Minced celery. Add at your pleasure! My yankee gramma used to stuff it in celery and top with toasted pecans. Yummy!

"Commit random acts of senseless kindness"

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Katie, weird how? Needs zip? Hot sauce. Needs onion, but no crunch? Microplaned Vidalias to taste. Needs crunch, but no additional flavour? Finely minced waterchestnuts. Crunch AND flavour? Minced celery. Add at your pleasure! My yankee gramma used to stuff it in celery and top with toasted pecans. Yummy!

Your Yankee grandma knew what she was doing. Christmas wouldn't be Christmas without pimento cheese-stuffed celery (and I LOVE the idea of pecans with it).

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Just as there are some mysteries best not solved, asking me to elaborate on why I think pimento cheese is a deep down bad idea is a pointless endeavor. On a slightly different note, I've never understood the idea of "trying to like something." Yes, some things are an acquired taste, some things not so much, and some food quirks are just not gonna suffer analysis. I'm extremely happy with my dislike of pimento cheese, banana bread, brussels sprouts, corn nuts and a few other things. As my dad used to mispronounce, chacun a son gout. Cheers!

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What? No one likes pimento cheese? Open faced pimento cheese sandwiches either broiled or a quick trip trough the toaster oven are great for those "I want a nice crunchy, cheesy snack that I can pretend is good for me" moments.

Pimento cheese is great!

But pimento in cream cheese is a Yankee aberration. I believe is usually cheddar + mayo + pimento... +/- Worcestershire +/- horseradish.

Yes. I muttered "Yankee" to myself. Pimento cheese is fantastic. Your formulation is a good one. You can kick it up with cayenne if you like, too.

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What? No Pear Salad?

My cousin always makes Pear salads for Christmas eve dinner! My dad was also quite fond of the pineapple ring salad.

I have eaten potato chips on sandwiches and fries on hamburgers (Mcdonalds hamburger and small fry - place as many fries as possible on burger and eat).

My dad was southern (and not affluent) growing up and he continued to eat that way as an adult.

A brief list of my childhood:

"Treet" (like Spam but cheaper) grilled cheese sandwiches

Souse with vinegar and pepper on saltine crackers

Fried baloney on white bread with yellow mustard

Hot dogs stuffed with cheese and wrapped in bacon

Pork Neck bones and a pot of navy beans

Fried chicken livers

Banana sandwiches with mayo and sugar

Ham sandwiches with Dukes sandwich relish

Bottle of Pepsi with a small bag of salty roasted peanuts

and the list could go on....

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