Pimento Cheese Heaven.

Food memories are a weird thing.

My Mom had this postcard when I was kid hanging on her mirror that said, "The things that have lived longest in my memory never really happened."  I always liked the sound of that, but as I get older, I start to see the truism.

This pimento cheese renaissance is just like that.  Other than the stuff you buy in the jar and spread on celery during the holidays, I don't remember ever eating pimento cheese.  But I feel an affinity towards it that makes no sense, and if asked, I'd probably make up some story about eating it since birth or something because I FEEL like that's true even if it's not.  The things that live longest, and all that.

So it was when the new Bon Appetit arrived at my new front door!  The cover recipe drew me in.. "Hands down, the tastiest version we've ever made" -- how can I say no?  We immediately drew up the grocery list and set about figuring out when to make it.

Today was the day (and I still haven't read the magazine, just that recipe!).

The verdict?  Very different from my stand-by but really delicious.  G loved it.  The pimento cheese was really nice and gave it a spicy sweet cheesy loveliness.  I added quite a bit more ancho chile then they called for, and didn't add the extra parm in the cheese sauce AND I had to use jarred roasted red peppers because it's all we could find... but all in all it was pretty delicious.

Hang on, I am going to run the recipe through the WW recipe builder... let's laugh together at the damage of this all cheese meal...

Okay... it seems to be about 13.  Not too bad, but not great, either.  BUT it was delicious and I highly recommend it.  Page 79 of the new issue... Mine was far redder than theirs, but it was really lovely.  Go make it and send me an email and let me know how it goes!

...and the dream is realized.

One thing that G and I might not say enough is that we have the most rocking families in the entire world.  G's dad surprised us with a gift of a new bbq this past weekend.  Despite being dead tired and completely starved, we new that the moment we got home, that bbq was being assembled and put to use.  Racing to beat the snow was also fun!

Alas, we didn't beat the snow but we did have our dream realized of owning a home with a backyard so we could bbq whenever we wanted.  It seems like a silly thing, maybe, but for us it was a big deal.  And last night, thanks to G's dad and my family's present of a gift card to Home Depot, we made the dream happen...

First... the Q.

G is q'ing it up!!!!

So of course, the first meal on the new q had to be steak.  Simply cooked with all the fixins...

Yum!  That is my half piece of steak (the whole piece wouldn't fit on the very full plate!!!)... baked potato... sauteed spinach...sauteed mushrooms and onions... and peas!  It was without question the most excellent steak I have ever had in my entire life!  We can't wait to cook for all of you!!!

Getting set-up!

Hello friends.  We've been in the new house for two weeks today (!) and are finally getting settled.  The bruises, the soreness, and the allergies from all the dust are finally subsiding and we are getting back into the flow of it.

The first week we were here, we had a major urge to make dinner.  We've had this steady stream of eating out because of all the chaos, and the first meal in the new house was not anything fancy... but it was a big ol' bowl of spag bol.

And there she is.  Our first home cooked meal in our new house, eaten surrounded by boxes on a gentle slope of our 100 year old dining room.  It was excellent and felt good to finally be cooking again, even if it was something really simple.  Of course, one of the first things unpacked were our deluxe Peugeot salt and paper grinders.  A girl has to have priorities.

The plan from here on (and thank you Ontario for the most excellent made up holiday of Family Day for giving us a much needed catch up day) is to get my arse back into running, to start tracking those Weight Watchers points that have been hiding the last few weeks, and to cook at home all week this week.  Plus, watch out for blog posts on our first bbq meal and a new mac-n-cheese!

It's nice to be home.