pimiento cheese sandwiches

When IS MY BLOG BURNING 14 was announced, I thought for sure I would manage to post something orange by the deadline. Knowing me and deadlines, I should have thought otherwise, but I did spend a couple of weeks thinking about orange food. Sincere efforts to concentrate on butternut squash and ruddy spices were pretty much unsuccessful--my thoughts kept swerving back to the unnatural glow of Kraft macaroni and cheese, Doritos, and chile con queso. Eventually I thought of pimiento cheese, one of those foods that I viewed with deep suspicion in childhood. I've come around to other such foods (fish, avocados, mushrooms...oh, the lost years) but had yet to try pimiento cheese. Why not now? I found a recipe on Epicurious and, after asking around a bit, discovered that only Southerners are aware of this food (I'm from Houston). Since we were supposed to post during a weekend I happened to be flying to a friend's wedding with my trusty companion, who fears red states, I thought some pimiento cheese sandwiches for the plane would be a perfect way to ease him into the event.

It probably goes without saying that watching me frantically make a spread out of grated cheese, pimientos, and mayonnaise when I should have been packing was not a perfect way to ease anyone into anything! But I made some adorable crustless sandwiches and some shredded carrot salad and put them in a bag with two oranges. How was it? Well, I cracked out a sandwich when we sat down on the plane. As some Epicurious commenters suggested, I had jazzed it up a bit with garlic and Tobasco, and that sucker was pungent. I ate mine on principle, but I don't think I'll be making my own pimiento cheese again any time soon. For scaring Yankees in the future I will stick to chile con Velveeta and Texas Gold Bars.