You’re golden

Are you a pimiento cheese fan? You’re golden. You will love this.

I know that this recipe is mockable. It deserves to be mocked.

It’s friggin’ white sauce, processed cheese, and pimiento.

I had this recipe bookmarked to make forever, then went back and looked at it and wondered what on earth made me think I wanted to make it. It sounded repulsive.

So I had to make it. Just to see.

Curiosity wins! Loved it. Ate it all.

I’m feeling terse today.

Okay then.

I love pimiento cheese.

Evidence.

Golden Celery (adapted from the Betty Crocker Cookbook circa the 60’s-ish)

6-7 stalks of celery
2 Tbsp. chopped onion
1/2 Tbsp. butter
1/2 Tbsp. flour
1/8 tsp. salt
1/16 tsp. freshly ground pepper
1/2 c. Almond milk
3 slices cheddar cheese
1/2 tsp. dry mustard
2 Tbsp. sliced pimiento
Chop yer celery. Bring a pot of agua to boil and add a dash of salt and celery. Bring back to a boil and cook until tender. Take it off the heat and drain.
In a skillet, cook the onion in buttah until tender as your heart. If you’re a mean person cook longer than that. Take off heat, stir in flour, salt and pepper. Cook over low heat stirring just a bit, until blended, then take off heat, add milk and bring back to a boil and cook n stir for a minute. Add cheese and mustard and stir until cheese melts. Add celery and pimiento and stir in. Phew. You are done.

Bittman time

In honor of Valentine’s Day I had to visit the cookbook of my true author-love, Mark Bittman:

It’s another simple dish.

Can I bore you with another acting tale? Cause acting is the reason I’ve been resorting to the quick and simple.

I am busy this week trying to find a shot from my last headshot shoot in which I have “ice in my eyes”. My agent’s words.
Ummmm, yeah.

Here is what my agent picked out of the options I gave him:

Am I icy? I dunno.

In between actual jobs, auditions, mailings and class, finding an appopriate photo out of the hundreds taken that day took the rest of my time. My eyes are rarely icy, apparently.

Woe is me, having to look at myself all day. That’s enough of that.

On to food.

Again with the dishes with nationalities. This one is “Swiss-style”, according to my love, Mark Bittman. At least, the original recipe made with potatoes and other vegetables was. I made the variation on this bake.

Bake means casserole. But sounds fancier.

This is so simple it seems silly to post it, almost. It’s basically a mound of cheese and some peppers on bread.
In the future I want to make a version with cheddar and pimientos.
That would no longer Swiss.
More Southern like pimiento cheese?
Pimiento cheese is the shiz-nit, incidentally.

What are your favorite cheese/veggie combos? I want to know!

Swiss-style Bake(based on Mark Bittman’s How to Cook Everything Vegetarian)
Several slices of whole wheat bread
Freshly ground pepper
Freshly ground sea salt
2 cups reduced-fat mozzarella, shredded(but really I’d use full-fat in the future as this was a bit dry)
1 Tbsp. cornstarch
I cup chopped jarred roasted red peppers
Preheat oven to 375.
Layer bread, salt and pepper, then cheese, then peppers in an 8×8 pan. So hard. Cover with foil and bake around 15 minutes, then uncover and bake til cheese is browned n bubbly. Kind of how you want your champagne to be minus the brown part.