Veggie Pimento Cheese Burger of the Gods

I have been busy updating my recipe files with the Paprika app for iPad. I have had my Precious for about a year and Paprika is one of the best apps I have bought, turning my already amazing iPad into the most impressive recipe box ever. It 'swipes' recipes from most of the major sites, including photos. Once you have the recipe in Paprika, you can edit it easily, email to a friend or add it to your shopping list--which automatically adds the ingredients to a list, which again you can modify. Amazing. I love it.

Four large binders of copies of recipes from magazines? Gone.

Stack of old magazines I hadn't had time to photocopy? Donated to the Library book sale.

Going through all of the recipes was also great because I found some things I wanted to make and ideas for other meals and dishes. Case in point: Pimento Cheese Veggie Burger. What? I mentioned this to my friend John and he said, "Yes, I put pimento cheese on everything." And well he should. I've made sandwiches out of it, filled celery with it, spread it on every manner of cracker and used it in grilled cheese. Why NOT a pimento cheese burger? So when I made some p.c. to take to a friends house on Saturday night, I held a little back for just that very experiment.

Why not a pimento cheese burger before now is really the question, because it is one of the best things I have ever eaten. It goes like this: a little bit of mayo on the bun (I'm really not a mayo on a burger type of guy, but it does go perfectly with the p.c.), some bread and butter pickle slices, a couple of pieces of veggie bacon for smoky crunch, your favorite veggie patty cooked to perfection and smothered with a big dollop of pimento cheese that melts all down the sides of the burger. It. Is. Heaven.

Whether you make the p.c. or buy it, I don't care. Just try this and thank me.

Recipe: Pimento Cheese Spread (redux)
Research and experimentation continues, but here is my latest suggestion for pimento cheese spread, perfect as an appetizer or on the pimento cheese burger, as above. (Yes, I purposely shaped the pimento cheese to look like my home state of Oklahoma. Why not?)

1/4 lb. cream cheese, softened
4 oz. jar pimentos, drained with liquid reserved
1/2 cup mayo or Miracle Whip
1 tsp. sugar
1/2 tsp. onion powder
1/2 tsp. garlic powder
1/2 tsp. smoked paprika
1/8 tsp. cayenne
1 tsp. rice vinegar (or other low-acid vinegar)
1-2 tsp. reserved pimento liquid, as needed
Couple of dashes of hot sauce
Salt and pepper to taste
8 oz. sharp cheddar, grated
8 oz. Monterey Jack, grated

Combine the mayo and cream cheese in a big yellow bowl, using an electric mixer or by hand, mix until well-blended. Add the sugar through salt and pepper, combine until well-mixed. Add the cheeses and mix by hand until well combined. Serve and enjoy!

Mangez!

Scones Can Make Monday's Bearable

I made some scones to take to work on Monday. This is one of my favorite recipes, and a favorite of my Pap-pa, so I was a little out of practice. I guess they turned out alright, because when I was out for lunch the custodial staff helped themselves to the delectables. They are picky too and don't just eat anything. I took it as high praise.

Recipe: Apricot-Cream Cheese Scones*
I'm not sure where I found this recipe, but the addition of cream cheese makes the crumb especially light and moist.

2 ¼ cups cake flour
2 cups all-purpose flour
½ cup sugar
2 ½ tsp. baking powder
½ tsp. salt
1 8-ounce package cream cheese, chilled
8 tbsp. (1 stick) butter, chilled
1 cup diced or slivered dried apricots
1 large egg
½ cup buttermilk plus more for brushing (it took about ¼ cup milk for brushing)
2 tsp. pure vanilla

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flours, sugar, baking powder and salt. Cut in the cream cheese and butter, using your fingers, a pastry blender, a fork or a miser, until the mixture resembles coarse meal.^ Stir in the dried apricots. In a small bowl, whisk together the egg, ½ cup buttermilk and vanilla. Combine the liquid and dry ingredients and stir until the dough becomes cohesive. Don’t mix and mix and mix: the more your work the dough, the tougher it will get.

Turn the dough out onto a floured work surface and fold it over several times until it holds together. Pat the dough into a ¾ inch rectangle. Cut it eight rectangles and then cut each of those in half diagonally. Brush the tops lightly with milk and sprinkle with sugar.

Place the scones about 2 inches apart on an ungreased or parchment-lined baking sheet. Bake for 8 minutes. Turn the oven off, leave the door closed, and bake for 8 minutes more, or until the scones are light golden brown. Serve warm. (It may take a little longer, just watch and make sure the bottoms don't burn.)

Mangez!

*I've tweeked this a little and the recipe now reflects changes as of June 2009.
^ I use a food processor: combine the dry ingredients in the bowl of the food processor and give a whirl to combine. Add the cream cheese and butter, then pulse until it resembles meal. Then dump into a big yellow bowl and proceed.