Hmmm…
Pimiento cheese or deviled eggs for munchies?
Hey!
Why not Pimiento Cheese Deviled Eggs?
I wish I could say that this was a new and unique (and totally my) idea; but that would be a lie – this concept has been around and about at cocktail parties forever.
What does make it mine, though, is my choice of cheeses, the dollop of my fave hot sauce, and, in the finished eggs, the addition of celery seed and chopped celery, just for fun, and a bit of a crunch.
INGREDIENTS
Pimiento Cheese:
•2 cups shredded cheese*
•1/2 cup mayonnaise
•1 (4 oz) jar pimientos, drained
•1 tsp Cajun Power Spicy Garlic Pepper Sauce (or your preferred hot sauce, to taste)
•1/2 tsp sea salt
•1/2 tsp black pepper
•1/2 tsp Aleppo pepper
•1/4 tsp garlic powder
Deviled Eggs:
•12 hard cooked eggs
’•1/4 cup mayonnaise
•1/2 cup pimiento cheese
•1/2 tsp celery seed
•1/4 cup diced celery
*For this batch, I used a packaged, pre-shredded blend of Monterey Jack, Cheddar, Queso, and Asadero cheeses, but plain old Cheddar works just fine.
Stir all the ingredients together in a large bowl with a metal or ceramic spoon (the pimientos can stain plastic or wooden utensils), then pack into a container, put a lid on it, and stash it in the fridge until needed.
Note: you will have extra cheese. Good thing it’s so very tasty on crackers, in grilled cheese sammiches, burgers, you name it!
To make the deviled eggs, slice the eggs in half the long way, then scoop out and mash the yolks.
Stir in the mayonnaise, pimiento cheese, celery seed and celery until well blended, then spoon or pipe back into the egg halves. Go ahead and top with a bit of bacon or mebbe sliced green olive, if you like. And, a dash of paprika is tradition.
Store in the fridge until ready to serve.