Fall soup, crisp breeze and pimento cheese

As we enjoy the last week of September and pull up the okra plants from our summer garden, the cooler days have me longing for soup suppers and time with friends outside.  The hint of fall in the air feels hopeful, a fresh start to a new season after so many months of unknowns and unrest.  Cheers to Friday night lights, friends, and fellowship.

Tomato Bisque Soup

INGREDIENTS
4T unsalted butter
2 onions, thinly sliced
1 carrot, peeled and chopped
6 garlic cloves, coarsely chopped
2 cans (35 oz) plum tomatoes with juice (I prefer Italian plum)
pinch of sugar
4 cups canned chicken broth
1/2t ground allspice
2 cups heavy whipping cream
salt and pepper to taste

INSTRUCTIONS
Melt butter in a large soup pot or Dutch oven.
Add onions, carrot and garlic.
Cook over medium heat until the vegetables have wilted (10 minutes).
Add tomatoes and their juice, basil sugar, salt, pepper. Cook 5 minutes.
Add stock and allspice, and slowly bring to a boil.
Reduce heat, partially cover, and simmer for 50 minutes.
Allow time for soup to cool.
Puree the soup (in parts) in a blender or food processor.
Return soup to the pot.
Add cream and adjust seasonings as needed.

YIELD
8-10 servings

Proper Pepper Panini

I’m no expert here. In fact, I don’t even own a panini press, but my friends in a girl’s supper club do and they created these paninis for a gathering. They used sourdough bread, spread with butter and Proper Pepper’s Classic flavor. The press seals the cheese and was easier than grilled cheese sandwiches, which tend to get a little messy as the cheese melts. I would love your feedback and tips as you try to perfect a grilled sandwich using Proper Pepper.

Proper Pepper Grit Cake

Breakfast, lunch or dinner, this Proper Pepper Grit Cake is sure to please your family or a crowd.

Shaina McCallen, my neighbor and official test kitchen project manager, made this grit cake and it was divine, as is all of her cooking. Here are her instructions and tips. Happy cooking!

These crunchy grit cakes are best served hot and make for a great summer side dish or easy appetizer (just simply cut your grit cake out smaller if taking this route).

Our Proper Pepper grit cakes are super versatile - try them topped with sour cream, bacon and freshly chopped parsley or sliced cherry tomatoes and basil for a fun twist. I could even see these served at brunch with a fried egg over top.

This recipe does need a bit of prep work before-hand, so make sure and get a head start if you’re planning on having these with supper!

INGREDIENTS
6 cups chicken broth
1.5 cups quick cook grits
10 oz tub Proper Pepper Classic Pimento Cheese
Dash of salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
2-3 tablespoons butter

DIRECTIONS
Bring chicken broth to a boil in a large saucepan. Stir in grits and bring back to a boil. Cover and reduce the heat to low, simmering for approximately 5 minutes, stirring on occasion. 

Remove grits from the heat and stir in Proper Pepper Classic Pimento Cheese, salt and pepper. 

Spoon grits into a lightly greased 13 x 9 baking pan and let cool slightly. Once cooled, cover and refrigerate until firm, about 2 hours.

Pre-heat oven to 400 and line a rimmed baking sheet with foil (for easy clean up). Place butter on the baking sheet and slide the baking sheet into your pre-heating oven to melt the butter. Once butter is melted, remove the baking sheet from the oven and brush the butter over the entire bottom of the baking sheet.
Unmold your grits onto a cutting board and using a round cookie cutter (a drinking glass will work just fine) too! of your preferred size, cut out the grit cakes.

Place the grit cakes on the baking sheet and bake for 30 minutes. Flip the grit cakes and return to the oven for 25 more minutes or until both sides are a lovely golden brown. 

Yields approximately 8 large grit cakes.

Proper Pepper Sausage Balls

An Ode to Sausage Balls

For a quick pop of breakfast, spring break snack or Memorial Day picnic, sausage balls are delicious even to the pickiest of eaters.

Three simple ingredients, and you’re off to being a provider of happiness for the whole family.

Best served warm, but chilled works too.

Send us your photos and we’ll add you to our stories to show our fans the easiness of this southern staple snack.

Shaina's Get Back Jack Southwestern Quiche

Neighbors can play such an important part in our daily lives. Good neighbors can become great friends, and in some cases like family. As we arrived home from camp in 2018, we were greeted by three little girls, a mom and a dad that have truly become our extended family. An empty old house next door is now a vibrant, beautiful home with instant playmates for our girls and guess what else? A test kitchen for Proper Pepper Pimento Cheese!

YES, you read that correctly. At first, it was for fun. I knew Shaina loved to cook (and decorate and garden and study God’s word and go antiquing and fitness and parenting and crafts and everything I could ever dream for in a neighbor), but now, my little domestic diva friend is pumping out the recipes like a graduate fresh out of culinary school. And check out the plate…a Georgia Historical Plate, founded here in Sandersville and sold at https://gaplates.com/.

Ken and I are the weekly beneficiaries of this Smith Street manna from heaven that just pops in at our back door styled, prepared for photography and ready to eat. Now you my friends, you get to enjoy Shaina’s creations as well. This one is perfect for breakfast, brunch, lunch or dinner.

Ingredients

2 tablespoons salted butter
1/4 cup diced white onion
1/4 cup diced green bell pepper
8 ounces washed & sliced white mushrooms
Pinch of fine ground sea salt
1/4 teaspoon cumin
5 large eggs
1 1/4 cups heavy cream
8 ounces Proper Pepper Get Back Jack
1/2 tablespoon freshly chopped cilantro
8 ounces diced ham
2 9-inch frozen deep dish pie crusts

Instructions
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Blind bake the pie crusts by placing the frozen pie crusts on a rimmed baking sheet and lining the inside of the pie crusts with foil. The foil should cover the crusts and extend a few inches on either side. Fill the crusts about 2/3's full with either pie weights or dried beans.

Bake the prepared crusts for 15 minutes. Slowly remove the foil and weights and set aside. Pierce the bottom of the crusts and sides with a fork. Return to the oven and bake for 5-8 more minutes and then set the crusts aside. Blind baking your crusts keeps them from turning soggy under the weight of the egg mixture.

In a large saute' pan, heat the butter over medium heat until melted. Add the onion and bell pepper and saute' until tender, about 6 minutes. Add the mushrooms and saute' until they have released their liquid and it has mostly evaporated, 5-6 more minutes. Season the vegetables with the salt and cumin, stirring well. Remove from the heat and set aside.

In a large bowl, whisk together the eggs and cream. Gently fold in the Get Back Jack Proper Pepper Pimento Cheese until well combined. Stir in the chopped cilantro, the saute'd vegetable mixture and the chopped ham stirring gently until all is blended Pour the mixture evenly into the two deep dish pie crusts.

Bake until the quiche are golden brown on top and set in the center and a knife inserted in the center comes out clean, about 50-55 minutes. Cool on a wire rack 15-20 minutes before serving.

Serve one quiche immediately with a mixed green salad and your favorite vinaigrette and freeze the second for an easy weeknight supper!

Mastering Pimento Cheese Toasts with Bacon Jam

The magical week of golf is in full swing.  Since 1934, the Masters Tournament in Augusta, GA has been home to some of golf’s greatest moments.  Played among the blooming azaleas, tall pines and beautiful dogwoods, capturing the Green Jacket is one of the most coveted trophies in sports.  

As a pimento cheese maker, the most common question I get around Masters time is related to its famous pimento cheese sandwich.  Oh how I wish the pimento cheese served was Proper Pepper!  Even though the Masters make all of their food in-house, simply serving pimento cheese is good for all of us in the market.  The sandwiches are sold ridiculously cheap and have introduced thousands of non-southerners to the south's southern staple.  That's great marketing for Proper Pepper!

Serving pimento cheese on white loaf bread is indeed the most authentic way to enjoy this famous sandwich, but I'd like to introduce a fancier way...a dish you may consider serving this weekend as you entertain during the final rounds.

Pimento Cheese Toasts with Bacon Jam was published in the most recent edition of The Local Palate magazine, and reproduced from Savor The South cookbook.  The article featured comments from Chef Sean Wight, owner of Frog Hollow Hospitality Group in Augusta.  

We southerners know that bacon is good on ANYTHING!  So why not make a jam with it?

Here is the recipe from The Local Palate along with some *#ProperPeppering tips on making this impressive appetizer yourself.  We would love to hear from you and see photos.

Pimento Cheese Toasts With Bacon Jam

Source:  The Local Palate Magazine, April 2017 edition
(Serves 24)

1 loaf white bread, sliced

1 batch Farmhaus pimento cheese (recipe is in the magazine, which you can forage for yourself, but we recommend Proper Pepper)

1 batch bacon jam (recipe follows)

Toast bread.  Once toasted, use a small biscuit cutter to punch out bite-sized rounds.  Assemble by topping the toasted round with a teaspoon of pimento cheese, then a small dollop of bacon jam.

Frog Hollow Bacon Jam
(yields 1 cup)

1 pound smoked bacon
1 cup finely diced Vidalia onion
1 T minced garlic
1/4 cup dark brown sugar
6 oz. strong black coffee
1/4 cup maple syrup
1 1/2 T apple cider vinegar
3 T balsamic vinegar
1/2 t ground allspice

Cut bacon into 1-inch pieces.  In a heavy-bottomed pan over medium-low heat, cook bacon, stirring regularly until crispy. Drain off half the bacon fat and reserve for future use.  

Add onions and garlic to pan with remaining fat and cook until onions begin to caramelize, about 10 minutes.  

Add remaining ingredients.  Reduce heat to simmer, cover, and cook for 30-45 minutes.  Stir occasionally, adding water if mixture becomes too thick.

When bacon is tender, remove from heat and cool for 30 minutes.  Transfer bacon mixture to a food processor and pulse in batches to desired consistency.  (Chef Wight and I both prefer it slightly chunky).

#ProperPeppering Tips

1.        Everyone needs an onion chopper/dicer for perfect and easy veggie prepping. 

2.        My bacon, purchased at the local grocery store, was much too fatty.  Go to your local butcher shop and ask for thick-cut smoked bacon.  We suggest any of the following.  You can also pick up your Proper Pepper here too.

The Lodge Meat Market in Sandersville, GA
https://www.facebook.com/thelodgedeer/  

Smith Brothers Butcher Shop in Savannah, GA
http://www.smithbrothersbutchershop.com/  

Striplings in Bogart, GA
https://www.facebook.com/StriplingsBogart/

New York Butcher Shoppe in Augusta, GA
https://www.facebook.com/NYbutcheraugusta/

3.        The Bacon Jam was much prettier before I pulsed it in the food processor and I think would have been the perfect consistency.  You may consider skipping this step.

4.        The bread rounds are much easier to cut when the bread is fresh.  Try cutting it first, then toasting.  I didn't have the perfect size round cookie cutter, so I improvised with a metal can.

5.        I garnished with kohlrabi micro greens gifted from a friend’s (Tara & Jeffery Cramer) garden.  These micro greens are from the cabbage/broccoli family and are super tasty and healthy.  Their purple stems were so beautiful next to the purple chive blossoms.

On deck:  #ProperPeppering the Perfect Easter Meal from Charleston Receipts

*   #ProperPeppering - A style of southern living that reflects all of the values, interests and characteristics a proper southerner has known since birth, including the love of Proper Pepper Pimento Cheese.