Name: Pimento Cheese Balls
Prep time: 10 min
Cook time: 30 min
Total time: 40 min
Yield: 6 people
Ingredients: 1/4 cup cream cheese (softened); 3 tablespoons mayonnaise; 1 teaspoon grated onion; 1/8 teaspoon garlic powder; Pinch of salt; Pinch of fresh ground pepper; 2 cups shredded sharp Cheddar cheese; 1 cup shredded Pepper Jack cheese; 1 cup shredded Monterey Jack cheese; 1 jar chopped pimentos (4 ounces, drained); 1 1/2 cups chopped toasted pecans

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Do you like cooking with friends? I do! I have been contemplating starting a series of posts about it. I have many friends who like to cook and share their favorite recipes. Being in the kitchen with a friend is much better than alone. Open a bottle of wine, do a little cooking, and have a big fun time. It is exactly what happened when I went to cook with my friend Terry. To top it off, the recipe was for pimento cheese balls.

Oh yes, pimento cheese. What an indulgent and decadent food it is. Cheese, mayonnaise, pimentos, and spices all mixed together for a true Southern treat. It gets better because the little balls of cheese are rolled in toasted pecans. Oh. My. Goodness. I loaded my KitchenAid food processor and camera in the car and headed over to Terry’s house. Then the fun began. There was a lot of cheese. Guess what we were snacking on while making these balls? Wine and more cheese, a gouda that someone had brought back from Germany. Want some cheese to go with your cheese? Why yes, thank you!

First we had to shred the cheese (well, after opening the wine and munching on gouda). You might be tempted to use pre-shredded but please do not. Fresh grated cheese is the way to go. Get the good stuff and use the food processor to do the shredding work. Oh, and Terry took photos as I was messing up her kitchen.

Next is grating an onion. I cut it by hand and used a regular grater. I did need a little workout to burn off the cheese indulgence.

All the ingredients wind up in the food processor (except the pecans). Remember I said I was messing up Terry’s kitchen. There was cheese everywhere.

It goes into a bowl once it is combined. Yes, I dropped more cheese on the floor when I was scraping it out of the food processor bowl. It was only a tiny little bit, enough for a good laugh though.

Time for the mixture to chill. It spends some time in the fridge before it is rolled into balls. It is a good time to clean up a mess, drink some wine, and eat some cheese.

After an hour we headed back to the kitchen. We rolled the mixture into little balls and then coated them with toasted pecan pieces.

Then we ordered pizzas because we did not have enough cheese that day. Actually, it was to feed our husbands. Okay, we did order one for us with vegetables on it. We finished up rolling the pimento cheese and set them out on a platter. They certainly are tasty looking.

Last step is taking the final photos. I took them out to a pretty bench on her patio. She had to take a photo of me taking photos. I could swear she captured me taking the photo at the top of the post.

Cooking with friends is such a good time. What is even more interesting is the recipe is one from Comfy Cuisine. Patti is one of my fellow Inspiring Foodies bloggers. I recognized her blog as soon as I saw the recipe. I was cooking with an in real life friend using a recipe from one of my online friends. It is a small world. I adapted the recipe to reflect the cheeses and amount of pimentos we used and I changed the method slightly.

When was the last time you cooked with a friend? What did you make? If you have not in a while, call a friend and make a cooking date. Laughs, good food, and fun times are to be had.

Thank you Terry for a wonderful afternoon. I cannot wait until our next cooking adventure.