Jim White

Bacon-Pimento Green Chile Cheese

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I’m somewhat of a lazy appetizer maker. I readily concede it. I nearly always do make some something or other from scratch, pairing it with a bowl or two of nuts and maybe some high end potato chips. (My current chip crush is a Truffle one you can order on amazon. Shoot me if I’m wrong.) More often than not – scroll down to IF YOU LIKED THIS to prove my tale –I whip up a cheese spread of some sort. It’s easy; it holds if made ahead; it keeps and might even freeze if it’s leftover. Works out all around.

A party loaf you can still make today. (courtesy Betty Crocker)

Over the past several years, I’ve gotten friendly with the, by now, very famous Lee Brothers Pimento Cheese (google it). Born to a southern-bred mama, I’m no stranger to pimento cheese, especially layered into a party loaf for a baby shower. But I don’t think I’d ever made it myself as a young cook, so was glad to rediscover it. While I liked the basic batch lots, I quickly began to play with it, as is my wont — not a popular thing to do in the south, where Pimento Cheese is serious business. Nonetheless, play with it I did, going all southwest (I do live and love in Colorado) with the addition of roasted green chiles and later on even adding shrimp. Oh no!! Oh yes!! I loved them all but yesterday, when my good friend Jim White was coming to dinner, I had everything for a pimento cheese spread of some sort but also had leftover crisply-fried bacon. I know; who has leftover bacon? Well, you know what happened. And, I couldn’t help but think, “Bacon for breakfast, bacon for lunch!!” You do remember the movie “Grumpier Old Men,” right? (If not, time to watch that and its predecessor. You missed out.) This movie has prime bacon dialog. If you haven’t seen it, Grandpa Gustafson was played by Burgess Meredith and John (Johnny) Gustafson was played by Jack Lemmon. Here’s the dialog:

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Lemony Green Bean and Goat Cheese Salad

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A different sort of “green salad.”
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When good friends Patti and Jim came for dinner and to watch the movie “Chocolat” a couple of weeks ago, it was easy to choose a quintessential French do-ahead cold weather meal like Bœuf Bourguignon (aka Beef Burgundy or BB). The movie, a forever fave starring Juliette Binoche, Alfred Molina, Judy Dench, and Johnny Depp, is set in France and why not follow a great location theme for our menu? I had been wanting to make the fun Salmon Rillettes out of Dorie Greenspan’s AROUND MY FRENCH TABLE and so that was tidily in the bag (with Kir to drink), as was dessert. Patti, a much-in-demand local caterer and baker extraordinaire, decided to make Julia Child’s Queen of Sheba Cake ( Reine de Saba–a famous chocolate and almond confection) and who wouldn’t take her up on that… My stumbling block was a first course salad. I wanted green, green, green because “BB” is a hefty-heavy meal and there was chocolate cake, too, wasn’t there? I liked the idea of totally simple and fairly quick but stunning– a show stopper sitting on the table when they arrived sort of deal. (I don’t like to be too busy when friends come and I want them to see what’s ahead food wise.) Of course I didn’t want just a green salad. Tooling through the produce aisle trying to figure it out, what looked the very best to me were some skinny green beans also known as haricots verts, which while lovely on their own tossed with olive oil, salt and pepper, lemon zest, and crushed red pepper needed a boost or larger venue for this special meal. I brought them home, cooked them until just past “crisp” and settled on lightly slathering them all in a two-vinegar, very very Dijony vinaigrette. Which was great. Fine. Totally.

Except, we couldn’t just eat green beans. Well, we could… but. So I dolled the whole shebang up with crisp mixed greens, bright white crunchy fennel, juicy cherry tomatoes, tender roasted red peppers, and creamy goat’s cheese. In other words, not so much that you couldn’t see what was there but just enough to show it all off. Thinking hard about balance — comes right after color– there was nothing to do but finish it off with yellow-yellow lemon zest for acid and capers for salinity. Right after I chose the best big round platter in the cupboard, you see. (24″ in diameter and made in Provence) And that’s how I got “Lemony Green Bean and Goat Cheese Salad.”

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