When indulging in the unparalleled joy of a long-overdue reunion with two amazing colleagues from the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia, one should offer in return some indulgences to help the visit be sweet and savored.
A staple for decades back home in Buies Creek, as part of entertaining and get-togethers and especially Christmas family gatherings—and a tribute to the prime Eastern North Carolina agricultural offering—sugar(ed) peanuts are an addictive snack. Starting with raw shelled peanuts, preferably still in their red skins, they are boiled in what is essentially a simple syrup before getting a good baking in a low-temp oven. The sugar crystallizes as an adorning shell and the actual number consumed in a sitting remains classified. This is one time I'm happy to work for peanuts.
While I wanted to avoid repetition, I did make a new batch of pimento cheese even though I'd served that to Donna and Ebbie when they were here before. Donna made the insightful discovery that a bit of toasting of slices from Monday night's maple milk bread creates a pretty remarkable landing spot for the pimento cheese, as an alternative to the usual dependence on Wheat Thins.
Our mornings were helped along by bowls of fresh fruit, along with our coffees or teas. None of us are real breakfast eaters so this all worked out splendidly.
The dessert I made to follow Monday evening's meal was aplenty and appreciated enough to carry us through the rest of their all-too-short time here: apple crisp cheesecake bars on a brown sugar shortbread crust, with a drizzle of bourbon caramel sauce I made a while back. Our squares looked too large each evening, upon first glance, but grew disappointingly smaller with each tasty bite.
"South Carolina-Style Pimento Cheese." Recipe worked out by me, based on Sharon's Palmetto Pimento Cheese.
"Sugar Peanuts," long a staple of holiday gatherings in the Jones Family household. Recipe from my mother.
"Apple Crisp Cheesecake Bars," from Meghan McGarry of ButtercreamBlondie.com. [Published 03 October 2014]
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