Mitchell: Creamy Pimiento Cheese, the Glue of the South

Indeed, it’s a small world. As I sat in the congregation of the Presbyterian Church in Venice, FL—I’m a snowbird from New Jersey—I noted the liturgist had a delightful Southern accent. Quickly, I checked the church bulletin and the name of the liturgist jumped out at me. Lewis Trotter was a football player in my 1959 graduating class in Memphis, Tennessee.

As he stood greeting the folks after the service, I shook his hand and asked if he had gone to East High School. The retired Presbyterian minister answered in the affirmative. However, when I mentioned we were in the same class, he drew a blank.

“As I gotten older, I have more trouble remembering people’s names,” Lewis said. “I’ll have to get out my yearbook and look you up,” he continued. Obviously, he did because he stopped by our rented house one day when we were away.

The next Sunday, I asked for a name tag as suggested by the senior pastor during the announcement time. Frequent visitors and snowbirds were told to put their names and home state on the yellow sheet.

The following Sunday as I picked up my name tag, the deacon looked at the name and said, “Oh, you’re Rev. Trotter’s friend from high school.” Then as the usher handed me the church bulletin, she said, “i was in the church office when Rev. Trotter talked about meeting one of his classmates.”

Then at the being of the service, the Rev. Lewis Trotter, associate seasonal pastor at the Trinity Presbyterian Church, reminded folks to get the yellow name tags. “Just three weeks ago, someone from my high school class came up to me and introduced herself,” he announced. “I didn’t recognize her and suggested she get a name tag. She has one now and I can easily recall her name.”

We had a small graduating class at East High with two of the football players becoming ordained Presbyterian ministers along with the “bad boy” changing his ways and becoming an evangelical preacher. Lewis Trotter and Louis Weeks are the Presbyterian ministers with Louis, a Princeton graduate, serving as dean at Louisville Seminary and retiring as president of Union Seminary.

All the reminisces made me hungrily think of my favorite comfort food — pimiento cheese, the glue of the South. Here’s my recipe for pimiento cheese sandwiches.

Creamy Pimiento Cheese
2 cups grated extra sharp cheddar cheese
1/4 cup mayonnaise
1/2 teaspoon Tabasco sauce
1/4 cup finely chopped onions
1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
1 small jar (2 ounces) diced pimientos, drained

Blend all the ingredients and spread on toast.

Add sliced tomatoes and lettuce. Crisp bacon is always a tasty addition.

Note: For a quick fix, I sometimes “cheat” and use the store-bought package (eight ounces) of shredded cheddar cheese which equals two cups. However, I find grating your own extra sharp cheddar cheese is much better.

Sidna Brower Mitchell is a HottyToddy.com contributor and former editor of The Daily Mississippian. She can be reached by e-mail at sbmcooks@aol.com.