With only a little over 15 months until my 30th birthday, it’s definitely time to get going on the 30 foods to cook before 30 challenge. As part of our Kentucky Derby celebration last month, I decided to knock an easy one off the list, pimento cheese. To be perfectly honest, I never really knew what pimento cheese was made of and with it’s bright orange hue, I assumed it involved processed cheese (which I tend to avoid).  I was pleasantly surprised to find that it’s actually made with sharp cheddar and sweet cherry peppers.

After doing a bit of research on recipes, I opted for this Food & Wine recipe since it was fairly straight forward and seemed to avoid extra ingredients. It turned out great and definitely made me sad that I’ve avoided ordering pimento cheese at restaurants in the past. Now that I know exactly how delicious and easy to make pimento cheese is, I definitely think it will be making appearances at parties and in recipes (grilled cheese and burgers both sound like they would be even better with pimento cheese) much more often!

Are you a fan of pimento cheese? What’s your favorite recipe and way to use it? Be sure to keep an eye out for #30foodsby30 for more foods I’ll be tackling be for I reach the big 3-0!