Sass!

Amy: Growing up we always had baked ham for holiday meals. Around our house we tried not to waste anything. Mom would take the leftover ham and ham bone and make the best soup. The ham bone makes a wonderful broth. She would use the leftover vegetables and put them in the soup. Mom always made grilled pimento cheese sandwiches to go with the soup. It was so yummy. Feel free to use whatever vegetables you have in the freezer, fridge or pantry. This recipe is very versatile.

Big Bo’s Ham Bone Soup and Pimento Cheese

What you will need-
1 large ham bone (leftover ham, diced)
1 large onion, chopped
1 28 ounce can diced tomatoes
1 clove garlic
3 dashes Worcestershire
1 14 ounce can beef broth
1 16 ounce bag frozen vegetable soup mix
1 14 ounce can corn, drained
1 14 ounce can cut green beans, drained
¼ cup rice or 1 cup pasta sea shells
Salt and pepper to taste

How to do it-
Take the leftover ham bone and remove the majority of the meat off of it. Get your soup pot out and put the ham bone in it and the ham. Add your onions, diced tomatoes, garlic, Worcestershire sauce, beef broth and enough water to completely cover the ham bone. Bring to a rapid boil and reduce heat and let simmer for 2 hours. Add the rest of the stuff and cook until pasta is cooked and vegetables are warm.

Amy: First, I need to tell you what minner cheese is. It’s nothing more than pimento cheese. Our Mom and Mrs. Paula have always called it minner cheese. Go figure! You know how sometimes a smell, taste or something you see will take you back to a part of your life? Sometimes it is a happy place and sometimes it is not. Well, this recipe always takes Suzy and me back to a very happy place, my childhood. Amy: Growing up Mama always had pimento cheese in the fridge. Being who we are, 2 girls that love them some groceries, we found all different ways to eat pimento cheese. Of course, we used it as a dip. That is just a given. We would use chips, crackers, celery or anything around the house that resembled a chip. We would eat a spoonful at the time out of the fridge. We also liked to slap it on some lite bread, add some tomatoes and bacon and grill that baby up. We would spread it on French bread and stick it under the broiler for a few minutes and melt the cheese, now that is some fine eating. Our favorite way would have to be to make a bend back and eat it dipped in our Mama’s homemade vegetable soup. We hope you get as much pleasure out of this recipe as we have. This recipe makes a heap of minner cheese but it will last a good while in the fridge.

Mom’s Minner Cheese (Pimento Cheese)

What you will need-
4 cups sharp cheddar cheese at room temperature, finely grated
3 cups Monterey jack cheese at room temperature, finely grated
4 ounces cream cheese, room temperature
¼ cup onion, grated
2 4 ounce jars pimento, with juice
1 cup mayonnaise (add more if you like it real mayonnaisy)
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
½ teaspoon white pepper
For something a little different, add one of these-
½ cup jalapeno slices, chopped
1 4.25 oz can chopped olives
3 teaspoons capers
¾ cup toasted pecans

Let’s make some of Mama’s Minner Cheese-
We need to tell you the 411 on store-bought shredded cheese. Pre shredded cheese has a preservative added to keep it from clumping. Therefore, when you add the mayo to the cheese, it just doesn’t combine and form the right texture. Now, we do use it from time to time and it works great on a lot of different things. However, it does not work well when making pimento cheese. Also, let your cheese come to room temp before you grate it. We know we put it up there in the list of things you will need but we want to re-emphasize the importance of this step. Now that we have given you the 411 on the 911 let’s get to making the minner cheese. This is an easy one, folks. Mix all the ingredients together in a large bowl and serve it anyway you would like. Store your minner cheese in the fridge.