Every May and June I look forward to the fresh influx of Vidalia onions into the supermarkets.  Being a Georgia girl, I took them for granted when I was down South; now that I live far away, I greedily fill up my grocery buggy and usher them into their new home … aka my pantry.  In fact, I’ve started to hoard them a bit already – resorting to the old fashioned storage option of hanging in pantyhose legs even though they feasibly will be available through the late fall thanks to advanced storage technology borrowed from the apple growers.

But for the benefit of non-Southerners, let me first help out with some general info points & phonetics here.  Vidalia is a town in the state of Georgia, about an hour or so due west of Savannah.  It is pronounced with three syllables as [vuh-DAL′-ya] or [vy-DAL′-ya], the variance between the two pronunciations being the first syllable and what type of Southern accent you sport – a soft uptown drawl or a back country twang.  For my Yankee friends, this is NOT pronounced as if it were a town in Italy or a botanical flower.  Pronunciation here in New England has been bastardized by many into four syllables with the inflection on the wrong part (so, so harsh on my tender Southern ears!).  Getting away from the pronunciation thing though, you should know that Vidalia onions are trademarked similar to French champagne, as only certain varieties grown in a specific production area in Southern Georgia can be identified, marketed and distributed as “Vidalia onions.”  The distinguishing attribute of this onion is that it has a high level of sugar and is thus incredibly sweet tasting – due largely to the sandy, low sulfur soil it grows in, as well as the mild climate.  You can further impress your friends at the next cocktail party with the knowledge that the Vidalia onion is Georgia’s official state vegetable.

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The first Saturday of every May is indelibly etched on most Southerners’ calendar:  the Kentucky Derby!  Whether you avidly watch the festivities and race, or simply check the internet or paper the next day for the winner, nearly all give a nod to the prestigious sporting event.  Make no mistake though, the Derby is a SOCIAL event.  And we know what social really means:  lotsa food & booze.

If you’re actually going to the Derby, have sky box seating and are obliged to dress up in that trés British finery, then odds are you will be hosting and/or attending pre-parties and post-parties with lots of good eats & drinks by high priced caterers.  I’d say that if you’re in that crowd, then this post most likely isn’t for you.  I’m out to appeal to the masses that are content to sit back with the remote in hand, gazing at their snazzy 52” HD, flat screen TV’s — but with the same good eats and drinks as the “tony” crowd.

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Be sure to Southernize that and say [puh-mí-nuh] cheese.  And what’s with the spelling?  Is it pimiento with the notable insertion of the second “i”, or is it pimento, with only one “i”?  So, I cheated and went to Wikipedia, which gives a plausible explanation.  ‘Pimiento’ is the Spanish word for the cherry pepper used in olives and the BMB topic du jour, whereas ‘pimento’ is the Portuguese version.  Somewhere along the way, I guess most Southerners bonded with the Portuguese version … so pimento it is for this post.

I hadn’t planned on chatting about pimento cheese until it got a little warmer — and closer to tomato season.  But a couple of things prompted an early publishing.  First, I recently re-connected with a college friend online and shared with her my blogging endeavors to date.  Her comment back to me was something like: “great stuff, but you have nothing about pimento cheese.”  She sent me a follow up email, insisting-urging-begging that I share a pimento cheese recipe so that she and her husband could indulge themselves.  You see, she too is a Southern ex-pat, but living in Washington.  Seattle has good eats, but I guess that it too can be a barren wasteland when it comes to some Southern comfort foods.

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