Things you should be eating

That food story I did - I tell you, I had fun with that one. I like to write, but let's be honest here - I love food even more. And I really love finding new foods. Not long after I wrote my blog post about Big T Coastal Provisions dips, another source I interviewed, who makes sauces and dips, sent me a sampler pack of her products.

And now I'm here to tell you about them.

The company is Valine's Famous, and the line includes cocktail sauce, barbecue sauce (which we haven't yet tested, sadly), and a cheese spread similar to pimiento cheese. Immediately upon arrival, we opened the cocktail sauce and cheese spread and devoured them on crackers. The cocktail sauce is good, but the cheese spread...now you're speaking my language.

It passed my test because, as most of you know, I hate mayonnaise, and this wasn't a super-mayonnaise-y spread. Chunks of fresh cheese and onion and what we believe is pimiento are blended with a tiny bit of spice for a kick. It's great on saltine crackers, but we really kicked things up a notch when we put it on top of cornbread and served it with chili.

After a lifetime of eating my Mammaw's real cast-iron skillet-made cornbread, the sweet Jiffy stuff out of a box isn't always my favorite. But throw a little savory cheese spread on top and it balances nicely. And by that I mean, we devoured it. There's only a tiny little bit of cheese spread left, and the cornbread is long gone.

We are big fans of supporting local food producers - and hello, their products always taste way better - so this is a no-win for us. You can purchase it on the Web site or at several stores across the Carolinas and Georgia, including (be still, my heart) A Southern Season in Chapel Hill, as well as in Atlanta. We'll definitely have to stock up on the cheese spread, perhaps on our next visit to the Charleston area.

If any of you sweet readers try any of Valine's sauces, be sure to let me know what you think!

xoxo,
E

Disclaimer: I did not receive this sampler pack as a bribe to blog about it. If anything, it was more of a thank-you for interviewing the owner for an article. I just decided to do a post about it because a) you need to know about that cheese spread and b) this house-painting and preparing-to-sell nonsense has not left me a lot of time to read books to review or recipes to share, so this is as good as it's gonna get for right now. #adulting is hard.

P.S. In a turn of irony, I noticed a picture of a birthday cake on Valine's Instagram page...on Tuesday...which was my birthday. Turns out, the owner and I share a birthday. Small world!