Grammy Cheese

This cheese spread is great on celery, pretzels, crackers and even bread! I don't know how long ago my mom began to make this cheese, but my kids LOVE it. It's just an olive & pimento cheese spread, but they always called it Grammy Cheese because my mom would make it for us every time she visited us or we visited her. That's not to say it's pimento cheese...not at all. There isn't even any cheddar cheese in it.

Ingredients:

2-8 oz pkg cream cheese
1/2 cup mayonnaise
1 jar salad olives with pimento
1/2 cup chopped pecans

A note about the ingredients--I've made this with full fat cream cheese and 1/3 fat cream cheese. Usually I use one brick of each. Ditto for the mayo. You definitely can use the light mayo in this recipe with very little change in taste. Be sure to get SALAD OLIVES. They are already mashed a little and are a little cheaper to purchase. Go ahead and get the store brand. It works fine. And finally, the pecans. How fine you chop the pecans definitely changes the taste of this spread so try it different ways. We like it chopped pretty small, but it's just as good if you use the pecans in the package that are pre-chopped.

1. Leave the cream cheese on the counter to soften. Go ahead and open the packages and put them into the bowl you're going to mix everything in. This should take about an hour or so.

2. Drain the olives, reserving the olive liquid. Chop the olives with a food processor or chopper. Add to cream cheese.

3. Chop the pecans.

4. Mix everything together...cream cheese, olives, pecans, and mayo. Add about 1 or 2 tablespoons of the reserved olive liquid.

5. Put the spread into jars and refrigerate to blend the flavors...enjoy!