Fried Cheese Balls

When I think of cheese, I think of a lovely Stilton, British Blue from England.  Or perhaps a ripe triple creme Brie from France.  Or perhaps a Molitaire Tartuffo like shown in the photo.

The Molitaire Tartuffo, a sheep milk cheese, is veined with truffles.  

I dream of Holland's Boerenkaas, nutty and sharp!  I love the Basque Petit Agour from France.  Good old American Cheddar is fine too.  Stanser Sahaffase is a fine Swiss cheese and very delicious!

What I have never considered is fried cheese balls.  Just the name 'Fried Cheese Balls" makes me gag.  We recently went to dinner with some close friends and they both went into rapture at "Pimento Cheese Croquettes" on the menu.  My mother used to make Salmon Croquettes using corn flakes to hold together the canned salmon.  These balls were then fried in Crisco to a golden brown with warm canned salmon inside them.  Come to think of it, Mom also made a tuna casserole with corn flakes on top too.

Mom used to buy jars of pimento cheese too and use it to spread on crackers.  I'm not really sure what the orange stuff was, but I doubt it was cheese.  Perhaps it was a cheese flavored product.  She also spread the pimento cheese on celery for a healthy snack.  No wonder I was a skinny kid.

My friends indeed ordered the "Pimento Cheese Croquettes" and I had trouble looking at them when they arrived at the table.  The croquettes sat in a pool of red jelly and they were topped with a little circle of green pepper.  They pronounced them "delicious" and devoured them while I carefully averted my eyes.

Those were bloody brown fried cheese balls.  You can't fool me.