In my family, celebrations call for these sweet, spicy “party pecans” and cheese wafers
Something old and something new, these sweet and savory pecans have been a favorite of mine for decades, while the accompanying cheese wafers are a more recent addition (as well as my answer to the much loved Southern cheese straw).
They are two of my favorite nibbles for cocktail — or mocktail —hour, are deliciously addictive and have just the right amount of bite!
Cheese wafers
I think it may be the case everywhere in the South, but it is certainly true where I live in Baldwin County, Ala., that everybody’s grandmother made cheese straws, and everybody’s grandmother made the best ones. If you’re unfamiliar, cheese straws are savory, two- to three-bite, log-shaped shortbreads made with butter, sharp cheddar, flour, salt, cayenne and sometimes additional spices. They are incredibly nostalgic because they were likely served at your christening, your wedding and your funeral (and probably every social gathering in between). Like cornbread and Thanksgiving dressing, every family makes them a little bit differently, yet all are remarkably similar. Most of my friends hold a very old and beloved recipe by which they measure and judge all other cheese straws. They are consumed with gusto and discrimination at nearly every party you might attend south of the Mason-Dixon Line, and although oblong and a bit thicker, they’re sort of the grown-up version of a Cheez-It.
Neither of my grandmothers nor my mother made cheese straws, so maybe that’s why I don’t have a connection to them or a deep fondness for them like others do. The truth is I’ve always found them to be kind of….average, lacking in some way or another, since the first time I ever tasted one. I guess my position is I can take them or leave them, but flavor-wise, they’re simply never as satisfying as I wish they were.
I hate that I feel that way about them because it is just so incredibly un-southern of me to not love cheese straws, but I don’t.
Now these cheese wafers on the other hand…
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