Walker had his first day of school yesterday- except that it was only for one hour. I am not really sure the point of a one hour day, but I guess it eased him into it. However, I had to then think of something else for us to do for the rest of the day. Driving back over the bridge from running an errand, I saw a boat pulling para sailors in the harbor, and just like that I had my idea for the day. I went home and called Tidal Wave Water Sports (www.tidalwavewatersports.com), and two hours later, Walker and I were in a boat headed out to para sail. It was awesome and not really scary at all (but I was really happy to be back on solid ground when we were done). I am not sure what the correlation between the two is, but something about seeing the para sailors in the harbor and then doing it myself, made me think of a Garden & Gun post on Facebook I saw the other day about pimento cheese and the Lee Brothers. The post talked about pimento cheese purist who will only use shredded cheddar cheese, Dukes, and jarred pimentos, and anything else isn’t pimento cheese. Well, the Lee Brothers (I love them!) put a spin on this classic using Swiss cheese and banana peppers. Highly interesting, and here is the recipe:
10 oz. Swiss cheese, finely grated
One 12-oz. jar pickled banana peppers (hot if available) drained and minced
3 tbs. sour cream
1/4 tsp. black pepper
1/4 tsp. red pepper flakes
1/4 tsp. kosher salt
2 tbs. chives minced (approx. 1/6 bunch)
2 tbs. capers (soaked in fresh water for 1 minute then drained)
Mix all ingredients together with a spatula until evenly blended. Refrigerate, if possible, for 2 hours or overnight. Serve in a bowl with a good supply of crackers.
All of this got me thinking- well, if you can use Swiss cheese, why couldn’t you use my favorite pepper jack cheese? And I think that you could, and then I started thinking that you could use this new mixture in the pimento cheese popovers recipe that is so phenomenal (all of this thinking and random associations between this and the para sailing occurred around 3am in a semi dream/tossing and turning state, and all of this would probably make much more sense if I had written it all down last night when it seemed really genius). So, I am going to try it! I am going to use Duke’s Mayonnaise Pimento Cheese recipe but substitute pepper jack cheese for cheddar, and if that all turns out to be as delicious as I think it will, I will then make the Pimento Cheese Popovers with the new pepper jack concoction. And the creating and testing of all of that will be Part 2 (no more para sailing for a while). If you have any suggestions or helpful hints- they would be much appreciated!!
