Day One Sixty One - Results

Tonight's blog will be short and sweet folks as I'm so tired that although I wanted to make sure to write to you all, it will be significantly less wordy than my normal posts. But fret not, should you love my longer ramblings, tune in tomorrow for a more extensive post.

The results are in folks, Italy won the Peanut Butter Marriage Mondays competition. Why you may ask?

Well that is simple:

The French contestant, Comte -- firm, flavorful, and fantastic did not have the right consistency to pair with our peanut butter and consistency in this pairing is important where as it might not be so in other situations. When taking a gooey slimy substance like peanut butter and piting it with the firmness of the comte, they do not play off one another nor accentuate each other's differences, they simply function side by side, neither one revealing hidden and unusual notes about the other.

Although the Spanish contestant is more appropriate in terms of consistency, here you definitely want softness paired with softness; Queso La Serena's delicate flavors will be swallowed up by the large and in charge presence of our peanut butter. Our Spanish contestant has a lot  of bark and a lot of bite, but on a much lighter plane than that of our peanut butter. Should these two be paired together, it would be all about the peanut butter, a truly unfair relationship.

That leaves our Italian stalion armed with the right softness and enough bark and bite to stand up to the peanut butter -- the piquant qualities of the Gorgonzola cancel out the overtly sweet qualities of the peanut butter while the puckery-ness of the cheese dials down the stick to the roof of your mouth sort of feel that peanut butter classically provides you with. This is a relationship that is based on the fact that each ingredient has a series of similarities while their diferences accentuate aspects of the other -- an ideal pairing.

So you must be thinking, really?!? Blue cheese and peanut butter, you have got to be kidding me!

Well not when paired with a nice toasted cranberry walnut pecan bread say from Balthazar with some fresh cherries or even red berries added into the mix. You will be surprized how the salt of the cheese really plays up and brings out nuances in the peanut butter you never knew were there.

So next time you are in the mood for peanut butter, try this, I guarantee you won't be disappointed.