The Golfchick

That chick blabbing about anything golf related.

Category: The Masters

Can’t Go to The Masters? Make Your Own Pimento Cheese Sandwiches.

Written by thegolfchick.com contributor, Mary, a.k.a. Breadchick, a portion of this post was first published in View on Mesquite Magazine. I’m posting it here in its entirety because, well, The Masters. I love The Masters – and Mary! I intend to make the pimento cheese recipe for my own CBS viewing pleasure. Thanks, Mary!

What Egg Salad and Pimento Cheese Taught Me about Golf and Life

When you grow up in a golf family in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan you learn three things very fast about the golf season: you have four maybe five months, May until September, to make pars and birdies; yellow balls show up the best in the snow you will play in the first part of May and the last part of September; and in April, when you heard Pat Summerall welcome you to the Masters, you could go drag your golf clubs out from behind the winter coats and skis where you put them at the beginning of October.

I remember exactly where I was in 1978 when Gary Player came back from seven down to defeat the golfing hero of my youth, Tom Watson, to win the Masters.  I was sprawled out on the cowboy themed couch in the den of my parent’s house, watching the black and white TV, munching on an egg salad sandwich. I was hoping against hopes that Watson, who scorched the back nine with torrid run of birdies and eagles, would somehow pull a rabbit out of his hat on the 18th after he put the ball in the only place he couldn’t put it.  He didn’t and the rest of that egg salad sandwich went untouched.

Grandmother’s Egg Salad, Memories, and Life Getting in the Way of Golf

Egg salad sandwiches were a staple in our house but particularly on the golf course. My maternal grandmother made the best egg salad. On Monday afternoon she egg slicerwould make a batch to take to the course for Tuesday’s Ladies Day at the club where she and my grandfather were members.  If I was visiting, I’d help by peeling the eggs and using the egg slicer to cut the eggs one way then the other to create perfectly diced pieces.  She would take the diced eggs and put them in a big white Tupperware container and then using a spatula combine them with a big dollop of mayonnaise, a squeeze of yellow mustard, a dash of salt and pepper.   She would slice a loaf of bread paper thin, place each slice between a piece of waxed paper and re-wrap the loaf so it would be easy to make sandwiches in the ladies lounge after the round.  

On the weekend, she would make egg salad and pickled bologna sandwiches for my dad and grandfather to share on the golf course during their round.  If one of my brothers or I was going with them, she would make a special sandwich for us by using one of her cookie cutters to make shapes and tuck them into a wax paper envelope. It was torture to wait until we could eat those sandwiches.

Some of my fondest memories of playing golf with my dad and grandfather as a child and pre-teen was making the turn at the clubhouse and sitting on the small brick wall eating my sandwich and listening to my grandfather explain why golf was like life. You get out of golf and life what you put into it. Golf is a game of manners and rules. In life, if you have bad manners or break rules you will not have an easy time of it.  You treat the staff in the caddie shack and the bag room the same as you treat your best friend. They are working hard for their money and deserve your respect.

Somewhere along the way between fifteen and thirty, I stopped playing golf. I became busy with school, my music and with what would eventually become my career, engineering and professional audio. I would occasionally play when I went home to northern Michigan or at a corporate outing but for the most part golf disappeared from my life.  It wasn’t until I married into an even more serious golfing family than my own that my love for the game of golf was rekindled.

Golf is Back! Enter In-Laws, and Pimento Cheese 

pimento cheese dip, crackers, score cardsMy father in law was a teaching pro at a country club in eastern Tennessee and my mother in law was a very accomplished golfer in her own right, holding the lady club champion well into her 60s.  My husband grew up in the bag room and caddie shack and his brother was my father in law’s assistant pro.  The very first time I met my future in laws was at the golf course less than 30 minutes after getting off the airplane from Boston, where my husband and I resided.   After what was a less than spectacular round on my part, my future father in law took me to the range and helped me start back towards the game I had loved as girl while my future husband and mother in law retired to the member grille. When we came in from hitting a bucket of balls, we sat and had cocktails and pimento cheese dip on crackers and got to know each other. As a “Yankee”, this was my first exposure to pimento cheese and it was love at first taste.

That visit was the first of many my husband and I made to his childhood home. Those trips always included a round of golf with my in-laws and a trip to the member grille to relive the best shots of the round over pimento cheese dip and gin and tonics. After my father in law and husband both passed away within a year of each other, my mother in law and I would still go out to club to share memories and funny stories over that creamy mixture spread on Ritz crackers, even if we didn’t play golf.  She passed away three years ago and every time I eat pimento cheese, I can’t help but think of those afternoons in the member grille at their club and laughing over the stupid shots in our rounds and sharing our love for the game of golf.

Pimento cheese is a staple in the South.  And, of course, the Masters wouldn’t be the Masters without pimento cheese and egg salad sandwiches made fresh daily and wrapped in wax paper.  There are several different recipes for both but I’m going to share twists on my grandmother’s egg salad and my mother in law’s pimento cheese recipes.  

The Recipes

Both of these recipes call for full fat mayonnaise but if you want to lighten it up a bit, using low fat mayonnaise won’t sacrifice taste. However, don’t go for the fat free variety. You will find the taste and consistency to be lacking.  For the pimento cheese spread, don’t use anything but regular cheese, no 2% milk or fat free, it just won’t taste right.

Pimento Cheese Dip/Spread
pimento cheese dippimento cheese mixture

1pimentos ½ cup of mayonnaise

1 jar (4 oz.) of pimentos (drained) look for them where the pickles are or in the Italian food section

½ tsp Worcestershire sauce

1 ¼ cup fine shredded mild cheddar cheese

1 ¼ cup fine shredded sharp cheddar cheese

Dash of cayenne pepper

Dash of cumin

Combine all the ingredients in a large covered bowl. Refrigerate for at least six hours but overnight is best.  This lets the taste of the pimentos spread through the mixture.   Serve on crackers or thick slices of white bread.  

pimento and egg salad sandwich and golf tees

 

Egg Saladegg salad on cracker

6 large eggs, hard boiled and chopped

1 ½ cup of mayonnaise

1 Tbsp. of yellow mustard

1 ½ Tbsp. of sweet pickle relish

Dash of pepper

Dash of tarragon

Dash of thyme

Combine all the ingredients in a large covered bowl. Refrigerate for at least two hours. Serve on thin sliced bread or crackers.

pimento cheese sandwich and golf items

 

2014 Masters Pin Flag Prize Winner

We have a winner! No, I’m not talking about Gerald Lester Watson. I’m talking about the winner of our 2014 embroidered Masters pin flag giveaway contest.

Thanks to everyone who took time to enter the contest. I had fun reading everyone’s entries.

Choosing the winner was a difficult decision. I mean, Morris Wormell wrote an incredible and LONG piece of fiction. Some people thought he should just win probably based on length alone. If I thought he wrote it just for this blog, I think we’d have HAD to choose him.

Then there was Courtney, who had my FAVORITE comment, which was simply “Stupid Bubba.”  Unfortunately, that was entered after the tournament was over, so was ineligible.

And Janis, who was an early entry with a brilliant kiss ass comment – Janis, you almost had me, but I was looking for something more Masters related. I did enjoy your post tournament comment, too. :)

AND THE WINNER IS………………… SEAN, from Ottawa. Congrats, Sean @hugegolfhacker!

Sean wrote:

“I have been trying for many years to get tics for the masters and no luck. I would loveto go. Actually why am i even bothering typing more after seeing Morris’ post above. That breaks a record for longest internet post that I have ever seen! Just give him the flag, unless he was rude in his post (too long for me to read). Would love to see Bubba watson choke today, dont like the way he treats his caddie. Thx”

We chose Sean because he seems like a big Masters fan, generous (wanted someone else to win), anti-troll, and kind to Ted Scotts. :) Way to go, Sean! Enjoy your Masters flag, and please feel free to post a pic on The Golfchick Facebook page when you get it.

And thanks, once again to MMOGolf.com for providing the giveaway.

 

2014 Masters Pin Flag Giveaway

Who wants a 2014 Masters Embroidered Golf Pin Flag from Augusta National? I know I do! And here’s your chance to win one!

As you may have noticed, this blog has not exactly been active lately. I’ve been planning to get back to it but sadly it’s taken a back seat to some other endeavors lately. With my excitement over The Masters, I figured I’d take this opportunity to jumpstart those plans. Giveaways seem like a lame ploy for traffic and comments, but it’s a Masters flag!

The good people at MMOGolf.com are providing the flag to a lucky winner (and one to me – yay!) in exchange for this blog post, some social media promotion and this link to their site: MMOGolf.com

If you like Masters memorabilia, definitely check them out. They have all kinds of great swag from Augusta!
You can also find them on Facebook and Twitter.

How to enter

All you need to do to enter is comment on this blog post with your thoughts about The Masters. It can be anything – why it’s the best major (or not – WHAT?),  what The Masters means to you, a story about your trip there, what you’d give to go watch the tournament or play the course, your prediction of who will win – you get the idea. The comment can be as short or long as you want. Entries must include your email (so I can contact you if you win) and must be received before the last putt sinks at Augusta at the end of Masters Sunday (April 13, 2014). Feel free to leave your twitter handle in the comment, too. You’ll get a shoutout if you win, and maybe even if you don’t. :)

How to win

Well, it’s pretty subjective. You just have to write the post that I and my staff (ahem) like the best.  My friends may weigh in as well. If you’ve been reading this blog or following me on social media for any length of time, you have an advantage because you probably understand what I like and my sense of humor better than someone who doesn’t. I could choose anything from something poignant and lengthy to something quick and dirty that makes me laugh or anywhere in between.

That’s it. We’ll go over the entries and choose a winner after The Masters hangover wears off. I’ll announce the winner here and across my social media accounts, and email the winner directly for shipping information. Good luck, and HAPPY MASTERS WEEK!

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