Food should be an adventure. Always. When trying something new, the worst that could happen is a bad combination that is not as palatable as you'd hoped. But it's certainly not going to kill you.

At least that's my philosophy, which led to me putting pepper jelly on just about everything.

It all started with a grocery store display last Christmas. I was at Winn-Dixie, and they had set up one of those mountains of red pepper jelly jars. My husband and I had just returned from our family Christmas trip (Birmingham to Dothan to Birmingham to Atlanta and back to Mobile), and we thought we deserved a little treat, so we picked up a jar of the jelly and a block of cream cheese.

We devoured all of the cream cheese in a couple of days, but the pepper jelly stuck around for a while. I got hungry one day, and just about all we had in the pantry was peanut butter, bread and… pepper jelly.

Hmm, I thought, the corners of my mouth turning upward and my eyes narrowing as I saw the pepper jelly. This could be interesting.

So I slathered one slice of bread with pepper jelly and the other with crunchy peanut butter. I sprinkled a little salt on the peanut butter (a great trick; give it a try) and slapped those two pieces of bread together.

Here goes nothing.

I took a bite, not expecting greatness. But I sorely underestimated the combination. The usual magic that happens when peanut butter and jelly mesh was present, but there was a little kick! Just a hint of spiciness — almost not enough to notice, but it was there. And boy, was it good.

I told Scott about it when he got home from work. He was not impressed. And everyone else thinks I'm insane, too — I even mentioned it to Kim from Punta Clara Kitchen in Fairhope, which has the best pepper jelly I've tasted yet, and she had never thought to pair pepper jelly and peanut butter. She promised to try it.

This discovery led me to experiment with many other implementations of pepper jelly in my daily life. One of my favorites is a toasted slice of baguette topped with wilted spinach, a fried egg, Pretty Perfect Pimiento Cheese (another Fairhope company) and Punta Clara pepper jelly. I know that sounds strange, again, but it is divine.

I've also topped hot dogs with pepper jelly, made a pepper jelly vinaigrette salad dressing and I've even eaten a slice of tomato, Pretty Perfect Pimiento Cheese, bacon and pepper jelly wrapped in some delicious, crunchy hydroponic lettuce — how's that for a BLT with a twist?

See how fun experimenting with food can be? If I hadn't been brave and tried pepper jelly with my peanut butter that day, I would have missed out on some of my favorite flavor combinations.

So next time you think, “Hmm… maybe that would work,” just go ahead and do it. You might be sorry for a couple of seconds, or you might find a new favorite that will last a lifetime. Why not?

Do you have any strange favorite foods? I'd love to hear about them and share them with other readers. Send me an email at people@gulfcoastnewspapers.com to confess your crazy cravings!