A Beautiful Blue

I wouldn’t necessarily call myself a food snob.  I will eat just about anything with the exception of escargot and turtle.  Some things are just not meant to be food.  Mr. Smith is convinced that my favorite food is Caesar salad.  He is probably correct.  Lame, I know. 

A Caesar salad snob?  That would be me.  Really?  Yes, and we are moving on.

I would love to create a beautiful Caesar dressing but so far NOT.  For now, I stick with the bottle.  Ooops…who said that?  Sometimes my bottle is better than a restaurants homemade.  Sad but true.  You don’t want to know how many Caesar’s I have returned to the kitchen because of bad dressing and I don’t care to remember.  That’s in the past. 

Blue Cheese is my second favorite dressing.  I make a beautiful Blue.  I can also do a wicked “Thousand Island” - my third favorite.  Thousand Island was my mother’s dressing of choice so growing up, that’s what we had.  The entire family still loves it. 

I am happy that I can actually make these two dressings because unlike Caesar, there are no good blue cheese and thousand island bottles out there.  I guess it works out for the best - funny how that happens.

My favorite blue cheese begins with a quality hunk of the cheese.  The brand in my grocery store dairy case in the plastic container is nasty.  Sorry but it’s true.  If I had to use that, I would rather do the bottle and save myself the work.  I prefer King’s Choice.  You will need ½ cup crumbled.  Did you know that you can freeze cheese?  Yep.  Works great.

Garlic is next. 1 TLBS.  I absolutely love garlic in everything.  When I bake fresh asparagus with fresh garlic and butter, Mr. Smith can smell it in the driveway…so he says.  I go overboard with the fresh garlic on most everything but with this dressing NOT.  Just doesn’t work.  Stick with 1 TLBS. That is all you will need.

Mayo, 1 cup.  Sour cream ½ cup.  Mr. Smith will only eat the Duke’s.  He is funny that way.  I can eat Duke’s, Hellman’s or Kraft - doesn’t matter.  Use what you like.  I normally buy the generic sour cream but if you have a preference go with it.  Add ¼ cup of dried parsley, 1 TLBS of lemon juice, pepper to taste and wa-la we have art!

Now you are ready to dip something in and taste.  If you like it, you scored the big one.  If not, well you have some tweaking to do.  I did lots of tweaks in the beginning but this is where I found love.  This is great on salads, hot wings and as a dip for veggies and crackers.  Very versatile.  Be prepared to share this recipe. 

Speaking of salads…my go-to salad base is very simple.  A 50/50 mix of green leaf lettuce and iceberg with a few finely chopped green onions thrown in.  Once you have the base, add what you like.  It is very adaptable and very beautiful.  Enjoy!

Tomorrow is the start of a new day

Donna