I’m not sure what has happened to my taste buds.  The old ones have either committed suicide, moved out or simply grown up.  There was a time in the not so distant past that blue cheese and I could not get along.  If I so much as smelled the stuff I’d get frowney faced and stick out my tongue in disgust.  It secretly upset me.  You see, I believe in cheese.  I.  Love.  It.  It should be its own food group.  I’ve praised it for as long as I can remember.  In fact, some of my earliest childhood memories are of cheese.  I’m serious.  Don’t laugh.  There were whole stretches of time where cheese (slices, pieces, blocks) was the only thing I would eat.  I know, I know.  It’s hard to live in a world where you can do things like select cheese as your only form of nourishment.  It’s difficult to be me, for sure.

What I’m trying to tell you is that I have a new cheese mistress.  Her name?  Blue.  I want her on salads, grits, smeared on a warm baguette, crumbled up in a bowl of beats.  Sigh.  Suddenly, I want her everywhere.  I can’t explain it.  I’m not sure when the change came or where it came from but I am a happy man.

I woke up today craving salad.  It might be because I’ve had the tiniest addiction to fast food lately.  I’m working though it.  My body is rebelling and begging for vegetables!  It could also be that I visited my family in St Louis last weekend and my grandmother forced me to eat like it was an Olympic Sport.  Either way…I woke up today desperate for a salad.  I made a giant garbage salad.  GIANT.  I also made my own salad dressing.  I’m sure you can guess the flavor.  Thank you, Martha Stewart for helping my new addiction to blue cheese dressing get out of control.

WHAT?

1 cup buttermilk

1/4 cup mayonnaise

1/4 cup plain low-fat yogurt

1 tablespoon fresh thyme

4 oz blue cheese crumbles

fresh ground black pepper and salt to taste

HOW?

Whisk together buttermilk, mayo, yogurt, lemon juice and thyme.  Stir in the blue cheese and then season with salt and pepper.

Totally amazing and easy, right?  I had a moment at the store when I thought I was going to make a super low-fat and/or healthy version of this dressing.  Google tells me that I can substitute more yogurt for the buttermilk.  I would suggest going with a Greek yogurt.  You need something with a little zing to spruce up its bite.  I hope you’ll try this dressing.  It’s easy and oh so tasty.  I’m going to try to not eat the whole bowl full!