Things Change - and That's OK

I was 14 - maybe 15 when one of the ladies in the church showed my mom how to make her own mints, like peppermints - only not. The ingredients were cream cheese, powdered sugar, peppermint oil and the color of choice - green, red, blue, yellow - a minty rainbow. In small grey rubber molds - with maybe 12 small but identical depressions, you would force the confectionery putty into the molds and let it sit for an hour I guess. Pop them out onto a plate of sugar and stack them up in your trusty Tupperware box between sheets of waxed paper. 

Like anything new - you get a little excited about it I guess - and mom got excited about these mints. She made them for people coming over for dinner, church open houses, parties - any reason she could find - the mints followed - by what seemed like thousands. At the time, I didn’t like cream cheese and I complained about the taste of the cream cheese that came thru the mint extract. Both my mother and grand mother admonished me on how I couldn’t possibly taste the cream cheese. Over the years I grew to love cream cheese and my taste for many other lovely things grew and grew.
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Growing up, we bought most salad dressings in bottles - except ranch of course - a cup of mayonnaise, another cup of buttermilk and a packet of seasoning mix. Who couldn’t resist it. But our blue cheese was always in the back of the fridge and infrequently used. In high school, my friend Marjorie Cannon gave to me a lovely collection of recipes that she assembled and illustrated with vintage sepia drawings. One of them was Blue Cheese Dressing - another cheese that I scoffed in my youth but have grown to rapturously adore. Years later, I re-found her recipe and I was hooked for life. 

Sometimes you fall in and out of habit of making certain things (not for any reason really) - it happens to me all the time. You might change stores, make a move, things change and without realizing you don’t think about making some of the things you like and enjoy. i hadn't made this dressing for years, but i re-found it again and wondered to myself how i could have settled for bottled blue cheese and why i had forgotten to make such a splendid covering. So here it is - a salad dressing that will make you swoon - and never forget about it.

1 cup sour cream

1 cup mayonnaise

6 ounces crumbled blue cheese - as strong as you like

3 tbsp finely diced red onion

2 tbsp white vinegar or lemon juice

1 tbsp worcestershire sauce

1 clove minced garlic (2 if you’re daring)

1-2 tbsp minced capers (optional)

1 tsp black pepper
Salt - optional (I don’t) the cheese usually has enough salt for me and a few of them are salty in their own right.

Combine all ingredients in a bowl and taste it often with delight. Pour into a container with a good fitting lid. Keeps for a couple weeks. Spoon on liberally to any salad or put the celery stick all the way to the bottom while snacking.