Chunky blue cheese dressing (and the orgin of girls dinner night)

Girls dinner night originated in my early twenties when I was living with two amazing chefs. One was the girlfriend of my roommate, and the other we picked up somewhere along the way through an ad in the paper.  Though I've had many roommates over the years, these two were my favorites ( besides of course  the brief time Jess lived with me), because they taught me so much about food. I was also working with a marvelous bunch of gals at the time, and we all loved to cook and have drinks, so we decided to make it a thing, and called it "Ladies dinner" and it was typically on a Tuesday, since we all seemed to have it free.

We kicked the male roomies out of the house and declared it a ladies only zone, and cooked our asses off just about every Tuesday for an entire year. Each of us took turns choosing themes and cooking main courses. In the summer we raided our garden  for fresh greens, basil, tomatoes and zucchini, and ate like queens.  I had just turned twenty-one, and during these dinner nights I discovered that there were many things to drink that weren't Tequila Rose ( think alcoholic strawberry chocolate milk and shudder) Malibu or Arbor Mist that actually were appealing, like red wine and micro-brewed beer, thanks to my older and wiser female counterparts.

There have been many incantations of ladies dinner night, and about a year ago some friends of mine and I started it up again and have been pretty consistent every week for a while now. It's basically the same as what my mom called " craft night" when I was a kid, she and her friends would alternate houses and get together, make food and hang out. Tonight marks yet another girls dinner night, and this week we're having  a spicy buffalo chicken pizza, so I made a rendition of a blue cheese dressing recipe I've had for years. I cut some of the fat in it to make it lower calorie too.

Chunky Blue Cheese Dressing
Ingredients:
- 4 ounces Blue Cheese, crumbled
-1/2 t. salt
-1 t. black pepper
-2 T. chives ( fresh is best,  but a good quality dried is ok) 
-1/4 cup low-fat sour cream ( regular is fine too but I couldn't tell a taste difference)
-1/4 cup buttermilk
- 1 T. Lemon juice
-1-2 t. red wine vinegar

Directions: Combine all ingredients in a large bowl and stir to combine. Keep in fridge until served.

 This is a lovely chunk of buttermilk blue cheese. It  has a much better flavor than pre-crumbled blue cheese in my opinion, and pre-crumbled is often quite a bit more expensive. It's not like breaking a two-by-four with a karate chop, save yourself some bread and flavor and crumble it by hand.

 Look at those veins! They are mold,  it's true. Something you wouldn't expect to be scrumptious... Alas, it is so incredibly delicious!

I crumble it or chop it up to slightly less than a half- inch squares. It gives the dressing depth, and makes it nice and chunky.

 Here it is, in all it's chunky, creamy, chunky, salty glory. I'm serving it with celery and carrots since we're having a buffalo chicken pizza, and blue cheese dressing and these veggies are traditionally served along side to cut the heat of the buffalo sauce. And if I know Sabrina and Stephanie's tastebuds, this pizza will be HOT! (and awesome!)

 I am going to aim for that big hunk of blue cheese right in the middle!

Blue cheese is one of those things that makes some people recoil in horror, but it's not really that scary.  I, however  think it looks pretty darn inviting!

This dressing can be served on a salad, as a veggie dip, with hot wings, or pretty much whatever you want. It is  quite pungent, and cuts the heat of a spicy food, especially when eaten with crisp, fresh veggies. It lasts about a week, but this recipe makes enough for about 4-6 servings. I make a batch and keep it in a mason jar in the fridge.

Making your own salad dressing is very cost effective, since once you buy the ingredients, you can make it a whole bunch of times! Also, it doesn't have the icky chemicals that a lot of commercial dressings have.(I guarantee no one will miss the dextramethophanphanine in this dressing, whatever the heck that is!!) And, it's a cinch to make, taking about five minutes tops. It's a great summer salad topping, and also requires no oven, which is still a good thing in these dog days of summer!