Blue Cheese Slaw

Last night I had a roast in the oven, seasoned with Spicy Spaghetti Seasoning and smoked paprika. We had white beans, because I MEANT to make baked beans but I've been hauling mulch and was too tired to grill the ribs that the beans were supposed to go with.

So...beans and roast. That works. But the only fresh green thing in the refrigerator was a head of cabbage, so we had slaw. And it was SO good that we're having it again tonight. With roast beef sandwiches.

Blue Cheese Slaw
1/2 head cabbage
2 carrots (or a handful of small ones)
1 red onion
1 cup mayonnaise
2 tablespoons Dijon mustard
1 tablespoon coarse ground mustard
1/4 cup apple cider vinegar
1 teaspoon celery seed
1/2 to 3/4 cup blue cheese
Salt and pepper to taste

Chop the cabbage, onion and carrots the way you do it...I use the slicer blade on my food processor. My mother puts it in a blender with water and then drains it. My nephew hand chops everything. Whisk mayo, mustards, vinegar and celery seed. Toss the cabbage and carrots with the dressing and blue cheese. Chill for an hour or so, to let the flavors make friends.

(A little aside here. I had a piece of the Point Reyes blue cheese I got for Christmas, frozen. I used it and while the taste was OUTSTANDING, if you're not a blue cheese person it might be too strong. So do the blue cheese to taste, depending on the quality of cheese you have.)

This was SO good.

Blue Cheese Chips

Truthfully, this isn't a recipe either. I'm just passing on a concoction and a view on missing out.

I have a friend whose husband is all about some...appearances. Severely about appearances. So one of the things I enjoy about going to visit them is...whatever Bon Appetit or Gourmet or the NYT had to say about good living, last week? They're in. And I learn a lot of fun stuff.

At the same time, the big kids in this family work for a major restaurant chain. Now, this chain uses artesan cheese, organic greens and never-frozen, slaughtered-to-order Angus beef but it is still...a chain. And some people, particularly my acquaintance in the Big City, have carried conspicuous consumption snobbery to the point that they wouldn't be caught DEAD in a chain restaurant. No matter what.

Last spring I stopped by Chain Restaurant to see one of the kids. While I was there, he brought out a new dish they were introducing and honey, it was Luhve. Luhve at first bite. Blue Cheese Chips. Last fall, I was in the Big City and my trendy friends took me to the trendy Place of the Moment for lunch. We ate in high-backed leather-covered booths, with exposed ductwork and lots of chrome and windows. Lots of really skinny people in really skinny-people clothes, watching all the other skinny people. I sat my fat and happy self in my slippery booth and studied the menu. Drank out of a too-small glass but hey, I guess you stay that skinny you down-size everything. And the newly invented "specialty" of the house was...Blue Cheese Chips. And so I'M thinking...the high end version! If these were so good in the Chain, then just imagine the possibilities here! So I paid about $22 for an appetizer of Blue Cheese Chips and guess what? They didn't get it right. So here's the recipe/directions for how to do it right. And Single Guy doesn't even need separate instructions.

Blue Cheese Chips

1 package kettle-fried potato chips...the thicker and crunchier the better
1 recipe/jar thick Alfredo sauce
Really good blue cheese
Bacon, fried really crisp and crumbled

Pour the alfredo sauce into a pan and warm it. In an oven-proof dish, spread a thick layer of chips. How many depends on how many people you're feeding...I fed the four hearty eaters in this institution with about 2/3 of a bag. Place the chips in a 350 degree oven for five minutes...just to heat through and crisp up. Remove from the oven, pour the warm alfredo sauce over the chips, sprinkle with the blue cheese and crumbled bacon and return to the oven. Heat for another 5-7 minutes, to warm the blue cheese.

My friend made this with half a jar of bottled alfredo sauce. I made a sauce with one stick butter, one cup cream and one cup Romano cheese.

The problem with the high-end Blue Cheese Chips? The sauce was a blue cheese sauce, instead of Alfredo. Blue cheese is so strong, you can't really get enough in the sauce to thicken it up, and when it melds with the cream you lose that sassy bite. The Alfredo in the Cheap Version has just the right smoothness to complement the blue cheese sprinkles and then, of course, there's BACON. Life is good.