Tag Archives: Blue Cheese

Jan22

The BEST and EASIEST wing sauce!

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Add this to your game watching routine! We watched an ESPN show yesterday that featured Steve Smith visiting a few NFL stadiums and showcasing some of the most unique jobs. It was very cool, and started with Arrowhead Stadium and everything that goes into prepping the balls for kickers.

The new Vikings stadium is so nice, and featured their culinary area. Their head chef was making like a zillion pounds of chicken wings, and Steve added his special sauce to the selection. Wings on the smoker today topped off with my version of #89 Wing Sauce — 1/2 Frank’s Red Hot Sauce and 1/2 BBQ sauce. It’s that easy. Whipped up some homemade blue cheese for dunking cuz who doesn’t love that?

Happy Sunday and Go Chiefs!!!

~Connie Kaye

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Apr12

A great restaurant, with friends, and an awesome find!

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By now you probably know that I LOVE blue cheese.  When MB grills steaks, I frequently brew up a little blue cheese “butter” which may consist of either a little butter or cream cheese with blue cheese mixed in.  When you put a dollop of that on top of a perfectly seasoned fillet or ribeye, no words can describe as it delectably melts over the steak, then subsequently melts in your mouth.

Earlier this week I mentioned that I was on the way to Washington, DC.  Wednesday night was my only “free” night, so I joined some friends and set out to find dinner.  My pal Lori and I:

connie and lori

A restaurant called The District turned out to be the winner, and ended up as an extremely good choice.  The first question once we entered was “do you have reservations?”  In looking around, the obvious answer was “can we sit at the bar?”  A really interesting menu was presented but several of us settled on steak with a caramelized onion and blue cheese sauce. Seriously, I could have just drank the stuff, or jumped in the little bowl if I would have fit inside.

I asked the guy if he would share how they made it.  The answer was “caramelized onions and blue cheese”.  Wow.   Not really that dumb dude – a better answer would be have been “not gonna tell you.”  So while stranded in the airport waiting on a Southwest taxi to get me back to Toto land, I did a little surfing to determine what my ingredients might be (besides blue cheese and onions), and this is what I came up with upon my return to the casa.  Here’s the prep part, and the finished product:

photo 3

Oh so delicious on steak!

photo 1

And, if you don’t like blue cheese – hint, hint, you really should give it a whirl.  You never know 🙂

~Connie Kaye

P.S.  I sat next to a 6th grade science teacher on the way home, and he was taking pics since he had just finished a unit on clouds with his students.  Here’s a pic his wife took for me, and although I got a fairly quick lesson, I cannot remember which type of clouds they are, but pretty cool:

air[plane

Caramelized Onion and Blue Cheese Sauce

Ingredients:

One large onion, sliced
½ stick butter
¾ to 1 cup heavy cream
½ to 2/3  cup blue cheese, to your liking
1-2 tsp Worcestershire sauce

Cook sliced onions in ¼ cup butter until nice and caramelized.  Reduce heat and add heavy cream.  Simmer until reduced and thicker.  Add blue cheese and Worcestershire sauce, and stir.  If too thick, add a little beef broth.

Feb25

Blue Cheese Date Delights

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These little morsels have other names, but if you love blue cheese, as I do, you will love love love these!!  I know they sound weird, but hang in here with me, they are amazing.  In fact, I used my very favorite blue cheese, which is Maytag Blue Cheese, (thank you Gina Coffman) produced by http://www.maytagdairyfarms.com/.  However, I love gorgonzola and basically any blue cheese.   I am giving credit to my love and cooking partner hubster, Mike, because this is one that we re-created together, and he charges on with making them, once I brew up the cheese mixture.  We were introduced to these at a work Christmas party of his many years ago, and we think we’ve done a pretty good copycat job.  (yes, the cooking operation is a joint one at the Beene Ranch).

Gather whipped cream cheese, the blue cheese of your choice, some patience, dried dates, bacon and you’re on the road to yummo!    I took this pic while making these, and cannot tell you why the buttermilk is in the picture….I didn’t use it, but apparently I thought about it.  (welcome to my world of cooking)  (I promise pics will get better…remember, I’m NOT a blogger nor am I a photographer)

 Ingredients

I will go ahead and admit now that if you are looking for a lot of specific measurements, you’re in the WRONG place.  If you grow up in the restaurant business, with parents that are good cooks, you’ll find that things aren’t typically measured.  My husband gives me a LOT of grief about not following recipes.  I feel that a recipe is just an outline…kinda like you had to write in Public Speaking 101 in college.  Between outline topics, you ad lib.  I can tell you that if you just hang in there and give it a little KANSAS CITY CHIEFS kc try, you’ll be able to enhance your creativity and cooking skills!!!

Warning:  my dishes don’t ALWAYS work out.  Seriously.  Some stuff I’ve made is not good (and I probably should have used a recipe or measured ingredients).  If I’m at the lake, I just toss it in – figure the fish will like it.  Speaking of the lake, and cooking, don’t par boil jalapenos in the cabin of a boat.  It doesn’t work out.  At.  All.  Those ended up in the lake too, and not at my friends Dee & Betty’s party – I couldn’t stand the fumes.

So, let’s focus.  Mix the whipped cream cheese with blue cheese to taste, slit the dates open, stuff them with blue cheese mixture, and wrap with 1/3 piece of bacon.  Secure with toothpicks that have been soaking in water this entire time.  Now I will tell you that some people make these and pre-cook the bacon a little bit.   I think that’s a great idea, and haven’t tried it, but I plan to.  Will make it much quicker since the bacon will crisp up more pronto.  Place on a baking rack and dream about deliciousness.   These  need about 30 minutes or so, but if you try the pre-cooking bacon suggestion, should be less.    Anyhoo, this is what they look like, and eat some before your guests arrive, or you may not get any.

The only other thing you might do is to let someone try them who despises blue cheese — oh crap, that’s funny.  🙂    Try to have your phone camera ready.

blue cheese dates

Enjoy!

~Connie

 

Blue Cheese Date Delights

  • Servings: a hungry crowd
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Ingredients:

1 pkg dried, pitted dates
4 oz. container of crumbled blue cheese
Small container of whipped cream cheese
1 lb. bacon, slices cut in thirds

Preheat oven to 375.  Line baking sheet with aluminum foil, and place baking rack on foil (spray with nonstick cooking spray)

Mix cheese together to taste.  Slice the date along the side and stuff with blue cheese mixture.   Make sure that the slit is completely covered and bacon overlaps.  Wrap with bacon, securing with toothpick and place on baking rack.    Bake for approximately 20-30 min or until the bacon is crisp.  Good warm or cold.