Blue Cheese

A delicious blend of classic flavors.

Toss Italian greens like arugula and radicchio with a vinaigrette dressing and toasted walnuts for a fresh starter, and offer crunchy seeded breadsticks alongside this unusual risotto. Finish up with chocolate biscotti and espresso.

Robust flavors of blue cheese and walnuts go a long way in this flavored butter. (Any leftover butter is good on baked potatoes, or spread it on baguette rounds.)

Can be prepared in 45 minutes or less.

This recipe can be prepared in 45 minutes or less.

Rick Rodgers, cookbook author and teacher, says, "I've always thought of mashed potatoes as an everyday way to serve potatoes, but scalloped potatoes really say special occasion to me. Thanksgiving, Christmas, Easter—they all call for scalloped potatoes, not something as humble as mashed. And since I've never been one for bland food, I kept fiddling with the amount and types of cheeses until I got this full-flavored version. If you like it with turkey, wait until you try it with the Easter ham."

These little toasts are nice before dinner or alongside a green salad.

"I spent a weekend in North Carolina's Blue Ridge Mountains," writes Elizabeth Haworth of Columbia, South Carolina. "The Riverwood restaurant in Blowing Rock was a real treat—I especially enjoyed their fig and Stilton salad with Port dressing. Would the chef share the recipe for this unusual salad?" The sweet-tart dressing paired with creamy Stilton cheese strikes a great balance in this winter salad.

"I had three kids in three years when I was a 'young married' in my twenties," writes Sheryl Hurd-House of Jupiter, Florida. "That’s when I started cooking and realized I liked it. But I’m having even more fun cooking now that our children are grown and it’s just me and my husband, Garry." Fresh greens and a variety of colorful veggies add up to a great salad you can throw together in minutes.

This may be an unusual combination of ingredients and flavors for empanadas, but the pairing of cabbage, blue cheese, and walnuts is a classic that makes a wonderful cold-weather dish. While these empanadas would serve as a delicious and hearty vegetarian main course with the addition of rice and beans, I love these flavors with pork.