Blue Cheese Blitz

Welcome to my latest obsession~Blue Cheese. It started with cole slaw. Smitten Kitchen posted  Not Your Mamas Cole Slaw (via Ina Garten) a while back, that had dijon mustard and blue cheese in the dressing. It was the best slaw I've ever had and it opened up a new world of both Dijon mustard and blue cheese, two flavors I'd never really cared for....way too much flavor, yet here they were together in one mouthful and it was beautiful...I was converted. Suddenly I was all about blue cheese.

Blue Cheese and Onion Scones? Yes please. This was one of the first recipes I made from Good to the Grain. It starts with Onion Jam. Onion Jam you say? Seriously good.

The onion jam would be perfect in Onion and Blue Cheese Quesadillas, inspired by my new favorite, Sam the Cooking Guy. Sam keeps it simple and totally de-LISH. He caramelizes red onions with brown sugar, a quickie process, but since I already had the onion jam in place I went with it .Since I became so obsessed I cook up a batch of caramelized onions at least once a week. Last time I was at Rainbow, my favorite natural foods co-op, I picked up a French blue cheese, then a couple of days later I picked up another one at Whole Foods stocking up for the inevitable quesadilla, scone, cole slaw attack. I get the craving for a quesadilla a few nights later and bust out the French Blue D'Auvergne feelin' all fancy and load a bit on to the onions and nuke away. I couldn't wait to tear into that quesadilla, I took a healthy mouthful and jeez! I practically gagged. I was not expecting the punch of pungence that hit my taste buds.

Lessons learned:

Lesson 1: a little goes a loooooong way. Lesson 2: I can't believe I didn't taste it first! What was I thinking? Lesson 3: a blue cheese right out of the fridge is not the same as a blue cheese at room temperature is not the same as a blue cheese that has been warmed. After the shock tempered down a little I slowly tasted and tried to understand the flavors that were assaulting my mouth. Strong, salty and pungent yet not neccesarily bad. It was just too much. I wasn't ready.

Now I'm ready.