
Show this photo to your children and tell them that these are REAL baby carrots!
Blue cheese dressing has a devout following, including myself, or rather, my former self, before I became calorie-conscious. My favorite birthday dinner growing up was steak, baked potato with sour cream and salad with blue cheese dressing. And yes, this is why I had a weight problem at an early age and why I haven’t indulged in this dinner for the last, oh, 40 odd years or so.
Martha Stewart’s new Light Cookbook yields a less waist-expanding version of my once-favorite dressing that is very satisfying, provided you make it and use it up within several days (it gets substantially thinner as it sits). The base for its relative lightness is buttermilk, which is used in the full-fat version but in equal amounts with real mayonnaise and sour cream.
I’m posting this well before Super Bowl Sunday for those of you seeking lighter versions of popular TV snacks. Serve with celery and baby carrots along with buffalo chicken drumsticks, which you can find here.
Caveat: Don’t expect miracles. This dressing is not as thick as the original, but it ranks way above the light bottled version, which I find gummy and artificial-tasting and not worthy of human consumption.
Light Blue Cheese Dressing
1 cup low fat buttermilk
1/4 cup light mayonnaise
1 T. red wine vinegar
1/2 cup crumbled blue cheese (2 ounces)
Whisk together the buttermilk and light mayonnaise until smooth. Add vinegar. Fold in blue cheese crumbles and season with salt and pepper. Use within two days.
Serves 6 to 8 (2-3 T. each)
![]()



The dog days of summer are here and how. I’ve wondered where that term came from ever since Al Pacino starred in “Dog Day Afternoon.” Why have dogs always had to take the heat for bad weather?
