Tuesday, March 6, 2012

Kale with Blue Cheese and Pears

Hello, world! Here are some photos I took this weekend of a raw kale salad I made with pears and a blue cheese dressing. This salad was the product of a listless walk through Whole Foods. I saw the pears and thought they would be nice to photograph. I saw the kale and thought I may as well grab it while I was there, as there was no change to find such nice kale at my neighborhood stores. Anyone who knows me knows that cheese is my kryptonite, so it may be no surprise that I picked up a generous hunk of blue cheese with very little thought. I decided I would make a dressing with the blue cheese to toss with thinly sliced kale, it wasn't until Sunday that I realized the pears would make more than good models.

I usually keep the background and props light and white, but I wanted to experiment with some dark and shadows. I lucked upon the rusty dish on my way back from running on Ocean Beach on Saturday. It was a gorgeous day, I had a great run and then hung out on the beach in the sun for a while and found a new prop on my way home. Not a bad deal, right?
Those of you who are phobic of blue cheeses best shield your eyes, it's about to get veiny. To make the dressing, I smashed some cheese in the bottom of a bowl big enough to accommodate the salad. The I added some lemon juice and olive oil to loosen it up to the consistency I wanted. I remembered how well blue cheeses and honey pair, so I added a little bit of honey, to taste. Plus a few cracks of fresh pepper.