I thought my time of dealing with cliques would end when I walked across the stage at my high school graduation. But here I am as an adult, living in a neighborhood full of cliques. You see, we live in what has been described as a hip, vibrant suburb of Detroit. There’s lots of young families and couples, our downtown is absolutely packed with bars and restaurants (there’s an official pub crawl each summer), and the town is regularly chosen as the most LGBT friendly in Michigan. So all signs point to the fact that we would move here, and instantly fall into a big group of interesting neighborhood friends who we would have backyard barbecues and progressive dinners with.

Those things happen on our street, they just don’t include us. You see, we are NOT part of any neighborhood cliques. I’m pretty sure we’re the only young married couple without kids on our block, and none of the cliques are interested in having us. There’s a huge population of families with young kids, but without a tiny human of our own, we’re not invited to their progressive dinners. There’s what I call the “frat boy contingent” of young single guys who host backyard keg parties. We’re *sort of* invited to those, in a throw away “well, if you want to come…” type of invitation.

There’s a small group of young dating couples who have pool parties, but as we are married, we’re somehow not welcome over there, either. As though being married makes us vastly different from those still dating (less fun?). There’s an old lady dog walking club, which I’m about 30 years too young (and my dog 5 shades too rambunctious) to join. There’s an older guy horseshoe playing association, which Jeff is about 20 years too young to join.

Luckily, we have plenty of friends who don’t live in our neighborhood, so it’s not like we’re shut-ins sitting at home watching Netflix every night. But I’d be lying to say I’m not a little disappointed that our neighborhood turned out to be so lame for us. If I WAS invited to any backyard gatherings or dinner parties by my neighbors, I would bring something like this Farro & Kale Salad with Honey-Mustard Dressing. This salad starts with cooked farro (or any cooked grain or rice you happen to have on hand), and is tossed with a homemade honey-mustard dressing, chopped pear, kale, sliced almonds and Salemville Amish Gorgonzola Cheese Crumbles. It’s a crowd pleaser. If I had a neighborhood crowd to please, right?

Do you have a great recipe that uses blue cheese? Salemville is inviting home chefs to enter their favorite recipe using Salemville® Amish Blue cheese for a chance to win 1 out of 9 cooking prizes. The amazing prizes include a Le Creuset® 6-piece Signature Cooking Set and Kitchen Aid® 5-Quart Artisan™ Stand Mixers! Enter the contest through the “How Do You Blue?” app on Salemville’s Facebook page or through their website: www.salemville.com.

Yield: 6 servings

Farro & Kale Salad with Honey-Mustard Dressing

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Prep Time 20 minutes

Ingredients

For the Honey-Mustard Dressing:

• 1 tablespoon honey
• 1 tablespooon white wine vinegar
• 2 teaspoons whole grain Dijon mustard
• 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
• 3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

For the Farro & Kale Salad:

• 1 large pear, peeled, cored and chopped
• 2 cups cooked and cooled farro
• 1 cup chopped kale
• 1/3 cup Salemville Amish Gorgonzola Cheese Crumbles
• 3 tablespoons sliced almonds
• Pinch of freshly ground black pepper

Instructions

1. Make the Honey-Mustard Dressing: In small bowl, whisk together honey, vinegar and mustards. While whisking, slowly drizzle in oil until all oil is incorporated.
2. Make the Farro & Kale Salad: In large bowl, toss together pear, farro, kale, cheese, almonds and black pepper. Add Honey Mustard Dressing; toss until well combined. Serve immediatley or refrigerate up to 1 day.

Disclaimer: This post is part of a relationship I have with Saputo Specialty Cheese for recipe development. Posts like this help me pay for the costs associated with this blog (groceries…lots of groceries), and help support me as I pursue a career in recipe development and food photography. All opinions are 100% my own.