Blue cheese. Lots of recipes call for that,from finger foods to sauces. Ina garten uses it an awful lot in her recipes,if you want to look them up. I made her blue cheese and walnut crackers(they were more like savory shortbread than crackers). They had a bluish tint to them. I have also made her roast filet of beef with Roquefort cream sauce.

Yes,purple potatoes are bluish. They make a neat looking potato salad.

Blue corn tortillas for quesadillas or blue corn tortilla chips with dips. (I hate to keep bringing up blue cheese. But I saw nigella lawson make guacamole with blue cheese in it once,looked interesting)

Of course,blueberry anything for dessert. Blueberry pie

Blueberry cobbler

Blueberry crisp

Blueberry shortcake

It would be easier if food coloring was allowed......

There are some blue edible flowers that can serve as garnish on any dish.

Is purple blue enough? Or is there to much red in it? ;)

That would add more possibilities.... purple cabbage,onions,eggplant,grapes,blackberries....

Keep in mind that in nature actual blue (rather than deep purple) is often a sign of poison and rarely looks appetizing. Think of the number of people who still can't abide the blue M&M's even though they've been out for years (though also think of ording blue M&M's for the party...unless they're too food dyed for Oregon).

If I were you, I'd go more esoteric than literal. Like Amylou's list of things called "blue" that are really purple, blue cheese that's really white, or something you can give a clever title to that isn't visually blue at all, like Lady Sings the Blues pie, which could just be a pork pot pie.

So why can't the boeuf be called Blue Danube Stew?

For that matter, with the blue cocktails, I'd get the paper plates with a blue border and a white center. Get's the point across and, again, that bright blue they sell is fine for birthday cake, which bears little resemblance to food, anyway, but isn't so appetizing to eat a real dinner off of.

Some edible flowers are pretty blue... You could decorate plates with them.

You could have something red, like a lasagna, in a blue pan, so that the point is to eat it all up and leave the blue.

I'm having trouble thinking of anything that's truly blue, rather than purple, that's nice to eat.

I remember that thread Jon. Ahem; guess who started it. HERE it is. I congratulate SWAMBO and and plethora of friends for the hard work.

You could use blue corn meal to make muffins?

Blue potatoes? Leave skin on and roast them.

Wow, that is the thread! Embarrassing I forgot who started it - seems so long ago. Thank you - I'm off to read...

Neat videos, John. Here it's become harder and harder to vote or register to vote, my state just voted for a proposal to make it easier to vote, and also passed an anti-gerrymandering proposal giving the authority to draw the districts to a committee instead of the politicians. The committee changes regularly, so no lifetime members either, it's one and you're done. It also seems that it has become the year of the woman, which isn't surprising considering the number of times women have been "slapped" by the current group of politicians. I told my son in law that if it kept up, women were going to burn the house down. I guess they started with the House of Representatives! And we didn't burn a single bra. (Yes, I'm THAT generation, LOL)

Anyway, blue foods. Naturally occurring blue foods are rare. Blueberries, lobster, blue potatoes, blue corn. Maybe a blue corn chowder?

Congratulations to SWMBO and everyone who worked to get out the vote.

Annie

Well, there is Bluefin Tuna available; this is sustainably harvested:
Sustainable tuna

Also, black rice cooks up dark purplish and some purple rice might be available. Not sure what color squid ink pasta with a cream sauce might turn? Bluish or just an unappetizing gray?

For dishes, I think I'd look for some inexpensive chargers and paint them blue and use white plates for your food to set off the colors.

Fresh mussels.

And I know you have drinks covered, but maybe a token bottle of Blue Nun? hahaha!

Blue Curacao and vodka is the signature cocktail. It's actually really tasty. I may or may not have downed half a pitcher of the stuff at an event last month.

The "votenaked" thing, to those who aren't from a vote by mail state, is that it is so easy to vote in Oregon that you can even do it naked from home, so there's no excuse not to do your civic duty. No lines, no missing work, no finding child care. Just read and reflect, mark the bubbles, sign and send.

Although lately some people have been complaining that they don't use and don't know where to get postage stamps - these whines are exclusively from, dare I say it, Millennials.

I did have one year when my ballot was held up because my signature didn't match the one on file, they do check.

Since the blue in purely verbal - it exists only in the names of dishes or foods - why not take it one step further and have sexy foods? Can be fun, provided you're not in danger of being lynched by 40 hands-on women if they don't like this idea?

Use lots of blue serving plates and bowls and that should suffice.

There are blue crabs, but I believe they change color when cooked.

When I took a color theory class, the professor said that there were no true blue color foods (he considered blueberries to be a shade of purple), but as many have noted, there are edible blue flowers - you could look for Blue Pea Flowers.

I was thinking similarly, with blue decor, dishes, etc. and maybe a few 'blue' foods, but some other colors as well, or the overall spread may look rather unappetizing, since a lot of blue and purple foods cook up to a greyish hue.

P.S. What about blue covered dishes for serving?

Lavender, despite the name of the herb, is blueish. I make a quick and simple salad of orange segments, mascarpone, and lavender buds. No dressing needed.

"Since the blue in purely verbal - it exists only in the names of dishes or foods - why not take it one step further and have sexy foods? Can be fun, provided you're not in danger of being lynched by 40 hands-on women if they don't like this idea?"

Hmm, tricky to get that just right - I tread cautiously when I'm outnumbered 40 to 1 :-)

I did a bridal shower a few years back for a friend's daughter who's colors were blue and gold..
Blue corn chips with salsa made from yellow tomatoes and yellow peppers....with a bit of green cilantro and onions...
Blue cheese soup ( need the recipe? Shout...made with Maytag Blue) Yeast bread made with enough blue corn meal to turn it blue, Blue berry cheese cake and blue margaritas ( don't know that wasnt my responsibility!)

John, add some pineapple juice to the vodka and curacao and you'll have a Blue Hawaii. Yeah, I used to own a bar, LOL.

We also used to make pitchers of something called "Blue Motorcycle", which was vodka, gin, rum, tequila, curacao and sour mix or Squirt, sort of a blue kind of Manhattan Iced Tea. It was deadly.

Better stick with the vodka/curacao version. (grin)

Annie

And some blue jokes.....

Random blue is fine and fun but I would want true blue food....

I gave you the recipe before using cooked red cabbage juice and a reaction using baking soda, etc.

But you can go real blue using blue matcha powder. It is made from the dried flowers of a specific pea plant. Images, HERE

Looking forward to the follow up report on this meal!

Blueberry ice cream? That shouldn't be too hard to make. Of course, it will look a little more purply than blue but you can put some actual blueberries on top of the ice cream when you serve it.

I have custard mixtures for blueberry gelato and blue cheese gelato (and hazelnut-chocolate gelato) chilling in the fridge, and will make them tomorrow afternoon (we have three ice cream machines, for some reason, so we can do it "in parallel" and serve the gelato freshly made).

I am going to try sleevendog's chemical reaction trick too.

I'll also try to find some purple potatoes but the store where I used to reliably find those has gone away. Blue chips should be easily findable.

Post dinner report!

The gathering was changed to a sit down dinner for 10 women who were the core of the "Midterm Squad". I stayed in the kitchen while Z plated and served and bused.

("Z" is our interim housemate. He is Dear Daughter's friend from high school and college roommate, finishing the fifth year of his degree program in Portland and living with us. The backstory is that SWMBO and I are not coping well with imminent empty-nesterhood, so it was either have Z live with us or get a dog, and our cat had the tie-breaking vote.)

Dinner started with a beet, blue cheese, arugula salad. Dressing was rice vinegar, shallots, poppy seed, mustard.

Soup was clear mushroom soup. I say "clear" not to suggest it was transparent as water, but to distinguish it from creamy mushroom soups. I used a lot of mushrooms to make mushroom stock, then discarded those mushrooms and made the soup with brown and shiitake mushrooms, a bit of this and that, serve with a bit of green, a sprinkle of cheese, some fried enoki mushrooms. SWMBO insists on adding a dollop of sour cream.

The meat eaters had beef bourguignon. Just the standard recipe. I include half a pound of bacon strips and much more wine than typical. When the meat is cooked, I fish out and discard the bacon, drain off the liquid and reduce it to a sauce. This was garnished with pearl onions, crisp bacon, and blueberries.

For the pescatarian, yes this is the cute one mentioned in the Steamed Fish thread, we steamed a whole sea perch, head and tail. I prepared this exactly as suggested in the other thread and it was so popular that the meat eaters helped finish it. The fish market had blue crab, but I didn't see that until after the fish had been, err, harvested.

There were purple carrots braised in beer and butter, then slightly caramelized.

Also pureed cauliflower with plenty of brie cheese, heavy cream and butter.

Wilted grapes with balsamic vinegar, served on baguette slices broiled with gorgonzola cheese.

Dessert was three gelatos. There was a blueberry gelato, that was good but next time I'll add lemon juice to brighten. A hazelnut and chocolate - ahem, Nutella - gelato, that was about as excellent as anything made from Nutella always is. And a blue cheese gelato that was so interesting and good that I'm doing a brie cheese-based gelato for Thanksgiving.

Alas, the blued cabbage failed because I let it boil dry and charcoalize. Arrgh.

All in all, the dinner had only a modest blue theme but the Nasty Women Who Get Sh*t Done loved it anyway. The four bottles of wine that ten ladies went through was no doubt a factor.

This was the first real test for my new dishwasher and it promises to be a paradigm changer for my kitchen. I kept one side of the sink full of hot soapy water and every mixing bowl, utensil, glass, pot, etc went in there as soon as I finished using it, then periodically everything in that sink went into the dishwasher, the "WASH" button was pressed, and 3 minutes later it was all clean, sanitized, and soon thereafter dry. When dirty dishes and glasses started coming back from the dining room, they were simply rinsed off, loaded in the dishwasher, and in 3 minutes they were clean, dry, and stacked. Amazing!

There was a small tragedy. I dropped and shattered FOUR dinner plates from our wedding china set. Until now, we've not broken a single piece in 25 years of marriage. Replacements.com wants $140 per plate! But last night I found a set of four dinner plates from this pattern on eBay for $125 - and hit the Buy It Now button about half a second later.

Thank you everyone for helping me put on this celebration dinner for "the Nasties".

Excellent report, John! The food sounds divine. I'm glad you went with food colored food instead of all blue. So sorry about the plates, but impressed with your ability to suss out new ones. It sounds like "The Nasties" had a great time and a great meal. The dishwasher appears to be a workmate after your own heart. The live in helper is exemplary in his usefulness, so much so that the cat can be forgiven its biases. Good of you to give the cat a whole vote. And to give Z a home. Oregon is lucky to have you taking care of her women. :)

My what a party! Happy, delicious, jubilant, and presented with love. Just wonderful. Did you get anything to eat or were you banished to the kitchen?

I tasted as I cooked. When I cook a lot, I'm not hungry :-)