Green Goddess Dressing

I took Amber to get her school supplies this week, which is early but Amber likes to be prepared and I like that Amber likes to be prepared because it means I do not have to chase her down at the last minute the way I chase the boys. Amber will be starting high school in August, at Grand Island Senior High, the same school I went to, the same hallways, the same gym where I played basketball thirty years ago. She is thirteen and about to be fourteen and she is entering a building that knew me as a teenager, and I do not know how to feel about that except everything. I feel everything.

She picked out her notebooks and pens with the deliberateness of someone furnishing a home. She chose colors. She organized them by class. She asked me what the school was like when I was there, and I told her about the basketball team and the cafeteria and the teachers who were probably retired now, and she listened with that quiet attention that makes Amber Amber, absorbing information like soil absorbs rain.

I did not tell her that her biological mother also went to Grand Island Senior High, five years after me, in a different decade but the same building. I did not tell her because she knows, and because knowing is different from being reminded, and today was about Amber future, not anyone past.

I made BLTs for lunch after shopping, because BLTs are the perfect summer lunch. Garden tomatoes, thick-cut bacon, lettuce from the garden, mayo on toasted bread. The tomato was warm from the sun and the bacon was crispy and the bread was from the batch I baked Sunday, and a BLT made from your own tomatoes on your own bread is not just a sandwich. It is a victory lap.

Amber ate hers and said it was the best BLT she had ever had, which is what everyone says about a BLT with a garden tomato, and which is always true. Then she went to her room to organize her school supplies, and I sat at the kitchen table and ate my sandwich and thought about my girl walking into that school in August, tall and steady and ready, and I thought: you are going to be fine, Amber. You are going to be more than fine. You are going to be everything.

That BLT was everything it was because every part of it was made with intention — the bread, the tomatoes, the care behind it. If you want to take a summer BLT even further, swap the plain mayo for this Green Goddess Dressing, packed with fresh herbs that taste like the garden itself. It’s the kind of small, homemade detail that turns a sandwich into a statement, and after a morning like that one, every detail felt worth getting right.

Prep Time: 10 min | Cook Time: 0 min | Total Time: 10 min | Servings: 8

Ingredients

1/2 cup mayonnaise
1/2 cup plain Greek yogurt (or sour cream)
1 cup fresh basil leaves, packed
1/4 cup fresh flat-leaf parsley leaves
2 tablespoons fresh chives, roughly chopped
1 tablespoon fresh tarragon leaves (optional)
1 clove garlic, minced
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1 tablespoon white wine vinegar
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
2–3 tablespoons water or buttermilk, to thin

Instructions

Combine. Add the mayonnaise, Greek yogurt, basil, parsley, chives, tarragon (if using), garlic, lemon juice, and white wine vinegar to a blender or food processor.
Blend. Process until the herbs are fully incorporated and the dressing is smooth and bright green, about 30–60 seconds, scraping down the sides as needed.
Season and thin. Add the salt and pepper, then blend again briefly. Add water or buttermilk one tablespoon at a time until the dressing reaches your desired consistency — thicker for a spread, thinner for a drizzle.
Taste and adjust. Taste for seasoning, adding more lemon juice for brightness or salt as needed.
Chill. Transfer to a jar or airtight container and refrigerate for at least 15 minutes before serving to allow the flavors to come together. Keeps refrigerated for up to 5 days.

Nutrition (per serving)

Green Goddess Dressing — The Garden That Makes a BLT a Victory Lap