Dress to Impress

It’s spring, and veggies are in abundance. But healthy doesn’t have to equal boring. Take a cue from chef JESSICA CABO who incorporates creamy blue cheese to add flavor to a versatile dressing that can elevate a weeknight salad or a dinner party app.

“There’s a couple of smoked blue cheeses that I really love that we’ve gotten in: Smokey Blue by Rogue Creamery, which is out of Oregon, and another one called Moody Blue. So, when we do our blue cheese, I incorporate half of the blue cheese that is a regular, like Danish blue, and the other half a smoked blue, and it just gives it just such a great flavor,” says Cabo, executive chef of EAST Oceanfront Dining at the Blockade Runner Beach Resort.

Greek yogurt lightens up the dressing, replacing some of the sour cream and mayonnaise needed without sacrificing the smooth texture.

“It just makes it much lighter,” she says. “You can actually eat a dressing that you enjoy without it being so heavy and not good for you – instead of tossing the whole idea of a salad out the window.”

Keep an eye out for Cabo’s dressing on EAST’s menu with its blue cheese wedge salad and fried cauliflower. Or try it at home and dress to impress. W

Smoky Blue Cheese Dressing

Ingredients

4 ounces smoked blue cheese (such as Smokey Blue by Rogue Creamery)

4 ounces Danish blue cheese

1 tbsp granulated garlic

1 c buttermilk

1 c Greek yogurt

1 c sour cream

1 c Best Foods mayonnaise

Splash of red wine vinegar

1 tbsp salt

1½ tsp black pepper

1 tsp white pepper

1/ 8 c Tabasco green sauce

1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce

Directions

Combine dressing ingredients in a small bowl and stir until blended and creamy. Pour liberally on wedge iceberg lettuce with halved cherry tomatoes, radishes, crispy bacon or pancetta, croutons, green onions, and cracked black pepper. Alternatively, use the dressing as a dip with crudité or wings.

Recipe courtesy of Jessica Cabo, executive chef of EAST Oceanfront Dining (blockade-runner. com/on-site-dining/eastoceanfront-dining)

Everyone wants to look their best. Many forget about the importance of proper skincare, however, though it has just as much potential to make a positive or negative impression.

But how do you know which skincare products are the best for you? Here at United Medical and Aesthetics (UM&A), we consult with all our patients and create a personalized skincare plan. Combining 30 years of medical experience with extensive aesthetic training, our owner Aleta Sloan PA-C educates each patient on what products genuinely work, which supplements benefit the skin, and what laser or injectable treatments are best for the patient.

With a unique approach emphasizing “Where Medicine Meets Beauty,” Aleta provides her patients with the best of all possible worlds. This includes medical skin care lines that are exclusively offered by skincare providers like UM&A, such as Skin Ceuticals, Elta MD, Obagi, and Revision. We also offer some of Aleta‘s proprietary compounding creams, which are used for pretreating before lasers.

UM&A offers FDA-approved neurotoxins, dermal fillers and lasers. Widely recognized as “Botox,” neurotoxins are known for minimizing unwanted lines across the face, such as forehead lines. Dermal fillers restore or add volume to soften underlying hallows, lift cheekbones and enhance jawlines, lips, and chins, even earlobes. Well-known dermal fillers include Radiesse, Restylane, Versa, Juvederm, and Sculptra. We partner with each company and offer exclusive reward programs. Fat dissolvers such as Kybella can be very effective in dissolving small areas of fat under the chin. It can also be effective on other sites, including bra fat, back fat, abdomen, buttocks, and arms. Injectable fat dissolvers are typically minimally painful with little recovery time.

Using lasers to rejuvenate the skin

has become the most sought-after treatment to combat the signs of aging. Lasers are a noninvasive means of taking years off of your appearance with little downtime and life-changing results. Aleta has earned the “Laser Queen” nickname from her colleagues as a result of her ability to leverage ground-breaking lasers to treat almost all antiaging concerns. First, her s Motus AY gets rid of unwanted hair on the body with absolutely no pain. In the next step, Aleta uses her award-winning Nordlys IPL and Frax laser to resurface and rejuvenate the skin, soften fine lines, deep wrinkles, solar damage, acne scars, and poor skin texture. Morpheus8 is a radiofrequency device that tightens loose jowls and sagging skin on the neck. The most powerful laser in Aleta’s tool belt is the Tetra CO2, a game changer that takes years of damage off the skin. Aleta is the only medical professional in Wilmington who performs deep CO2 treatments. The before and after pictures are very compelling; to have a look, visit her Instagram account: @aletasloanthepa.

In addition to providing a wide array of antiaging procedures, Aleta offers the only FDA-approved vitamin line, vitamin injections for weight loss, energy, and skin rejuvenation.

Call United Medical and Aesthetics for a free consultation, and see how we can help you reach your goals.

Aleta Sloan, Founder, Owner, and Chief Practitioner for United Medical and Aesthetics. Aleta graduated from one of the country's original PA programs and, at 23, became the first PA in Eastern NC. She has maintained her privileges at Carolina East Medical Center for 30 years and has been committed to serving her community in Internal Medicine, Cardiology, and Aesthetic medicine.