While visiting, Pam made this broccoli salad.  When m0m told me about it, I was not enthused.  Mayo and bacon and broccoli do not sound like the best things to me.  Maybe on a  BLT, but I digress.  Last weekend, mom made this broccoli salad for us, and I’m telling you that is like nothing I have ever tasted.  She put the bacon on the side since I’m a veg now, so I really appreciated that.  I imagine that it is super good with the bacon, but I really enjoyed it even without it.  I went back for seconds!

If you’re looking for something different, try this.  I promise it is awesome.  Don’t let the sound of the ingredients frighten you away like it did me at first.

Pam’s Broccoli Salad

• 2 heads of raw broccoli
• red onion, finely chopped
• sunflower seeds (sans hulls, of course)
• raisins or dried cranberries
• optional: freshly cooked, crunchy bacon
• another optional that I haven’t tried yet: shredded cheese
• 1 cup mayo
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 3/4 cup white vinegar

1. Mix the mayo and sugar together.  (Pam uses more sugar, so you could go with more if you wanted it later)
2. Add the vinegar a little at the time so it doesn’t clump up.
3. Cut the broccoli into tiny, bitesize florets, and add to the mayo mix.
4. I wish I could give you the measurements on the rest of the ingredients, but mom doesn’t do it that way.  Handfull of this, handfull of that.  Stir in the red onion.  You know how potent it can be, so just use your best judgment.
5. Stir in a handfull of sunflower seeds and a handful of raisins or dried cranberries.
6. Mom had the bacon on the side, and Joe said he preferred it that way because it stays crunchy until you get ready to eat it.

You can easily half this recipe like we did last night.   I would post a pic, but I used vegan mayo, and the color isn’t creamy like mom’s.  It is still good, but I suggest using Kraft regular mayo or Duke’s.

This tropical fusion salad is just what you need to put an end to cooking monotony.

My version of this recipe is based on the April/May Taste of Home magazine.  After being sick and out of the kitchen for so long, I needed some inspiration.  Something new and tasty and fabulous.  I wandered around for awhile and just when I thought I was getting my swagger back, our kitchen was overtaken by ants.   Hoards of them.  Every. Where.  Even in my spice cabinet!  All of my spices have been on the dining room table for weeks while we tried to get rid of these varmints.  We finally resorted to calling a professional after using way more chemicals than I would like to admit.  I also slammed my finger in the car door,  so that definitely took some time to get over.  But that is a different story for a different time, my friends.
In the midst of all this, I found this Taste of Home magazine, and it didn’t require that I use too many spices and I could use the  tiny portion of my counter space that wasn’t an ant playground.  There is nothing worse than trying to chop cilantro and a feisty little ant trying to get in your space.  It makes me shudder just to think about it.  I am kind of a germ nazi, and the thought of a stray ant in my food makes me gag a little.

So I saw this salad on the cover on Taste of Home, and I gave it a whirl.  Well, in a Gabby Gourmand-style kinda way.

Here’s their recipe (which I give a 10 out of 10 for flavor and ease of preparation):

• 2 cups cubed peeled papaya
• 1 can black beans, rinsed and drained
• 1 medium ripe avocado, peeled and cubed
• 1 cup frozen corn, thawed
• 1/2 cup golden raisins
• 2 serrano peppers, seeded and chopped
• 1/4 cup minced fresh cilantro
• 1/4 cup orange juice
• 2 tbsp lime juice
• 1 tbsp cider vinegar
• 2 garlic cloves
• 2 tsp ground ancho chili pepper, divided
• 1/4 tsp sugar
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 2 corn tortillas (6 in) cut into 1/4 inch strips

Now here’s where my substitutions come in:

• Instead of papaya, I used mango.  I couldn’t find any papaya at our grocery store.
• The corn does not have to be thawed.  It will thaw out in the salad as you are chopping/prepping other stuff.
• Instead of serrano peppers, I used jalapenos and I roasted them first (deseeded of course).  It takes a little of the spice out, and adds that great roasty jalapeno pepper flavor.
• Instead of the ancho chili powder, I used chipotle chili powder that I found for 99 cents at World Market.  I could not find ancho anywhere.  Chipotle powder is spicy as all heck, so I mixed 1 tsp of it with regular chili powder.
• Instead of corn tortillas, I used flour tortillas because that is all we had in the pantry.
• To make this salad a meal, we added Morning Star “meat” crumbles.  I sauteed this easy protein in some EVOO with the leftover chipotle/regular chili powder mixture and the jalapeno peppers.  When the fake meat crumbles are all cooked up, you can dish them up and throw the cold salad on top.  Delish!
• One thing you should not subsitute is the raisins.  Definitely invest in the golden ones because you will be making this salad more than once.

Instructions:

1. Mix OJ, lime juice, vinegar, garlic, salt, sugar, and 1/4 tsp of chili powder mix in the bottom of a big glass bowl.
2. Throw in the beans, mango, corn, raisins, and cilantro.  You can add the avocado like the original recipe says, but it will get all guacamole on you with all the stirring.  Adding it at the end keeps it as pretty as the cover picture.
3. Cut tortilla strips coated with cooking spray and sprinkle 1 tsp of the chili powder mixture on them.  You can use more of your mixture if you prefer, especially if you aren’t cooking the crumbles.  Bake at 350 for 8-10 minutes or until crisp.  Flour tortillas will burn real quick, y’all, so be careful.  We cooked up twice as much as the recipe called for because they are good to eat by themselves or on top of other stuff.  Yum!
4. Serve the salad with the spicy strips on top.

The OJ, lime juice, vinegar, and garlic would make a great dressing on other salads as well.

I found a great picture of the salad on another blog, and the author also includes ways to cut a papaya and an avocado.

Red leaf lettuce, orange supremes, mascarpone stuffed dates, and sherry shallot vinaigrette can be a fancy salad for guests or just a little something special for you and your honey on new year's eve.

This salad makes me incredibly happy. There are really only 4 ingredients for the salad part. The sherry shallot vinaigrette isn’t very hard either. Sheri, my mother-in-law, loves this salad and first introduced it to me a few months ago. She got the idea at a restaurant in Mississippi. She didn’t get to actually try it, but she made a mental note of the delicious factor for later. And Voila! It has flavors that I would never think of pairing, and I think that’s why she originally tried it out (and that the vinaigrette has her name in it). =)

It can be made into a pretty fancy arrangement if you have guests.  I plan to make it for our New Year’s Eve dinner even though it will be just the two of us.

New Year’s Eve Salad

• red leaf lettuce
• orange supremes (pronounced suprems)
• whole pitted dates
• mascarpone cheese (cream cheese will work if you can’t find this)

Sherry Shallot Vinaigrette

• 1/2 cup EVOO
• 1/4 cup sherry vinegar
• 1/2 shallot, finely chopped
• 1/2 garlic clove, minced
• salt and pepper to taste
• a little squirt or two of honey to take the edge off the vinegar

Here’s what makes it cool:

1. Make this like you would any other salad, starting with your clean red leaf lettuce.
2. An orange “supreme” is just a peeled orange with no pulp. “How do I achieve this?” you may ask. Well, after you peel the whole orange, slice inside the pulp lines to remove the meat of the orange. And you have a sweet little orange wedge. Put 4-6 of these “supremes” on each salad, depending on how many folks you are serving.
3. Here comes the most time consuming, depending on how you want to do this next part. If you’re going super fancy, put the mascarpone cheese (Italian Cream Cheese used in Tiramisu) in an icing bag and pipe it into the middle of your pitted dates. If you don’t have cake icing supplies, slit the date vertically. Open it up, spoon in the cheese, and squish it back together again. Sheri usually gives 6 of these cheese-filled dates to each salad. If you don’t have the time or the patience for either of these options, dip each date into the cheese and just put it on the salad. Doing this is super fast, and the cheese kind of mixes with the vinaigrette to make a creamy combo. Very yum.
4. Top with Sherry Vinaigrette. To mix the vinaigrette, you can use one of those cruets that come with a packet of Italian Dressing in the the salad dressing aisle of your grocery. If you don’t have one of these bad boys, I recommend you get one or something like it. It is so much more economical and healthy to make your own dressings. If not, just whisk the above ingredients together in a bowl. No prob, Bob.

I hope your New Year’s is safe, happy, and fun.

Here’s to the start of the end of a decade (or the beginning of a new one, depending on how you look at it).