Broccoli Salad - A Little Different

I love the flavors in a traditional broccoli salad - a little sweet, a little salty, a bit of crunch, and bacon! But what I don't like is the raw broccoli. It doesn't absorb any of the other flavors and, in my opinion, there's just too much crunch to it. So I decided to put a twist on it this weekend.

I made this with frozen broccoli florets that I dunked in boiling water for about 30 seconds and then transferred to an ice bath. I then let them drain for a bit while I cooked the bacon and roasted the nuts. The broccoli probably would have benefitted from a ride in my salad spinner to get more water out. I'll have to give that a try next time.

I got this all mixed together and immediately dished up a bowl to taste. I was a bit disappointed. The broccoli was lacking flavor. Everything else was on point. However, the next day, there it was! Exactly what I was looking for. Tasty and not too crunchy. Well, here goes:

4 cups frozen broccoli florets
6 strips bacon, cooked crisp
3 tablespoons red onion, sliced thin and chopped
2 tablespoons dried cranberries (or raisins)
3 tablespoons roasted walnuts, chopped (or almonds, sunflower seeds, etc.)

Dressing
1/2 cup mayonnaise
2 teaspoons cider vinegar
2 tablespoons sugar

Thaw the broccoli, either by the method described above or by simply taking it out of the freezer and allowing it to come to room temperature. Cut florets into bite-size pieces and let drain in a sieve while you prepare everything else.

Roast the nuts at 250 degrees for 8-10 minutes. Keep an eye on them - they can go from "not yet" to burnt in seconds.

While the nuts are roasting, mix the dressing. Place the mayo, vinegar, and sugar together in a bowl and whisk until smooth and well blended.

Roughly chop the cranberries - or leave them whole if you prefer.

Crumble or chop the bacon.

Mix all ingredients with the dressing and stir until well coated.

Now, here's the important part - refrigerate overnight to allow the flavors to meld. Then enjoy!

Confession: I didn't measure anything for this except when making the dressing. Put in as much or as little of each ingredient as you like. Except the broccoli - you kinda need all of that.

Eggies Review

Eggies package front

Eggies package back

This is something I never would have paid good money for, but when a set of Eggies came up on my local Buy Nothing group, I was thrilled to get them. I like to have boiled eggs on green salads, mixed into tuna salad, or just made into good old-fashioned egg salad, and let's face it, peeling eggs can be a pain in the neck. I particularly get irritated when I get an egg that doesn't want to let go of its shell, and I end up peeling off chunks of egg. Eggies to the rescue! Let's see how they did.

This set is dated 2011. I don't know if there have been any updates to the product since then. It comes with six Eggies and an egg separator. Each Eggie is made up of 4 parts - bottom, top, connecting collar, and cap. I was expecting silicone, but they are made of a firm, slightly flexible plastic.

To use the Eggies, you snap the top and bottom sections together, then attach the connecting collar to keep them together. Make sure that you don't cross-thread the collar, and that the two halves are securely connected so that the egg doesn't leak out during the boiling process.

The instructions tell you to coat the inside of the Eggies with non-stick cooking spray or oil to prevent sticking. I chose to use olive oil, putting just a couple of drops in the bottom and spreading it over the interior surface of all parts (I did this before I connected the two halves). Now, assembled and greased, we're ready to add eggs.

Hard boiled egg in Eggie

I did this test using a large egg. The first thing to note is that boiling times are increased when using Eggies. For a hard-boiled egg, the cooking chart suggests 15-18 minutes from the time the water boils. That is up to twice as long as boiling in-shell. (I usually use the Alton Brown method found here) Second, the large egg I placed in the Eggie only filled the bottom half, leaving the top half full of air, and creating a flat egg.

The Eggies box touts this product as being "So Fast & Easy" and shows photos of deviled eggs, sliced eggs on a salad and "tasty" eggs Benedict. Fast? No. Taking into account the time it takes to grease each one, plus the added cook time, even when you consider the time saved by not having to peel later, you're looking at doubling your prep time. Easy? Maybe. But it is easier to just drop a couple eggs in the pan and boil them up.

The end product is great if you plan to chop your eggs. Or if you want them to sit nicely on top of something like eggs Benedict. (Really? Boiled eggs on a Bene?) Not so much for making deviled eggs, or if you need something that is, well, egg-shaped. Eggies might work better with jumbo eggs or duck eggs - something that will fill more than half the Eggie.

I'm glad that I didn't spend anything on this product. I can't say that I recommend it. You do end up with eggs you don't have to peel, but they are coated with oil, and it takes longer to get there.

Adventures in (Shopping for) Camping

May 18, 2012
First Landing State Park (see more about this on my other blog "You Went Where?")
Planned departure time 3:00 p.m.; actual departure time 5:45!  Here's why:

I left the shopping for Friday so that everything would be fresh.  I've had too many camping trips where I've purchased the fruits and veggies a couple of days ahead, only to have to throw away part (or all) of something because it has gone bad in the meantime.  Since I worked closing shifts on Wednesday and Thursday nights, I couldn't load the car until Friday anyway.  It should have been easy - I had a list and a plan.  Fresh to Frozen first to pick up whatever they had that was on my list, Costco to get those specific items and fill up the tank, Martin's to get the cupcakes I ordered, then WalMart to finish it all off.  It really shouldn't have taken more than a couple of hours.

Well, F2F and Costco went as planned, then the trouble started.  On Tuesday, I had placed an order for two dozen mini cupcakes at Martin's Harbor Pointe location.  I wanted half of them yellow cake and half devils food.  I wanted half iced with yellow frosting and half with green.  And I wanted to pick them up at another location.  This is not a difficult order.  The woman helping me was the Assistant Bakery Manager, so I had every confidence that this would be handled correctly.  Plus, I watched her write the whole thing down on a production order form - everything was right, including the store where I wanted to pick them up.  Great!  But apparently, once I walked away, instead of placing that order form in the appropriate slot to go to the production facility, she called the order in to the store where I planned to pick up the order, so they could write the order and sent it to production.  And she got it wrong!  She ordered 1 package of mini yellow cupcakes (12) and 1 package of devils food cupcakes (6).  They got the icing right, at least.

So . . . I went to one Martin's to pick up my order, went to the Martin's where I placed the order to complain, then to WalMart.  At WalMart, I didn't find the Baby Cuties that we wanted and they were out of steak rolls.  So then, back to Martin's to pick up the remaining mini cupcakes that they were able to wrangle up for me, stop at the next WalMart to get my rolls, then finally back home.  My two-hour shopping trip took four hours.  I got home around 2:30 - nothing packed, nothing ready, and a two-hour drive ahead of me.  As a result, I forgot extra batteries, towels, something to sleep in, and a jacket.  Oh well, every camping trip is an adventure, one way or another!