Life this week has been like an episode from “I Love Lucy” and I’m Lucy! It all started Tuesday night. Christie had invited me and the witches for nibblies – pot luck style. I’d spent the day prepping for the new menu launch, at the restaurant, so I needed to make something quick but yummy. These girls are a tough bunch! I remembered a delicious chicken appetizer that I’d tried from Pinterest last Christmas that took literally ten minutes to whip together. I ran to the grocery store, got my stuff, hurried home, threw the skewers together and off I went feeling pretty darned organized. Christie popped them in the oven and thirty minutes later they were ready to eat. I was starving so I was the first to dive in. Keep in mind, I’d made theme before so I knew what they should taste like. As I was chewing my chicken, a weird flavour started to happen n my mouth. The chicken didn’t taste bad or off just not like it should. They were palatable but not yummy. There were lots of other treats so it wasn’t a disaster but I couldn’t stop wondering what the unidentifiable taste was. At the end of the night, Christie reached for one more piece of chicken. As she was pulling the chicken off of the toothpick she said, “did you use mint flavoured toothpicks?”
I almost fell off my chair! The funky flavour was – MINT! I didn’t have my glasses on at the grocery shopping. When I saw the big display of toothpicks, I just grabbed a container without looking at it. It never occurred to me to check to see if the wood was flavoured.
And then there’s last night. As I was sitting in my housecoat, catching up on a little office work, our doorbell rang. I ran downstairs to find two of my friends standing in front of me with hostess gifts in hand. They had come to dinner except I had meant October 26th not September 26. They knew immediately I had given them the wrong date but graciously assumed responsibility for the mix up. I felt like an idiot. Later I found out that another couple that I had invited to the same wrong night had stood ringing our doorbell for fifteen minutes to no avail. They gave up and went out for dinner. After that fiasco I’ll be pulling out all the stops on October 26th!
Happily, it’s Friday. What else could I possibly screw up?
I promise this apple salad is not a mistake. I make it every year, as soon as the new crop of apples are ready to pick. It’s a bit of a cheat because I use pre-cut broccoli slaw. You could substitute regular cabbage slaw but I prefer the heavy crunch of broccoli.
Apple Broccoli Cranberry Salad
Serves 4
1 small package pre-made broccoli slaw mix
2 crisp apples, your favorite variety I love Macs
Handful of dried cranberries
Handful pepitas
Handful walnuts, chopped and toasted
Dressing:
¼ cup Miracle Whip
¼ cup plain Greek yoghurt
Juice of half a lemon
½ teaspoon sea salt
½ teaspoon freshly ground pepper
Whisk together in a large bowl
Add everything else and toss.
Serve immediately.
THE LOVE: The wonderful thing about this salad is you can play around and add whatever dried fruit, seed and nut combination you like. I’ve tried a kazillion and this is my favorite!
one year ago: uptown hermits
two years ago: risotto with wild chanterelle
Thanks for reading.
