Broccoli Bacon Salad

Well summer is coming and that means....BBQ season! And here is one of my favorite side dish for the event. It's easy to make, scrumptious, and best of all, it contains BACON. I had Msr. et Mme. SF tried this salad and now I have been pressured to post the recipe. So it is a safe dish to have to your next gathering as it is guests tested and just watch how it'll be one of the first dish that will be gone at the end of the shenanigans.

Broccoli Bacon Salad
(make 4 - 6 servings)
4 cups broccoli florets (about 2 medium heads)
2 hard boiled eggs - mashed
1/4 cup shredded carrot
1/4 of red onion, sliced
2 bacon strip, crisp-cooked, drained, and crumbled
2 green onion - sliced
1/4 cup raisin

I have to say it's a little tricky to write the recipe for the dressing, as I usually just use what I have around the house. So just treat this part as a guidelines and just taste it to your liking. When you make the dressing, put the oil gradually. It is better to add more oil toward the end
then ended up with a super oily salad.

For the dressing
1/4 cup mayonnaise, olive oil, or salad oil, or a mix of mayo and oil
2 tsp mustard (I've used dijon mustard and whole grain mustard)
1/2 tbs lemon juice or white wine vinegar
1 tbs sugar
salt and pepper to taste

Wash broccoli floret and soak it in salt water for about 30 minutes and strain. In a large bowl, layer broccoli, mashed eggs, shredded carrot, green onion, and raisin. Set aside.
For dressing, in a medium bowl, with a whisk combine mayonnaise or oil or both, lemon juice, sugar, salt, and pepper. Spread over vegetables, toss to coat. Cover and chill in the refrigerator for at least 2 hours and up to 24 hours. Just before serving, stir to coat and sprinkle with bacon.

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Saturday Morning Muffin

Have you ever found yourself with super - super ripe bananas in your kitchen? Well apparently, while I was gone on my vacation, Msr. Quatre is hooked to fried banana and has been buying ripe bananas. So when I got home, I found 6 overripe bananas. I am too cheap to toss them but I just hate (I repeat HATE) the smell and the taste of overripe banana.

Trying to get rid all of those bananas, I planned to fry them all Friday night. Apparently I forgot to calculate our scrumptious fish dinner and there was no way we could eat 6 fried bananas. Still in my mission of getting rid all of my bananas, I decided to make banana chocolate chip muffin Saturday morning. Msr. Quatre was quite happy about this and I found that muffin is quite quick and easy to make and it goes really well with morning coffee or milk tea.

So adapted from the Better Homes cookbook, here's the recipe. Enjoy!

Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins
Make 12 muffin

1.5 cup all purpose flour
1/2 cup sugar
2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1 egg - beaten
1/2 cup milk
1/4 cup cooking oil
3 ripe bananas - smashed
1/4 cup chocolate chip

Preheat oven to 400 F (200 F). Grease standard muffin cup and set aside. In a medium bowl, combine flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt. Make a well in the center, set aside

In another bowl combine egg, milk, and oil. Add egg mixture all at once to the flour mixture. Stir until moistened and batter looks lumpy. Spoon batter into prepared muffin cups, filling each two-thirds full. Bake for 18 to 20 minutes and a wooden toothpick inserted in centers comes out clean.
Now this part is depends on your oven but with my oven my muffins are cooked but doesn't have that nice golden brown on the top so here's what I did.

Switch oven to broil (heat comes from the top) and let it stay in the oven for another 1 to 2 minutes. Make sure you check them so very often this time or you'll have a charred black muffins top.

Take muffins out and cool on a wire rack for 5 minutes. Serve warm!

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