We Do Salads and More Salads

Girlfriends, fashions, salads, and fancy tables. What a fun way to spend Saturday.  P.E.O.'s benefit luncheon for the local Relay for Life, happened today. Fifteen tables decorated with themes from casual Hawaiian picnic to formal black tie were presented for dining enjoyment. Three tables of salads offered many favorites and ended with a luscious coconut cake. Followed by a fashion show  provided by a new-to-most-of-us store from another town. And the best part? A few thousand dollars to donate to the American Cancer Society for cancer research. As several of the cancer survivors present evidenced, medical research has made great advances, with more to be made. We support that!




The salad buffet included many of my favorites and some new ones. It was hard to remember which I was sampling as I enjoyed the plate of flavors. Especially tasty was the cheese roll. Sweet dough like a cinnamon roll, but with butter, Italian dried herbs and shredded cheese filling and topped with shredded cheese slightly melted. I'll try that for a later blog.



My salad bowl was empty when I picked it up after the luncheon, so it must have been a hit. It is a recipe I enjoy and will take to other covered dish events. Thanks to recent weather in California, the price of cauliflower made some of my favorites impractical to make, but broccoli didn't seem to be affected as much. This salad combines sweet and tart flavors of Granny Smith apples, dried raisins and cranberries, red onion, Greek yogurt and apple cider vinegar. I think you'll enjoy it also.

BROCCOLI APPLE SALAD

 4 cups small-diced broccoli florets

2 Granny Smith apples, cored and diced

1 cup walnuts

1 cup matchstick carrots, roughly chopped

⅓ cup golden raisins

⅓ dried cranberries

⅓ cup thinly sliced red onion

Dressing:

¾ cup plain Greek yogurt

⅓ cup mayonnaise

1 ½ Tbs. apple cider vinegar

¼ cup honey

pinch of kosher salt

In a medium mixing bowl, whisk together yogurt, mayo, vinegar, and honey; season to taste with salt.

In a large bowl, toss together broccoli, apples, walnuts, carrots, raisins, cranberries, and red onion. Drizzle with desired amount of dressing, tossing to coat. Serve at once. (Since this was to be a luncheon and I needed to do the prep the evening before, I waited until time to set the salad on the serving table to mix in the dressing.)

Lots of chopping. I did this the evening before.
The chopped apple was rinsed generously with lemon
juice to prevent browning. 

Mixed salad ingredients ready to refrigerate. 

Dressing ingredients ready to refrigerate for
mixing the next day. 

Our table was elegantly set. Thank you Robin
and Teresa!