THE RECIPE BOX: Broccoli salad is a 'short and sweet' side dish

By Julie Wells (251)
julie.wells@rockdalecitizen.com

As of Sunday, September 4, 2011
© Copyright 2013 Newton Citizen

Staff Photo: Julie Wells. Broccoli salad is tangy, sweet and crunchy.

Cooking isn't Lori McClane's favorite activity, but when it comes to fixing broccoli salad, she doesn't even bat an eye. She knows how to prepare it without even looking at the recipe.

She told me the recipe faster than I could jot it down.

Lori, who is the Rockdale Citizen's receptionist, said she didn't have the desire to learn how to cook growing up. Her mother did all of the cooking for her. She just enjoyed eating her mom's food.

When Lori got married her mother-in-law gave her a list of 15 recipes and even some side dish suggestions to get her started. Lori still has those recipes in the same spiral notebook she copied them into some 20 years ago.

Among that list of recipes was broccoli salad.

Lori describes the salad as a mixture of crunchy, cold and sweet. It also has a little bit of a "tang" to it because of the red wine vinegar.

I asked if Sean, Lori's teenage son, liked the salad, and she said with a chuckle, "Are you kidding me? He won't even come near it." But that doesn't bother her; she said she makes it more for herself.

I often tease Lori because I think she is an adventurous eater. She will try anything once, which I say makes up for her lack of desire to cook.

Most of us have a signature dish, and this happens to be Lori's. She is most comfortable mixing broccoli, raisins, onions and bacon and tossing it with a mayonnaise-based sauce to serve at any of her family functions.

Broccoli salad is her favorite to fix because it is "short and sweet."

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