Chunky Slaw with Ranch & Peppercorn Dressing

So I've never liked coleslaw, mostly because I think it's a little bland & detest the dressing. I'm not a big fan of mayo and to add sugar to it just makes it worse, but I like all the veggies. In fact cabbage is one of my favorites. So I was rummaging around in the fridge for something when it occurred to me that I had the fixings for slaw but I could just make up a dressing.

I used 1/2 of a smaller head of cabbage, a good hand full of pre-cut carrots, about 1 cup of chopped daikon, and 2 or 3 stalks of celery, for the veggies. I chopped it all up in similar sizes and put it in a bowl.






Then in a small bowl used a couple good tablespoons of ranch dip for the base.








All I did was add enough water to give it more of a dressing like consistency, using my finger to judge how thickly it would coat. I got it to the point that I could just see my finger through it, and added freshly ground pepper.





Then all I had to do was drizzle it over the veggies and give it a good toss. I thought it turned out pretty well though next time I make it I think I might use half ranch and half plain yogurt to smooth out the flavors a little.

Bacon & Mayo Filled Chocolates

The Story

A few months ago I was watching Dinner Impossible on the Food Network, and the chef came up with Chocolate Covered Bacon as a dessert. What really got me though was that the people thought it was good, so I had to try it.

I made it the same way they did bacon coated in milk chocolate, and sprinkled with chopped almonds. Surprisingly it's pretty good though I would suggest using a thin sliced bacon because the thick slice that I used gets pretty chewy at the ends. Since it had turned out to be surprisingly good I made a big batch and took them to work.

One of the guys I work with is from Hawaii, and thought it was great but that it needed mayo in it. Well that wouldn't work because mayo doesn't setup, but I thought that if you used a mold you could just use it as a filling. I didn't want to make it though because I thought the idea was quite repulsive. My co-worker however thought it sounded wonderful and kept asking for it, until I finally caved and made it for him last week.



The bacon & mayo filling.





Filling the cups.