Good vs Bad

Good brownie versus bad brownie. Look at the difference, you can almost taste it! Sweets, in general, aren't really my thing, and brownies fall even lower on my occasional crave list than cookies. Fortunately for those babies below, I was craving them awful bad a couple of weekends ago. A long time ago, I tried to make my own brownies per some video on America's Test Kitchen, and my conclusions were, I don't like brownies enough to spend the extra money on getting the individual ingredients. It's much more cost effective to buy brownie box mixes, or literally buy a brownie at a cafe, rather than try to make them from scratch (which usually comes out badly in my case). I mean, in terms of the ratio of saturated to unsaturated fats, the brownie box mixes got it right, no contest. To continue, I bought a brownie from Charmington's in Remington on a whim (believe it was actually a banana black bottom bar), and being completely dissatisfied, bought another from some coffee shop in Washington, D.C.  The DC brownie was full of fudge-filled chewy goodness, while the banana chocolate bar was dry and, sad to say, tasteless. Charmington's usually gets it right on the coffee and cookies though, so don't be too bothered.

If recent life has become a comparison of good and bad (self-inflection can be good sometimes), then I'm pretty sure we can all understand the tragedy behind good chicken salad, and bad chicken salad. I bring this up not because chicken salad and brownies are both picnic comfort food to me, but rather, because I made a bomb chicken salad this week that I want to write down. I also had some chicken salad today from the hospital cafeteria today, and it was a stellar example of bad. Just mayo and chicken that has been ground up so bad it doesn't taste like chicken at all anymore, a peek of tomato, and old pepper. Blegh, see below.

In conclusion, I hope to make my chicken salad again really soon, because it's super easy (kind of a cheat, really, using rotisserie chicken and all but come on!! Rotisserie chicken is so good, and there's no way I'd be able to rotisserie at home....or could I??).

Bomb Chicken Salad

This is an example of the bad chicken salad.

2 chicken breasts from a rotisserie chicken
6 strips of bacon, cooked until crispy and easily crumbled
3 hard-boiled eggs
2 sticks of celery, diced into small pieces
3 small red peppers (or 1 large red pepper), diced
3 large scoops of mayonnaise
1 large scoop of sweet relish
1 large scoop of dijon mustard
liberal amounts of pepper

As most "salads" go, you just mix the ingredients together. The "scoops" can be thought of as tablespoons, but really, if you like more mayonnaise, scoop more mayonnaise in. With the bacon and eggs (having to fry up the bacon and boil the eggs, which all can be omitted, I guess), it's more work than and normal chicken salad, but the result is so worth it. I think the trick is the relish, dijon, and peppers, that add a sweetness and crunch that was really satisfying. To top it off, it even tastes better the next day. Blah blah so it's not a lot of work and obviously chicken salad isn't that complicated of a thing. Still though, it's been awhile since I've made something that I've wanted to make again so soon, and this easy thing is definitely one of them. I just needed to write it down. Ham salad? Not sure I'll make anytime soon. This chicken salad? Yes, please.

On other news, now that the grill is up and the coals bought, let's do some smoking (the wood chip kind) and some barbecuing and have some beers. More updates on that later.