College Reunion Shout-out In time for Brunch: condiment of the day: Wasabi Mayonnaise

RantWoman is not attending her 30th college reunion

However, in response to invitation from the young alumni of the 2 Dickinson St co-op where RantWoman used to live, RantWoman humbly offers some recipes featuring flavors from the Northwest.

In time for Brunch: favorite condiment with recipes.

First RantWoman wants to offer praise for the personal element. RantWoman goes regularly to a bank branch to secure her monthly supply of laundry quarters. RantWoman particularly likes going to the branch in her neighborhood first of all because there IS a branch in her neighborhood and second because one of the women who works there regularly looks up and prints out recipes to hand out to people. RantWoman usually just notes the name of the recipe and goes home and finds it on the internet but RantWoman deeply appreciates human intervention instead of just “the Google.”

Second, RantWoman is pretty cavalier about just making things up. In that spirit, a couple items using RantWoman’s condiment of the week, wasabi mayonnaise:

Ants on a log: frequently this version of stuffed celery is made with peanut butter and either raisins or, peculiarly, with chocolate chips. However RantWoman’s recipe:

Celery cut in 2-inch pieces

4-8 oz cream cheese (RantWoman cannot abide completely fat-free but usually likes the 30% less fat kind) mixed with

2 Tbsp or so plain yogurt to make things spreadable. and

1 Tbsp or so wasabi mayonnaise.

Sweetened dried cranberries.

Spread the cream cheese mixture in the celery. Punctuate the top of the stuffed celery with 3-4 dried cranberries apiece.

Refrigerate overnight so the flavors blend.

Serve on the plate or tray of your choice.

Wasabi and salmon or tuna salad

Canned tuna or salmon

Chopped hard-boiled egg if desired.

Enough chopped celery (RantWoman has been accused of making celery salad with tune. RantWoman considers this a compliment.)

Dill pickle, minced. This one is tricky. Aim for salty, garlicky but not actually too much dill.

Pinch of white pepper

Dried cranberries, currants, or raisins if desired for sweetness; Personally RantWoamn goes back and forth about sweet things in tuna salad.

Mix all ingredients. Spread on bread or gluten-free cracker of choice. Serve

Pastrami with a twist:

Toasted bread of choice or gluten-free alternative

Wasabi mayo

Thin-sliced pastrami

Sliced tomatoes: some people disdain Romas but they work fine, as of course do other varieties more commonly served sliced.

Combine in either open-face or two-slice sandwiches.