Balancing all the goodies

Yesterday a small assigned group of co-workers (me included) brought treats into work in celebration of our December birthdays.  So many tasty brownies, cookies, bread, chips and dips!  In the past I've brought some kind of soup in my crock pot, but this year I made broccoli slaw.

Two years ago I was introduced to the delicious broccoli salad at Break Point on the corner of south Commerical and Owens.  It wasn't long after that I began a search for a recipe as close to theirs as possible.  This is it.  Although, I do add bacon (or serve it on the side if there are vegetarians in the group) when I make it.

Broccoli Slaw (courtesy of Smittenkitchen.com)

Adapted a little bit from family, a little bit from Apartment Therapy
Makes about six cups of slaw

2 heads of broccoli
1/2 cup thinly sliced almonds, toasted (I subbed sunflower seeds)
1/3 cup dried cranberries
1/2 small red onion, finely chopped
Buttermilk Dressing (Adapted from this salad.)
1/2 cup buttermilk, well-shaken
1/3 cup mayonnaise (this is more than is in the original, to thicken the dressing further)
2 tablespoons cider vinegar
1 tablespoon+ sugar
3 tablespoons finely chopped shallot (or, you could just use a little extra red onion to simplify it)
Trim broccoli and cut it into large chunks. From here, you can either feed it through your food processor’s slicing blade, use a mandoline to cut it into thin slices, or simply had chop it into smaller pieces. I used the stem and the flowerets, but if you have a broccoli stem aversion you can just use the tops.
Toss the sliced broccoli with the almonds, cranberries and red onion in a large bowl. Meanwhile, whisk the dressing ingredients in a smaller one, with a good pinch of salt and black pepper. Pour the dressing over the broccoli (if you’ve skipped the stems, you might not want it all; I otherwise found this to be the perfect amount) and toss it well. Season well with salt and pepper to taste.