Egg and Olive Salad, and Mayonnaise From-Scratch

This was my favorite lunch when I was a kid: an egg and olive salad sandwich on wheat bread, maybe with a leaf or two of lettuce, and some fruit.  So when my friends and I gathered for an impromptu second-baby shower for a friend, I offered to bring tea sandwiches.  Cucumber, of course, and a chicken salad with chutney, and these egg and olive salad sandwiches.  None of my friends had had this combination before and were surprised that I hadn't invented it.  I don't know if it's an East Coast thing and my California-born friends had never come across it before, but I realized that I have to share this tasty secret!

 This recipe is pretty bare bones, and that's how I like it.  Like any other salad, people like to add different things; please feel free to doctor this as you see fit.   If you are watching your carbs or are cutting out refined and processed foods, skip the bread and serve on lettuce leaves - either in little bundles in butter lettuce leaves, or down the middle of a romaine leaf.

Also included is my recipe for homemade mayonnaise.  You certainly don't have to take this extra step for egg and olive salad (or tuna salad or potato salad or whatever) - but it's tasty and fresh, so why not? This recipe is a great starting place for aioli or creamy salad dressings.  And of course, as with any from-scratch recipe, you know what's in it, so you can avoid allergens, preservatives, stabilizers, et cetera.  If you have a blender, why not give it a try?  (Insert obligatory warning about raw eggs and people who are pregnant or have a compromised immune system.  But you already knew this, right?)

Egg and Olive Salad

Ingredients:

• 4 hard-boiled eggs
• 1/4 cup green olives (preferably with pimentos)
• 2 tablespoons mayonnaise
• 1 teaspoon yellow mustard
• salt and pepper (optional)

Directions:

1. In a mixing bowl, use two knives to roughly chop the eggs.  Don't mash it, but don't leave the chunks of egg too big.  Mix in the mayo and mustard.  Check for consistency - you may want a little more mayo, it's up to you.
2. Chop the olives and mix into the egg salad.  Taste - you'll probably want to add some pepper, but  it might already be salty enough from the olives.  Serve on bread or lettuce leaves.

Homemade Mayonnaise

Ingredients:

• 1 egg (as fresh as possible - splurge for farmer's market eggs if you can)
• 1/2 teaspoon Dijon mustard, or dry mustard powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar or lemon juice
• 1 cup very light olive oil, or half olive oil and half grape seed oil

Directions:

1. In a blender, combine egg, mustard, salt and vinegar.  Blend until light yellow and frothy.
2. Take off the little cap in the top of the blender lid, and through the whole, with the blender running, add a drop of oil at a time.  Seriously, it's going to seem like it this is going to take forever, but if you add too much at one time, the mayonnaise will "break" and won't get creamy; it'll get clumpy and gross.  So go SLOOOW.  After a minute of adding a few drops at a time, you can add the rest in a very very thin stream, stopping every few seconds.  Soon you'll have smooth, thick mayo, ready for whatever you have planned for it.  

This keeps in the fridge for about a week.  I like using it to make Curried Chicken Salad!