Greatest. Potato. Salad. Ever...

Ok, so I'm deviating slightly, but the potato salad is coming! It's amazing. I took a recipe from Brown Eyed Baker and made it my own. And WOWZA. That's all I can say...

Colorado On My Mind...

So. Do not do this at home, kids... Over 10 hours on the road with no food is never a good thing. 

Kid #2 and I got to Kid #1's house and dropped off the groceries. J. was already at the studio, so we said our goodbyes and got ready to go. We navigated SOUTH so as to avoid Denver, and we joked that, at this point, the car would automatically drive to Garden of the Gods!

Unfortunately, neither of us had a great night's sleep. As I mentioned, the power outage the night before was disruptive, to say the least. It was very weird, and we had no flashlights. Kid #2 walked around with his Surface tablet for a while, so we could brush teeth and get ourselves settled. We weren't sure how long the power would be out, and didn't want to drain the cell phones. 

By the way, I did contact the landlord and suggested that she have nightlights that turned into flashlights/safety lights in the event of a power outage. She thought that was a good idea. 

We didn't get a chance to get ourselves adequately caffeinated, and it showed!! We drove almost straight through to Nebraska except for gas stops, where we did a little stretching... we had fruit, water, and Clif bars. Let me tell you: that wasn't enough! 

Along Rt. 70, there was a long, long, long, L O N G stretch of this 2-lane highway cutting through eastern Colorado that (a) was "under construction;" and (b) covered in fresh oil.  To make matters worse, there's a (c)... As we're stopped for construction (all 5 or 6 cars of us going east), this OIL TRUCK passes us, spraying oil. 

Yes. Spraying oil. All along the front and driver's side of my car, I have black specks. Hubby is not happy. And it's not like we could pull off - we were surrounded by ranches, though I can tell you that several of us would happily have pulled into a rancher's driveway to avoid this... Mainly the guy 2 cars behind me, who was driving what looked like a brand-new Lexus SUV. You know the ones: all glammed out. And worse yet? His car was WHITE... You could practically see the steam coming out of his ears! 

Hubby seems to think that we can get the oil off but we have to take it to a shop. Of course, we had to keep driving, so the sun pretty much baked it on. 

We tried to stop for lunch at this "diner" attached to a gas station in the middle of nowhere. Except that Kid #2 said, "There's an ancient looking hot dog and a half a chicken filet under hot lights." Ummmmmmmm. Nope. 

Like I said, though: don't drive hungry and tired. I had some serious moments of worry that I was being hypnotized by the road, and it worried me. That's usually when I found a place to pull over and get out and walk around a bit. But we should definitely have stopped before we left Colorado Springs and gotten ourselves some sandwiches or something to put in the cooler. 

Nebraska is flat. Pretty, but flat. 

So we got to the hotel, exhausted and hungry. We looked into the Cracker Barrel, and it was a 15+ minute wait. The Kid was HANGRY, so we ended up at King Kong Burgers. Ok, THAT was interesting. A Greek-themed, ape-filled restaurant staffed and owned by Hispanics. Only in Lincoln, Nebraska! 

We were actually across the street from where we stayed at the beginning of the trip. And yes, I mean ape-filled as in: the entire eating area had stuffed monkeys, gorillas and the like hanging off the ceiling, perched on shelves, and tucked into corners. All I could think of  is, "How hard is this to keep clean???" 

The Kid had a burger & fries and I had a (too large) gyro plate. I was hoping, after dinner, to get into my swimming suit and if nothing else, soak my legs in the hot tub or pool. 

But that was not to be. Hotel full of screaming kids. As we were checking in, this chubby little snot kid was licking his fingers and putting them on the plate of cookies on the front desk. Grandpa or whoever it was, was standing there, looking on adoringly, and saying, "Now Billy, take only one." Like ANYONE is going to take any of them after Billy has practically licked them? I'm not even sure the clerk saw it. Yuck. 

We decided to call it a night (still having that "way too light at 9 p.m." thing happening) and I was in bed by 9:30 or so. I did go out to the car to grab my knitting, but after I changed, I was hit by a wave of "tired," and didn't bother to knit a stitch. 

Overnight, there was a lovely thunderstorm. The thunder didn't "blast" like it does here in Illinois, but it seemed to gently roll on and on. It was soothing... I slept like a stone. I didn't quite get the phone in the charger correctly, and it was half-dead the next morning, but I didn't care. I didn't even care that the hotel pillows were wimpy... 

Greatest Potato Salad Ever...

Our third and final candidate is coming to visit tomorrow. My task was potato salad. I was dithering: I wanted something different from what I usually make, and I looked at my Granny's German Potato Salad recipe. 

There's a reason I dislike it... And I wasn't even tempted. So I looked up a recipe for German Potato Salad, and in my searching I found "Best Ever Potato Salad" by Brown Eyed Baker. 

You know - or you should know - that I can't leave a recipe alone! So for Operation Pick a Vicar, I fiddled with this one. 

First, I used Yukon Gold potatoes. I love their texture. The original recipe called for red potatoes, peeled. 

I didn't peel the Yukons. I rarely do. I had Hubby boil up some eggs, because I only had 1 left. 

At the back of the stove, I had a 12-oz. package of bacon crisping. Here's a lovely LIFE HACK from me to you. I bought the bacon this morning, and it was just refrigerated. I took a few slices and tried to cut them up. 

Now, I've got great knives...and I was having trouble with the stupid bacon. I usually dice it up when it's frozen or only half-thawed. 

KITCHEN SHEARS. That's all I have to say. Grab a pair of kitchen shears (and if you don't have them? Why don't you have them??) and cut up that bacon like nobody's business! 

I also used my Whole30 homemade mayo recipe and a Polish mustard. You'll see...

Here's my recipe for Greatest. Potato. Salad. Ever. 

2 - 2.5 lbs. medium Yukon Gold potatoes, unpeeled, cut into cubes
1 (12 oz) package thick-cut bacon, diced
1 c. home-made mayo
1 1/2 t. hot Polish mustard
2 t. coconut sugar
1 t. salt
4 hard-boiled eggs, chopped (peel them, of course!)
2 stalks celery, diced
6 green onions, chopped (white and pale green parts only)
2 T. Penzey's Sunny Paris blend

Boil the potatoes in salted water till fork-tender. Drain and set aside. 

Meanwhile, cook the bacon over med-hi heat till crisp. Remove the bacon with a slotted spoon and set it on a paper-towel lined plate to drain. 

Remove the pan from the heat. Measure out 2 tablespoons of bacon fat; discard the rest (or save it, if you'll use it for something else). Try to keep the "brown bits" in the pan.

Add the mayo, mustard, Sunny Paris, sugar and salt directly to the bacon fat, and whisk to combine. 

In a large bowl, combine potatoes, eggs, celery, and onion. Pour the dressing over the veggies and stir gently to evenly coat. Stir in the bacon. 

Cover and refrigerate for at least 3 hours before serving (tasting while warm?? YUMMY!!!). Leftovers can be stored, covered, in the fridge, for up to 4 days -- if it lasts that long. 

NOTES:  I like the "rounded" taste of the coconut sugar; it's a brown sugar, but not sticky like brown cane sugar. 

The Polish mustard was a fluke... I'll be honest. I grabbed it at the Polish deli next to my office and I thought it was just a regular, coarse-grained mustard. Oh, no --- there are 4 little pepper icons at the bottom of the label. Yowza, this stuff is HOT. 

The original recipe called for 1 tablespoon of Dijon. I like the spike of the hot Polish mustard. 

I like the Penzey's Sunny Paris because it's salt-free and it's got onions and shallots dried. It's a nice balance for salads. But do stir it into the dressing; otherwise, like with most dried herbs and seasonings, it'll clump together. 

I added more mayo; originally it was only 3/4 cup. Tomorrow, I may add more, because when you stir this all in with warm potatoes, they tend to suck in the mayo. 

As you can see by the picture at the left, it looks as if it's barely covered. I'll see what it looks like tomorrow, and if I need to add more, I will. 

It's likely that I'll end up putting a few sprigs of parsley on it, since I'm growing it in the garden anyway. And maybe some paprika. 

My grandma and my mom both used sliced eggs around the rim of the bowl. That's an option, too. I have plenty of eggs now. 

Random Picture...

There's been a lot of crap going on. Seriously, I can barely read the paper, and my FB feed is clogged with the craziness of the Current Occupant and his nefarious deeds. His cabinet is full of incompetents and the House and Senate are content to let him do his evil work because it provides a useful distraction so that they can dismantle our social safety nets and continue to pad the pockets of their corporate overlords. 

It's late; I'm headed to bed soon. 

And I don't want to be kept up all night stressed out about what Agent Orange is going to pull next. As a matter of fact, I'm seeing stories saying that he's now back to saying that North Korea "is a serious problem." 

Really? I thought he fixed that... 

Anyway. 

Giraffes. 

This was a young male at the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo. You know how they "all look alike," right? Well. Not really. When you have a chance to study them even for a few minutes, you'll notice that their markings are as individual as our fingerprints. 

I will remember fondly the experience of feeding these gentle giants.