Sometimes I Cook: Potato Salad

This is a cherished family recipe passed down throughout the years good tasting potato salad my mom always makes. It is in our Mohs family reunion cookbook so the first part could be true. My mom "doesn't use a recipe" but I do so I'm sharing it with you. Trust me. This is delicious and you WILL get compliments on it.  It really isn't hard, it's just a lot of time in between steps if you want a superior taste. Which you do. Also this makes A LOT of potato salad. Be warned.

You'll need:
Potatoes - any kind will do. Buy a 5lb bag and then decide how many you want
Eggs - about 3
Mayo - I prefer light but go full blast if you want
Mustard - yellow
Sugar
Vinegar
Cream or milk

Step 1: The night before preferably or early in the day, boil potatoes and eggs. In case you don't know what they look like, I've included pictures below. I used about 7 medium potatoes. The "recipe" calls for 5 lbs. Um, yeah. I like my salad more "saucy" so I use less potatoes. Give both a whirl and let me know what you like better. Also, boil extra eggs and then use them for yummy egg salad later. Number one because it's delicious for lunch, number two you always need more mayo in your diet and three it can annoy your co-workers. The recipe only calls for about 3 eggs. More if you really like eggs. Store overnight in the fridge.





The next day (or later the first day) get a really big salad bowl and peel your potatoes and eggs and cut them up into edible sized cubes. See below.



In a separate smaller bowl, mix 2 cups of mayo, 2 squirts of mustard, 1 tbsp of sugar and 1tbsp of vinegar. Apple cider is better according to the expert but in a pinch white wine should work. Mix together and then thin out a bit using a splash or 2 of cream or milk.



Then add dill and lots of it. Mmm! I think it's much easier to mix the dill in with the mayo mixture instead of with the potatoes and eggs but do whatever floats your boat.



 Mix in the giant bowl with eggs and potatoes. Add onion if you're feeling fancy.



Voila! Delicious potato salad. It's always better if you give it a couple hours to muddle in the fridge before serving. Get ready for people to be clamoring to have you make this at every social gathering. Just let them know the recipe is a Mohs family secret.

Grill Master

I cooked a whole bunch the other day just for the hell of it. I made lasagna, turkey burgers, hard boiled some eggs, and made a marinade for some chicken. I can't be counted on to make myself dinner when I'm tired, especially now that I've been trying to exercise more after work. So, I made a whole bunch of food. It's worked out pretty well! The chicken turned out pretty tasty so I thought I would share some pictures and my "recipe".

What you need:
Chicken
Jalapeno
Olive oil
Lime juice (preferably fresh but I used the little plastic lime)
Garlic
Random spices
Salt and pepper





I was sort of following a recipe but it wanted me to use tequilla which I didn't have and so I just started to make it up. I combined 1 jalapeno (add more if you like spicy), about 3 teaspoons of chopped garlic, the juice equivalent of 1-2 limes, about 1-2 teaspoons of olive oil, salt, pepper and some cajun seasonings. I also had some store bought garlic lime marinade that I added because I was out of lime juice.  Feel free to add in other things as you see fit! I poured it over about 6 chicken breasts and put it in the fridge over night. The next night, I just threw them onto the grill for about 10-15 mins (or 2 chapters of the Hunger Games. However you normally time things).


Combined with black beans and avocado, so delicious!

Yes, sometimes I cook

I have to admit that these pictures are from are a while ago. Shows how many outfit pictures I've been taking lately...

A little background on this. My book club read The Forgotten Garden (which you can read a bit about here). I was hosting at my place and decided to make it a theme. This gal loves a good theme. The book took place in Australia and Cornwall so that was my jumping off point. I went to my local cheese shop and got an Australian blue cheese and a delicious English cheddar. Not Cornish but let's not split hairs here. Also, my great-grandfather was from Cornwall. Cool right? Side note: this makes me one generation too far removed to get a British visa. Oh, you know I looked into it. Back to the other story. My grandma used to make pasties for us. They are these delicious meat pies that are from Cornwall. The miners used to bring them for lunch because their whole meal could be contained in this little package. Much more filling than a sandwich. Anywho. I've always LOVED pasties but never made them for myself. What better excuse than to make them for a book club meeting, right? I already told you I'm a sucker for a theme.

I used a combination of this recipe and this one. I used their recipes mostly for the dough. I sort of made up the proportions I used for the filling to be honest. It worked out perfectly though. I wanted to make 1 and a half of the recipe because I thought I had about 7 people coming. So since the recipe made 6, 1.5 would be 9. Perfect. Plus, I didn't want to go through all that trouble and not have any for leftovers Turns out only 5 people were there including me and each person only ate 1/2. Leaving me with a whopping 6 and a half left. Could be worse :)

Here are a couple of the steps in picture form. It was a pretty tedious process but they turned out pretty damn delicious. I made the dough the night before and this really helped when I was rolling it out. I also peeled and cut the carrots the night before as well as the onion. Not for any particular reason except I wanted less to do the next day.

You want to cut up everything into (what you consider) bite sized pieces.

I separated the dough into 9 balls the night before

You have to roll it out pretty thin but don't worry if it doesn't look pretty (it will still be tasty)

Just laying the filling on one side of the dough and then fold over

Done!

I punctured little holes with my fork just because I felt like it. I also had to bake them a bit longer than it said. Other than that, go forth and make Cornish pasties!