June 25, 2009: The Bountiful Table

I'm not cooking a "garden dinner" tonight. It certainly isn't because of a lack of fresh vegetables, it's more of an "easy on the cook" night. Sometimes Granny needs a break from the kitchen, so tonight it's hamburgers, baked beans from a can, potato salad (home made last night) and banana cream pie (homemade last night). The only garden ingredients are onions.

Today's garden produce; carrots, green & purple bush beans, cabbage, onions, shallots, strawberries & raspberries. All together I picked 6 pounds 2 ounces (weighed after being cleaned and trimmed of leaves/stalks).

Our children and grandchildren always gather at our house on July 4th. We live near the Columbia River, and have an excellent view of the fireworks from our front yard, so we'll have our usual get together for a dinner at dusk, followed by an evening of celebration. It will be very informal, with paper plates and napkins, plastic cups and silverware. We sometimes have a serve yourself taco bar and sometimes we have takeout fried chicken. This is the year for fried chicken. There will be a big pot of local sweet corn, chilled watermelon, and Mr. H's and the kids' favorite potato salad.......I prefer mine with sweet pickles ;-).

Baked Potato Salad for a Crowd

Serves 12

6 medium potatoes (2 pounds)
1-1/2 cups light mayonnaise
1 tablespoon vinegar
1 tablespoon mustard
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
2 medium stalks celery (1 cup), chopped
1 medium onion (1/2 cup), chopped
4 hard-cooked eggs, chopped

1. Bake potatoes the day before preparing the salad, Chill overnight.

2. Peel the potatoes and cut into cubes.

2. Place the eggs in the medium saucepan. Cover with at least 1 inch of cold water, and heat to boiling over high heat. Remove the saucepan from the heat. Let stand covered 18 minutes. Immediately pour off the hot water from the eggs, then run cool water over them several seconds to prevent further cooking; drain.

3. Peel and chop the eggs. Chop the celery. Peel the onion, and chop enough of the onion to measure 1/4 cup. Wrap any remaining onion, and refrigerate for another use.

4. Mix the mayonnaise, vinegar, mustard, salt and pepper in a large bowl. Gently stir in the potatoes, celery and onion. Stir in the chopped eggs.

5. Cover and refrigerate at least 4 hours to blend flavors and to chill. Cover and refrigerate any remaining salad.