by Lois Breneman, © 2009, Heart to Heart
A super easy method of peeling potatoes for this colorful, crunchy, and creamy potato salad - with a little zip!This tip of a super easy way to peel potatoes is worth repeating with this recipe! I used this shortcut sent by two Heart to Heart ladies a couple weeks ago in making potato salad and it really works like a charm! While you are bringing a pot of water to the boiling point, scrub the potatoes. Using a sharp knife, score each potato all around the center (think of it as the potato's waistline). You only need to cut through the peel a little bit. Drop the potatoes into the boiling water and cook until tender (about 20 minutes or so). Remove the potatoes from the boiling water with tongs and plunge into ice water. Move them around for about ten seconds until they cool off some. Take a potato in both hands and pull back the peel on each side. Works like magic! This is a great tip to speed up the process of making this potato salad!
For my most recent potato salad I used about 8 potatoes and 10 hard cooked eggs. While they cooked I prepared the remaining ingredients: about 2 cups of finely chopped celery, about 4 large carrots (chopped up fine in the food processor), 1/2 cup finely sliced fresh spinach, and added Duke's Mayonnaise (the best mayonnaise you can find in the grocery store without sugar and it has such great flavor). I also sprinkled in some salt, pepper, celery salt, onion powder, dry mustard, and steak seasoning, and added a jar of pepper rings (chopped), found at the Dollar Tree. After adding the cubed potatoes and chopped eggs, I tasted to see if more seasoning was needed.
The carrots and spinach added color, the celery added crunch, the eggs and mayonnaise added creaminess, and the spices and pepper rings gave it zip! If you want more zip, try dried crushed red peppers and white pepper! That ought to do it!
Last weekend was absolutely gorgeous, and I made more potato salad for a picnic with my husband at our favorite picnic spot. We drive up a mountain on a very winding country road, past farms and a vineyard to the top, with breathtaking views along the way. There is a beautiful rustic garden with a small rippling brook, just below the summit on the other side of the mountain near us, filled with pink, red and white azaleas that bloom around this time of year.
Although azaleas have already been in full bloom down in the valley, just ten minutes from us, way up on this mountain, they were just beginning to bloom. There's a hiking trail to to the top or an easier one where colorful wild flowers and many birds can be enjoyed along the way.
Although azaleas have already been in full bloom down in the valley, just ten minutes from us, way up on this mountain, they were just beginning to bloom. There's a hiking trail to to the top or an easier one where colorful wild flowers and many birds can be enjoyed along the way.
I was so busy with my thoughts as I was looking forward to going back to our favorite picnic spot to see the azaleas and thinking of happy times there as I made the potato salad, that I completely forgot to score the potatoes around the center! I learned pretty quickly that step is the key to success in peeling the potatoes with ease is that step! Live and learn!
When my husband used to have his motorcycle, we would often ride up that very steep, curvy road to this garden with our dinner in the trunk. Now I realize those who know me can't picture me on a motorcycle, but it was something my husband and I could do together, and we had many fun dates riding.
Sometimes we'd have a hot dinner in our electric skillet, since it was so close. We normally eat at the one single picnic table among the azaleas, although there is also a small covered pavilion. I keep a pack of matches and incense sticks from the dollar store in our picnic basket. Lighting just one stick usually keeps the bees and mosquitoes away. As we walked the hiking trail after our picnic, we noticed that special spot where our one son proposed to his sweetheart several years ago on Easter afternoon. It's a lovely place full of good memories for our family and we've enjoyed meeting friends there for a picnic high up on the mountain.
Sometimes we'd have a hot dinner in our electric skillet, since it was so close. We normally eat at the one single picnic table among the azaleas, although there is also a small covered pavilion. I keep a pack of matches and incense sticks from the dollar store in our picnic basket. Lighting just one stick usually keeps the bees and mosquitoes away. As we walked the hiking trail after our picnic, we noticed that special spot where our one son proposed to his sweetheart several years ago on Easter afternoon. It's a lovely place full of good memories for our family and we've enjoyed meeting friends there for a picnic high up on the mountain.
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