Another thread about food got me thinking about this. Mine is potato salad.
I’ll call this my signature dish because every time I show up at a potluck people are waiting at the door asking if I brought THE potato salad. All the sports dads talk about it as “legendary”. The funny thing is, I don’t really have a recipe. The secret/ not a secret at all is bacon. Everyone loves bacon.
As I said, I don’t have a recipe, and even though I make it differently every time, as long as it has bacon people seem to not notice it might be completely different than the last time.
Here’s the gist. Cook an entire package of bacon on a cookie sheet in the oven. Reserve the bacon grease. Half or quarter baby potatoes and roast in the bacon grease. Make your potato salad dressing. Traditionally I use Hellman’s mayo (has to either by Hellman’s or homemade), white or apple cider vinegar, chopped onion or shallot, salt and pepper. Let potatoes cool and add dressing, parsley, and bacon.
Variations:
Use sweet potatoes (my favorite)
Make a homemade mayo using the bacon grease. Only replace about 10% of the oil with bacon grease or it’s just too overpowering.
Add arugula
Make a warm dressing of oil, balsamic, shallots and mustard. If serving at room temp you can add some mayo.
W took some leftover pulled pork to a sorta kinda pot luck years ago and her friends still ask about it whenever they have another event. I had kicked it up a notch for her by glazing it in the wok with some brown sugar, soy sauce, ginger, and lime.
Another friend who we have over for dinner regularly always requests my bolognese.
At home when it’s just the two of us, the dish I most often make is a Jamaican ox tail. If I had a head injury and could only remember one recipe, that’s the one I’d want to keep.
Gumbo
Lemon Poppyseed Pound Cake
Baked Beans
Oyster Casserole (Christmas dish–I can’t stand it but half the family members beg for it every year)
Dungeness Crab Cakes
I make fantastic chili rellenos, if I do say so. The key is to use breadcrumbs rather than batter. (That may be blasphemy to some.)
I make super moist Clementine almond flour cake during the holidays. Makes the house smell great. If I have a LOT of clementines on hand, I sometimes make two at a time and freeze one because it defrosts perfectly. I’ve made a cake in December and taken it to a friend’s for dinner in June.
My latest craze is deviled eggs for dinner parties. I had a surplus of eggs after taking care of the neighbor’s chickens so I made deviled eggs and they were all devoured. I like that it’s very easy to change the seasonings and get a very different taste sensation. I’ve since taken them to a lot of gatherings and they all get eaten.
Kids made this book for me a while ago, so forgive the write-in ingredient. Edit, I realized the temp and time were cut off in other pic. This one is correct.
Here is my Clementine cake recipe…given to me by a friend. Agree…it’s a winner!
CLEMENTINE CAKE
Preheat oven to 375
Lightly grease a 9-inch spring-form pan.
1 ¼ pounds clementines (about 7) (mandarin oranges work just as well)
Soften clementines by floating them in a bowl of water and place in a microwave for 25 minutes. They and the water will be very hot.
Remove the tiny bud, then slice each clementine in half. Place them (skins and all) in a food processor and puree until smooth. Set aside.
In a mixer, whisk eggs, sugar, orange-blossom water, flour, baking powder, and salt.
6 eggs
1 ¼ cups sugar
2 tablespoons orange-blossom water (rose water is fine; if you can’t find either, it’s still OK)
1 ½ cups flour (I used almond flour)
1 teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon kosher salt
Whisk in the clementine puree.
Pour batter into greased pan and bake at 375 for 45 minutes. Check earlier to be on the safe side.
When slightly cooled (30 minutes) run knife around edge and remove from pan.
Eat as is or glaze with 1/2 cup powdered sugar (I used Lakanto substitute), and 2 tablespoons lemon juice. You may want to double/triple depending on the thickness you want.
In the summer I make a Marinated Bean Salad (Old Southern Living recipe, I have posted here before)
Pumpkin Pie at Thanksgiving
Chicken Chili Verde (in my crockpot right now)
Banana Bread (from scratch, I don’t use baking mixes)
Berry pie. Either raspberries from the garden, or wild blueberries, or sometimes raspberry-rhubarb. The secret ingredient to any berry pie is freshly ground cardamon.–1 pod worth if an 8 inch pie, 1.5 pod if 9 inch pie – do not overdo.
My favorite crust recipe (enough for both a bottom and top crust):
2.5 c flour
2 tsp sugar
1/2 tsp salt
6 tablespoons chilled salted butter
3 tablespoons chilled shortening
1 tablespoons chilled bacon grease (or another tablespoon shortening if vegetarian)
~1/2 cup ice water, added a few drops at a time.
Often I am lazy, and just use half the above recipe, roll out the crust extra big, and flop the rough edges over the center to make a rustic looking pie. Then freeze the other half crust recipe for another time.
, but I think his mint julep is the best.