Picnic Fare

I love picnic fare, and though I can’t recall the last time I picnicked that doesn’t stop me from eating foods I associate with summer, picnics, and barbecues. You may consider grilled meats the star of the show, but how often do you find yourself biting into dry chicken, burned hot dogs or burgers like shoe leather, and what do you do? You dig into the awesome side dishes. I think it’s often the people who can’t actually cook who fancy themselves grill masters, and think grilling is easy, but before I climb up on my soapbox, let me return to my point.

Picnic sides are my favorite food. Potato and macaroni salad (not pasta salad, though I like that too), coleslaw, flavored potato chips (my current favorite are the Route 11 Dill Pickle Chips) and thick slabs of watermelon, really red, juicy, with seeds, watermelon. I never used to like macaroni salad, but when I bought the Hungry Moon Diner the cook Audrey taught me what she declared was the only way to make macaroni salad. I must have made that salad 200 times, but I’m not sure I recall the proportions well enough to offer a recipe, but here is what went into a giant bowl: elbow macaroni (of course), chopped hard boiled egg, finely diced green pepper & onion and shredded carrot, mixed with a generous amount of mayonnaise, salt and pepper.

There are at least a zillion recipes for potato salad, and I probably like all of them, but here is my recipe for the perfect picnic potato salad. No need to cook the frozen peas, just toss them in, they will have a nice pop when you eat the salad. The fresh dill adds a fresh quality, and the onions some crunch and zing. I used sweet onions, but red onions would add nice color.What are your favorite picnic salads?

Potato Salad

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Ingredients

• 2lb Yukon Gold potato (red bliss or small white potatoes would work as well)
• 1 cup frozen peas
• 1/2 cup onion chopped fine
• 2 tablespoons fresh dill (snipped)
• 1/2 cup sour cream
• 1/2 cup mayonnaise
• salt and pepper (to taste)
• 1 clove garlic (sliced in half lengthwise)
• 1 tablespoon Dijon mustard

Directions

Step 1

Boil whole unpeeled potatoes in salted water until a knife slides in an out easily; 20-30 minutes depending on size of potatoes

Step 2

Run inside of mixing bowl with sides of garlic cloves Allow potatoes to cool, just enough to handle then cut into bite sized pieces

Step 3

Use a scissors to snip dill Put potatoes, onion, dill, peas, into the bowl you rubbed with garlic

Step 4

In a small bowl whisk together sour cream, mayonnaise and mustard with salt and pepper

Step 5

Gently mix dressing into potato mixture.