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Sweet Alsace

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We wheel in from a 3 day road trip: there’s too much junk to carry in – in one trip, the real draw-back of road trips. The porch cats are annoyingly wailing about being under-fed, a solitary bold-face lie. The door won’t stay open without help, for heaven sakes!

And we are hungry, not for the McDonald’s dollar menu or Subway’s tired 6” subs, or the Pick 2 at Panera’s; we want something good without leaving the house and without cooking.

So I find a pizza in the freezer from Trader Joe’s, part of a bounty of goods I scooped up when I made the mistake of going there hungry. It’s a Tarte J’ Alsace, a French style flat bread with ham, caramelized onions and Gruyère cheese made by Maitre Pierre.

I fire up the oven and in it goes. It’s cheesy, chewy,  flavorful and if I had slowed down enough to make a salad it would have been a dinner for company as long as I had two pizzas and my guests liked ham. Stock up.

Labor Day Sunday

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Labor Day Sunday is when you knock yourself out cooking so that you can rest and relax on Labor Day Monday. So here’s a thought. Try my mother’s potato salad, it’s best if you make it the day before you plan to eat it, anyway.

potato-recipesI know, I know — you like the potato salad your mother makes, just like you like the custard pumpkin pie she makes for Thanksgiving rather than the more solid version, which is far superior. Or the meatloaf. Or the spaghetti sauce.

As I was starting to say, this is the world’s best potato salad in case that’s important.

My Mother’s Potato Salad
(Serves 6 so double it if you need more.)

6 potatoes, 1 medium onion chopped, 3 TB oil, 3 TB vinegar, ½ tsp salt, 1 tsp celery seed, mayonnaise, (Start with a cup and add as you like.) 4 hard-cooked eggs, 4 sweet pickles

Cook potatoes. Mix oil, vinegar, salt and celery seed with chopped onion. Drain potatoes and when cool enough to touch, peel and cut in points. (It is hard to explain cut in points but if you are cubing, slicing or mashing — you are probably not cutting in points.)

Pour oil/vinegar/onion mixture over potatoes and marinate overnight in the refrigerator. Chop eggs except for one. Cut up pickle. Add both to potatoes. Mix in mayonnaise. Slice reserved egg and put on top, sprinkle with paprika.

Check in next year for a recipe for strawberry shortcake from my mother in law. I know, I know — you like the strawberry short-cake your mother makes…