4 cups cubed red potatoes ( I used regular potatoes)
10 slices bacon, cut into 1-inch pieces
¾ cup mayonnaise
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard ( I used regular yellow mustard)
2 teaspoons granulated sugar
1 teaspoon salt
4 hard-boiled eggs, chopped
1 stalk celery, diced
1 small onion, chopped
½ medium green pepper, chopped
10 slices bacon, cut into 1-inch pieces
¾ cup mayonnaise
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard ( I used regular yellow mustard)
2 teaspoons granulated sugar
1 teaspoon salt
4 hard-boiled eggs, chopped
1 stalk celery, diced
1 small onion, chopped
½ medium green pepper, chopped
Before you begin always make sure you have all of the bowls, pots and utensils that you might need out, so that you aren't scrambling to find something while you are trying to do something important. You also want to make sure you have read the recipe through and have it close at hand so that you can refer back to it as often as needed.
I always try to use fresh veggies when I make something that I am not cooking. The bell pepper in this salad came out of my garden. You can't get fresher than that!
This recipe calls for red potatoes and you can certainly use them but I used regular potatoes and it worked well with those. When deciding how many potatoes you need for a recipe I always try to gauge the size of the potatoes. One large potato is equal to about one cup of boiled and cubed potatoes. I boiled more today because I needed to make a separate salad.
Although this step is certainly not really necessary, I always wash my potatoes before boiling them especially if I am going to be boiling eggs in with the potatoes. If you do not wash them they have a tendency to color the water and eggs and if for some reason an egg gets broken then you end up with a brown egg too. Nothing wrong with that for sure but it does look a little funny!
When boiling potatoes and eggs you always need to start with cool water in the pot just covering the tops of potatoes and eggs. Adding a little salt to the cool water will help it boil and keep everything from sticking together. Another trick that I just recently learned is that if you want to keep your pot of water from boiling over, place a wooden spoon over the pot and it will NEVER boil over. I didn't believe it until I tried it but it really does work! After the water begins to boil time the eggs for ten minutes, remove the eggs and then let the potatoes cook for about five more minutes. They are done when you can stick a fork or paring knife in them all the way to the middle.
While you are boiling your potatoes it is always a good idea to work on any other prep work that needs to be done including cooking the bacon in this recipe. I like to have a full skillet of bacon when I cook it but you can certainly cook it in smaller batches.
Be sure to remove the bacon and let it rest on a paper towel lined plate after it is done frying. Remove all but about two tablespoons of the grease from the skillet and set it aside. You will use the bacon grease with your dressing.
When the eggs are done I always take them out and put them in an ice bath to help them cool down quickly. After the ice melts completely poor out the water and fill it back up with cool water and let them sit until you are ready to chop them up.
After you have chopped the onion, green pepper and celery toss them all in a bowl so that they are ready to be added to your potatoes.
I do the same thing for the potatoes that I do with the eggs. Pour out the boiling water when they are done cooking and fill the pot back up with cold water and ice. You may have to repeat this process in order to get them cool enough to handle.
While the potatoes are cooling off mix the mayo, mustard, sugar, salt and bacon grease right in the skillet and stir with a whisk. Trust me when I first read this recipe I thought there is no way that is going to be good but after all of the ingredients are mixed together it looks and tastes really good!!
Some people like to have the skins of the potatoes in their potato salad and if I had used red potatoes I might have left the skins on but since I used regular potatoes I chose to remove the skins before chopping them into cubes. Once the potatoes are cool enough to handle take a small serrated knife and remove the skins. They should come off the potatoes easily.
When chopping potatoes and eggs I always slice them in half and then turn the whole potato or egg over and slice them again and then begin to chop from the end. It helps make your cubes more uniform and is quicker and easier to chop this way.
After chopping the potatoes and eggs add the onion, pepper, and celery mix to the bowl and toss.
Chop your cooled bacon into one inch or bite size pieces.
Poor the dressing over the potatoes and veggies and mix until everything is covered and then add the bacon and stir again.
I don't care how careful you are when you are stirring a salad like this you cannot help but get some on the edge. So when I am done stirring everything together I take a paper towel and run in around the edge of the bowl just to make it look a little cleaner and it also helps when you go to put a lid or saran wrap on. It keeps it from making such a huge mess.
Now all you have left to do is enjoy. I tried a little bite of mine before I put it in the fridge for tomorrow and it was pretty yummy in my opinion! You try it and let me know what you think!
Now all you have left to do is enjoy. I tried a little bite of mine before I put it in the fridge for tomorrow and it was pretty yummy in my opinion! You try it and let me know what you think!
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