Red, White, and Blue Potato Salad

I've heard that Sweet Tomatoes restaurant makes a potato salad like this. That's a little disappointing because I thought Joe and I made up this recipe. Oh well. I'm extremely picky about potato salad (I really like my own recipe), but changing it up with red potatoes and blue cheese is pretty awesome, too.

If you happen to find some specialty blue potatoes at a Farmer's Market, throw them right in there. You can't get enough of the holiday colors around Independence Day, can you?

Ingredients

2 pounds of small red potatoes (use the new potatoes if you can find them, they are smaller than a golf ball)

1/2 cup chopped red onion

½ cup chopped celery

1/3 cup crumbled blue cheese

1/2 cup mayonnaise

1 tsp Coleman’s dry mustard

Salt and pepper to taste

Instructions

Wash potatoes and cut them into bite-sized pieces. Put them in a covered bowl in the microwave and cook until tender (the mircrowave will preserve more of the pretty red color than if you boil them).

Cool in the refrigerator. Stir together the rest of the ingredients, then mix it into the potatoes. I like to serve my potato salad at room temperature, but if you like it col or you're worried about the mayonnaise problem, chill it until you're ready to serve.

Serves 4-6.

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Kale with Bacon and Pine Nuts

Our very last Iron Chef Bacon Cook Off recipe comes from my friend John, our tattooed and Harley-riding church consultant friend who loves his food creation time as a meditative, relaxing practice. We've enjoyed many of his fabulous dishes over the years. This wilted kale salad has all the good benefits of leafy greens, along with buttery pine nuts and of course, good-quality bacon.

This dish can be whipped up quickly and is great for a side dish or a main-meal salad.

Ingredients

1 very large bunch of kale, mustard greens, or other leafy greens, stemmed and washed
8 strips of bacon
1/2 cup chopped green onion
3/4 cups pine nuts
1 small lemon

Instructions

Toast the pine nuts over medium heat in a dry skillet. Be careful not to burn. In a large pot, fry the bacon, remove and let cool on paper towel. When cool, crumble. Save the bacon grease.

Cook the green onion in bacon grease until soft. Add kale to pot; it may not all fit at first. Add 3/4 cup water. Put lid on pot to wilt the kale. Stir/toss occasionally. Add additional kale until all is wilted. Add bacon and toasted pine nuts and toss. Squeeze the juice of 1 small lemon. Toss before serving.

Serves 4.

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