Grammy's Mustard Potato Salad

 

Is it permissible to have a barbecue without serving potato salad? Because from my experience, I can tell you it is not. The first time I had potato salad was at my grandmother's house when I was a little girl. Hers was always the creamiest, most delicious potato salad. Not too tart, not too sweet, just flavorful, perfectly textured with an equal amount of potato creaminess to vegetable crunch. She didn’t have a recipe saying that she would just mix things together until it "looked right." I’m sure that a lot of your grandparents described things in a similar fashion. Through trial and error, this is what I came up with that is the closest to my grandmother's potato salad that I can remember.

Grammy's Mustard Potato Salad

  2 lbs. russet potatoes, peeled and cubed

Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

3 T. sherry vinegar

¾ c. Duke’s mayonnaise

¼ c. sour cream

2 T. yellow mustard

1 T. sugar

1/3 c. dill pickle relish

2 T. pickle or olive brine        

3 stalks celery, chopped

4 scallions, chopped

¼ c. chopped fresh parsley

3 hard boiled eggs

Paprika, for topping

 Put the potatoes in a large saucepan with salted water to cover. Bring to a simmer and cook until fork tender, 8 to 10 minutes.

 Drain and transfer to a large bowl. Add the vinegar and ½ teaspoon salt; toss, and let stand for 10 minutes.

 In a small bowl, whisk together mayonnaise, sour cream, mustard, and sugar. Fold in relish, brine, celery, and scallions. Pour over potatoes and fold together to combine. Season to taste with salt and pepper; fold in hard-boiled eggs and parsley. Refrigerate two hours or overnight. Sprinkle with paprika to garnish.

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"The Music Man" Tablescape

June 26 would have been my dad‘s birthday, and I miss him mightily. As a consequence, I decided to create a table for two in his honor. My dad was many things, among them an avid trumpet player, music arranger, and member of a variety of bands and ensembles. Because of this, I decided to call this table “The Music Man.”

I wanted the table to be masculine in a similar way to the Hemingway-inspired table that I did last week. This time I used a chocolate brown table covering, and topped the tables with original pieces of sheet music that belonged to my dad. As you can see, this music, yellowed and crumbling with age, goes back to the 40s. My dad played this music.

At the center of the table is a figure playing a trumpet. This used to be a part of an arrangement in my parents' living room and is now a part of my own home, and a cherished part at that.

The piccolo trumpet in the case was one that Jim and I bought my dad for his birthday. It was more ornamental than anything, but he did enjoy having it. It was a nice addition to his collection of trumpets, cornets, and a flugelhorn.  We bought this at the Portobello Market when we were living in London, and carried it back with us.

The candles with the music on the side I bought years ago from Pottery Barn. I had always intended to use them in a centerpiece when we hosted one of my dad’s birthday dinners, but for whatever reason I kept losing them. It’s only through a stroke of luck that I found them in time to use with this table.

Because my dad was a brass player, I decided to use brassy gold chargers. These are topped with cinnamon colored, nubby-edged plates from Pier One.

On top of this I used my much loved, immensely versatile, clear
Duralex plates under which I placed a picture of my dad, printed on coffee-dyed paper, taken when he was in college, all dressed up in a white tux and holding his trumpet, ready to perform in a concert at Yale. Doesn’t he look Hollywood handsome? (I had previously used these plates on a “Bee” tablescape.)

 

I struggled with the napkins, so chose to go with these rather subdued black and cream plaid ones from Pottery Barn.

 To complement the brassy chargers, I chose gold flatware.

Glassware is Mikasa’s Park Lane, a versatile choice, because these can be dressed up or down depending upon the occasion.

If you are still fortunate enough to have your dad in your life, give him a hug for me, and tell him how very much he is appreciated.

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  This post is linked to: Tablescape Thursday

  

Nostalgic Holiday Sparkle

I still, occasionally, run into a box of my parents' things. Not too long ago I found the box of ornaments that my mother had used on her loft tree. Mother would put up a tree in every room of the house; each tree had a different theme and color. The loft tree was nostalgic and sparkled with gold. I decorated this tree with all of my mother's beautiful, long-collected ornaments, and, in doing so, relived those wonderful days of her legendary Christmas brunch, mounds of packages, rooms filled with candlelight and trees, and best of all, friends and family.

What is your favorite Christmas memory?

 

A "Friendly" Winter

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With Christmas and our Boxing Day celebration behind us, it’s time to put the Christmas dishes away, and bring out new dishes for winter. I inherited this lovely set of Johnson Brothers “Friendly Village” dishes, complete with wine glasses and completer pieces, from my mother. I have always admired this set, and now look forward to the comforting scenes all winter long. 

I love transferware, and was totally charmed by the fact that each dish has its own special scene. I hadn’t realized this until they became mine. What charm!

Some of the scenes included in the collection are Autumn Mists, Covered Bridge, Hay Field, Lily Pond, School House, Sugar Maples, and Village Green.

What dishes, if any, do you turn to to get you through the dark days of winter?

Aunt Gladys' Chili Sauce

Today, as promised, is the recipe for my great aunt’s chili sauce, that I have since named after her. If you could read the framed and wall-mounted recipe that I posted yesterday, you may have noticed that it yielded quite a large quantity. I cut this recipe in half, made a few tweaks, and couldn’t be happier. One taste, and it took me back to when I was four years old, and first sampled this toothsome condiment in my great aunt Gladys’s kitchen.

Aunt Gladys' Chili Sauce

12 large homegrown tomatoes

1½ 3-oz. pkgs. Melissa’s shallots, finely diced

3 cups granulated sugar

3 cups cider vinegar

½ t. cinnamon

½ t. ground cloves

½ t. ground ginger

½ t. allspice

2 T. kosher salt

2 jalapenos, finely chopped

4 Melissa’s Organic Granny Smith Apples, finely diced

Place all above ingredients EXCEPT the apples into a large stockpot on the stove. Bring mixture to a boil. Turn heat down to allow to simmer, and cook for 2 hours. Add apples and cook an additional 30-60 minutes until mixture thickens to your liking. Seal while hot.

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Aunt Gladys' Disappearing Chili Sauce

This chili sauce has a unique history. It came from my great aunt Gladys on my father's side (where she got it I do not know). Aunt Gladys passed it to my mother after she had tasted it during a visit to their Oklahoma home. I remember I was about four at the time, and was quite taken with their lovely home that included a vast rose garden and walk-in freezer. You might want to read those last couple of words again. My mother was in absolute heaven at the thought of a walk-in freezer. She was an avid maker of pies, and could envision them all stacked up waiting to be baked at some future point.

After we concluded our visit and returned home, my mother made the chili sauce. She loved it, I loved it, everybody loved it. Next year, following a bumper crop of tomatoes, she decided to make it again, but couldn’t find the recipe. That recipe stayed hidden for the next decade or so. Aunt Gladys had passed away at that point, and no one knew what had become of it.

Fast forward five more years when my mother pulled out an old cookbook to use, and found the chili sauce recipe that she'd apparently used as a bookmark. Immediately, she sat down, wrote out a copy, and gave it to me for safekeeping, just in case she lost it again. After my mother passed away, I had such a taste for that chili sauce that I went in search of my copy, but, alas, couldn’t find it. About a year ago, I did. It was during the winter, so I decided I was going to put it somewhere for safekeeping so as not to have it escape me during the summer. You know what I’m going to say here, right? I did lose it. Then I found it, and then I lost it again.

When I finally found it for the last time I decided that I was going to do something so as to prevent this from ever happening again -- I framed it. It is now hanging on the wall in my kitchen where I see it every day, and am thankful for my mother, my aunt, and a family history that caused such a stir. Because it gives me such a warm feeling every time I see it, I encourage you to consider giving one of your old family recipes this same treatment, and if you do, I would like to hear about it.

Come back tomorrow for the chili sauce recipe in readable form with my delicious adjustments.

 
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Haviland Fruit Bowls...This Week's Find

When I was packing up my parents' things in preparation for selling the house, I did so in haste. I was careful, don’t get me wrong, but I tried not to dwell on individual items, just pack them up as quickly and carefully as I could. I am still unboxing things, and just the other day unboxed these beautiful fruit dishes (if that is indeed what they are), that you saw in this post. I was with my mother when she bought these, having no idea what she would ever do with them, just bought them because she liked them, but didn’t realize that they were Haviland.

What treasures! Like my mother, I have no idea what I’m going to do with them, but I suspect I will use them for cold salads or soups. They are a bit more dainty and delicate than what I’m used to, but I find, these days, then you can pretty much mix everything with everything.

Aren’t these lovely?

To see last week’s unique find, click here.

Meal Plan Monday #11 Dad’s Favorites

As you read this, I am preparing to bury my beloved Dad. You all have read a lot about him on the blog, and I can tell you that he was really a special man. Sadly, last week, on the sixth anniversary of my mother’s passing, dad took a tumble down the stairs, fractured his skull, and sustained a traumatic brain injury from which he did not recover. He passed away with me by his side the following afternoon. I cannot tell you how devastating this has been for me, but I’m sure you all know the pain.

So this week, for Meal Plan Monday, I am going to do favorite dishes of my dad. He was always one to lavish a compliment when it came to a good meal, or rich dessert.

These are the things that he enjoyed the most.

Monday – “Outstanding” Beef Brisket, Party Potato Casserole, roasted carrots, Coconut Cream Cheesecake

Tuesday – Catered Meal

Wednesday - Oriental Beef Casserole, hot rolls, Coconut Cream Cheesecake

Thursday – Creamy Ham Towers, Roasted Radishes with Green Goddess Dressing, Heavenly Hash

Friday - Italian Meatballs, salad, Jackie’s Pecan Pie

Saturday – Oven Chicken Kiev, Wild Rice, Smothered Green Beans, Pie

Sunday – Slow Cooker Roast Beef with Red Eye Gravy, mashed potatoes, Butter Pecan Turtle Cookies

I will not be doing a tablescape for this week, but will have a centerpiece paying homage to dad that I will share later.

Tell that special someone that you love them today.