When we lived in an apartment when I was in elementary and high school, my neighbors were great friends. Imagine a group of 4 apartments with a child in my class in each one! Yes, there were other siblings too, but being in the same class was fun. The boy next door and I even shared the same birthday! Got a little off the pickle track... sorry. Alice and her family lived downstairs. They were always making crafts, canning foods, etc... My mom never canned things so it was kind of neat for me to experience this. We ate dinner and lunch at each others homes quite often. One day at lunch, I was served a sandwich with home made bread and butter pickle/onion mix on the side. They were super crispy and absolutely delicious. To this day, some 50 years later, two jars of home made pickles ranks high up on a very thoughtful, from the heart Christmas present! I have never found any as good as theirs. Alice Thompson, if you are out there somewhere, please send me your grandmother's recipe. I have always loved any kind of olive or pickle, well not the super sweet kind. When I was a little girl, we always had Kalamata and Spanish pimento stuffed olives on the table with some feta cheese. I'll just write about the olives and pickles today. We even would have them at breakfast with eggs sometimes.
As of now, there are probably about 6 or 7 kinds of pickles and olives in my refrigerator. That is a low number for me. Castelvetrano olives from Sicily are my new favorite green olive. The color is vibrant and if an olive can taste 'buttery" it does. I know that makes no sense to anyone but me! I also have jars of tapenade to have on hand. When one is an olive lover, yet trying to watch salt intake, it is not an easy task. Thank goodness for cheat weekends. I certainly take advantage of them.
Yesterday, I was trying to think of something I've not cooked in a long time. After much thought, barbecue chicken and potato salad became the menu. I grew up eating so many different kinds of potato salad. Honestly, the easiest one to make is Greek potato salad. Sliced boiled potatoes, olive oil, wine vinegar (use wine vinegar on this... just trust me), oregano, salt and pepper. It doesn't get much easier than that. We also had the good old southern potato salad with boiled egg, mayo, yellow mustard, pickle relish (my mom used dill pickle relish), and it was mandatory to have sweet paprika and sliced eggs on top for decoration. Hot German potato salad is great in the fall. Lebanese potato salad with olive oil, lemon, pepper flakes and tons of cilantro is an absolute favorite of mine.
Seeing that huge jar of pickles got me thinking. I put the potatoes on to boil, and got out my small bowl to make a dressing for the potatoes. It is pretty much a tradition that we never measured anything when cooking, just by taste. Although many of the recipes on my blog have measurements, this one does not. While the potatoes cook, put some mayonnaise in a bowl (I use the olive oil mayo), add good ole American yellow mustard (there is just something about the yellow color it gives the salad), lemon juice, and pickle juice! Yes, pickle juice right from the jar! Salt, pepper, and fresh dill (even more pickle flavor) are the last ingredients. Just mix and taste, mix and taste until it is too your liking. While the potatoes are STILL WARM, mix in the dressing. I do this with every potato salad I make. I also mash it into small pieces, not large ones. To the mix, I add chopped boiled egg (may as well get some protein) and chopped dill pickles (Imagine that?). Not wanting to ignore all pickle aspects running in my head, I even added chopped pickling cucumber! I will say that it was the first time I ever put cucumber in potato salad and it's a WIN! For even more crunch, I added chopped celery. Add more mayo and mustard to get the creaminess you like. Give it a go... you really don't need measurements for this.. YOU CAN DO IT!
I will really try to start measuring things if I plan to post on the blog... I thought of adding this to my blog today on my walk. The barbecue sauce for the chicken was also delicious. I didn't measure that either, but wish I had! It was so good. Hopefully, the next batch I make will be just as good. Side note: text size doing what it wants... just laugh with me.
