Gearing up for the 4th!

This year, for the 4th of July we are participating (okay, it will technically be on the 3rd of July, but hey, it's pretty close!) in the annual block party!  In honor of the 4th, block parties and summer, I thought I'd revisit a few favorite summer recipes.

Today we'll have another look at my absolute favorite potato salad:



I've posted this recipe in the past, but it did not have the pictures, so I thought it was time to update.  Summer is almost upon us, and this is the perfect summer side dish for cook outs and pot lucks.  Everyone has their go-to recipe for potato salad, but I urge you to give this one a shot.

We start off with about 2 pounds of small red potatoes.  Give 'em a good scrub, but leave them whole, with the skins on.

Add them and about 1 Tbsp of salt to a large pot of boiling water (this is the time to season the potatoes well with salt!).  Let them boil for about 20 minutes, until a fork (Fork, people! Not a paring knife! Trust me on this one.) can enter the potato and come back out smoothly.  Drain. Let the potatoes cool enough so you can handle them.  When they are, cut them into 1 inch cubes.

While the potatoes are cooling, slice 3 stalks of celery 

and mince 3 shallots (if you don't have shallots, you can use about 1/4 cup or so of finely chopped onion). 

 Throw them all (and the cubed potatoes when you get those done) into a large (non-metallic) bowl, and mix them gently.  You don't want to mash up your potatoes!

To a medium size bowl add: 

 3/4 cup yogurt (I like to use a nice greek style yogurt. Stonyfield Farm makes an excellent organic.)

 1/4 cup mayo (Mr. B. likes Hellman's)

 1/4 cup finely chopped chives:

 1/4 cup rough chopped fresh parsley (if you don' t have fresh, just skip it, dry is just not going to work here.):

 1 tsp prepared grainy or dijon mustard (Excuse me.... but do you have any Grey Poupon?)

(Why yes!  Yes, I do!)

 and  salt and pepper to taste.  Whisk it all together.

Pour the dressing over the potato mix gently fold together.  (At this point you could also throw in some crispy, drained bacon bits, just for fun.  Oh, yes.... baaaaacon.)

Cover and chill for at least 2 hours.

If you'd like a little more color to your salad (it really doesn't need it for flavor, in my opinion :O), add in a little red bell pepper or shredded carrot.

Click here for a printable version of this recipe!