Classic Potato Salad

No this potato salad doesn't have anything weird or crazy in it. No I didn't use some insane method of cooking these regular ol' potatoes. This is straightforward potato salad, though it does identify as egg salad on a few documents. 

I know last week I said this blog doesn't pander to the Pinterest people and that I wanted to move the culinary arts forward. The best way to move forward is to look to the past. That's why all month long on Cooking with B.S. we're bringing you classic-vintage recipes! 

Yes I know potato salad isn't exactly a culinary tentpole, but it's an American classic! Just try having a family picnic without potato salad. It doesn't work! Uncle Frank just spends the whole day asking, "Where's the potato salad?" Then Aunt Sally chimes in, "Frank you shouldn't be eating that anyway. Cause of the cholesterol." Next thing you know their martial banter turns into a full blown food fight and your quinoa-kale salad is on the ground. Where it belongs! The dog won't even eat it. All while you're quietly drinking a beer in the corner and telling yourself that you're definitely doing your own thing for Thanksgiving.

So yeah. Don't let that happen and just make this potato salad. 

Classic Potato Salad

• 6 Eggs hard boiled
• 6 Potatoes peeled and cubed
• 10 Olives minced
• 1/2 cup Mayonnaise
• 1/3 cup Classic Yellow Mustard
• 1/4 cup Relish
• 1 heaping tablespoon Horseradish
• Dill optional (I used a sprig of dill as garnish) 

1. Hard boil your eggs for 15 minutes, once cooked cool in the fridge while you prepare the rest.
2. Place the peeled and cubed potatoes in a pot of boiling water with a bit of salt. Cook just long enough until the potatoes break apart with a fork. 
3. In a small mixing bowl combine the mayo, mustard, olives, relish and horseradish.
4. One your eggs have cooled a bit. Shell them and cut in half. Stir the yolks in to the mayo-mustard mixture. Mince the egg whites and place in a large mixing bowl. 
5. Drain the potatoes, place in the large mixing bowl with the egg whites. Stir in all the other ingredients. Let cool and serve. Or you can just eat it out of the bowl with a large mixing spoon. Not that I have ever done that...

These eggcellent Photos by Katy Weaver!!

Fig, Goat Cheese, and Pancetta Flatbread Pizza

That's right another fig post. Bombarding your food blog followers with fig posts is one of the benefits of having a fig tree in your backyard. Another benefit of having a kadota fig tree is using them on homemade-artisan-flatbread pizza. 

Figs, goat cheese, and pancetta. You could probably put these three ingredients in any dish and make the dish taste like a party that everyone's invited to, except for Jared. He knows why he's not invited. But adding figs, goat cheese, and pancetta to a pizza just makes the pizza taste like sex on a jetski.

Apple Cider-Fig Vinaigrette

• 2 large Figs chopped 
• 1 tablespoon Olive Oil
• 1/4 cup Apple Cider Vinegar

1. Heat the oil up in a pan over medium heat saute the figs for a few minutes, 3-5 should do it. 
2. Stir in the apple cider. Mash up the figs with your wooden spoon or whatever overpriced utensil you bought from West Elm.
3. Pour into a small mixing bowl and let the dressing cool in the fridge.
4. Once cooled, toss with the arugula and serve with tomatoes and radishes.

Pizza Dough 

I used America's Test Kitchen's recipe for my pizza dough. I recommend getting this recipe from their new cookbook The America's Test Kitchen Cooking School Cookbook which comes out on October 15th. Here's an Amazon link to it!

Fig, Goat Cheese, and Pancetta Flatbread Artisan Pizza (Fig Sauce)

• 4 Figs chopped 
• 1/2 small Red Onion minced 
• 1 clove Garlic minced
• 1 teaspoon Italian Seasoning
• 1 teaspoon Apple Cider Vinegar
• 1 tablespoon Olive Oil
• 1 pinch Salt
• 1/4 teaspoon Pepper freshly ground
• 1 tablespoon Honey

1. Heat the olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the onions and garlic. Let the garlic and onion caramelize just a bit. OH GOD! You forgot about them didn't you? Would you look at that now they're burnt. Get out another onion and start over, or just let someone else cook.
2.  Once the onions and garlic are caramelized add everything else, stir, and let the sauce simmer for a good 10 minutes.
3. Let cool and add to your pizza crust.
4. Put sliced figs, goat cheese, red onions, and pancetta on your pizza and bake for about 10-15 minutes at 475°

Go ahead and have some fun with some end-of-the-season figs. Put them in everything! So much so that you get sick of them just in time to start binging on pumpkin spice flavored autumn products. As you might have assumed these figtastic (did I use this joke last week?) photos were taken by the super talented Katy Weaver.

Pasta Salad

I've noticed a theme to my lunches the past couple of days; they were last night's dinner at one point and after sitting in their own sauces overnight they become even more delicious. I wasn't planning on posting this recipe, but it turned out way better than what I was expecting. Also, the lovely Katy Weaver took flawless pictures of  this dish.

The recipe for the initial dinner dish is a bit loose in structure. I'm not one for exact measurements especially in a dish like this, but I'll write out what I put into it and how to make it.

Spaghetti with Vegetables Cooked in White Wine 

Servings: 2 plus leftovers to make 2 servings of pasta salad

Things you'll need:

• a quarter sized fist full of whole grain spaghetti
• half of 1 large yellow onion chopped into medium sized pieces
• 2 cloves of garlic minced
• olive oil
• about 6 small whole mushrooms sliced
• 1 handfull of frozen spinach (or about half a block)
• Half of 1 large zucchini sliced and then cut into fourths
• 1 handfull of grape tomatoes halfed
• 1/4 cup chicken or vegetable stock
• 1 bottle of dry white wine (only 1/2 cup is needed for this recipe, so you can just drink whatever is left)

1. Pour about 2 tablespoons of the olive oil  into a skillet and then add the onion and garlic. Let the onions and garlic caramelize. Once the onions are golden brown and garlic is brown, but not burnt add the mushrooms. After the mushrooms have soaked up most of the oil add half of the stock and 1/4 cup of the wine. 
2. This would be a good time to start cooking the spaghetti. You know how to make spaghetti, right? Boil water. Put the pasta into the boiling water. Taste a piece to make sure it's done. Drain the pasta. Set aside until the vegetables are finished.
3. Once the mushrooms have soaked up all the liquid remove the onion and mushroom mix and place it into a bowl and set aside. Then place the zucchini into the skillet. Add the frozen spinach.  Stir and cook until the spinach is fully defrosted and isn't in a giant block any more. Then add the tomatoes and the mushroom and onion mix. Stir until everything looks mixed together. 
4. Add the cooked pasta to the vegetable mixture as well as the rest of the wine (should be about 1/3 cup) and the rest of the stock. Mix everything. Let the sauce cook down. You can serve it up hot and top it off with some parmasen or feta if you like or you can take all of it and put it into an air tight container and let it sit in the fridge until it's cooled down enough to make some pasta salad.

The good news is that you're done with the hard part. The bad news is that if you want to make the pasta salad you're going to have to wait until it cools down in the fridge. 

The Best Pasta Salad You've Ever Had*

You've already done the hard part. Things you'll need:

• Leftover cold pasta from the recipe above
• Kalamata Olives sliced (about 3 olives per serving)
• Feta crumbled over the top (about 2 tablespoons per serving)
• Olive oil
• Balsamic vinegar
• Arugula (about 1/2 per serving)

1. Add the sliced olives into the cold pasta.
2. Place the arugula into the bowls you're serving the salad in.
3. Scoop the pasta on top of the bed of arugula.
4. Top with feta Cheese and drizzle olive oil and balsamic vinegar over the salad.
5. Enjoy!

You could easily add the arugula and feta into the pasta salad itself if you're making this for a large group of people for a picnic or a party. 

*probably. Who knows? This might be the third best pasta salad you've ever had.