Freedom Salad

I promised myself I would be good and not turn this into a food blog. This website would be focused and revolve around my writing. I would stay on topic. It has been a little over a month, and I am posting a recipe. Oh, it's a good one. The recipe should feed a house full of hungry young men, but it disappears in a small crowd. Potato salad gremlins sneak into the party to empty the bowl, leaving partygoers disgruntled because they did not eat their fill. If I have to fall off the wagon, this is the right way to do it. This recipe is so bad for people that I only prepare it once a year - on the 4th of July. It will probably be the most unhealthy thing I unleash upon the interwebs.

Freedom (BBQ Potato) Salad
5 pounds red potatoes
3.5 cups cheddar cheese, shredded
20 oz bacon
8 oz sour cream
1.5 cups BBQ Sauce (we prefer Stubbs because it is certified Gluten Free)
1.5 bunches green onions, chopped (about a cup)
1.5 tsp salt
pepper to taste

Cook the potatoes by putting them (skins still on) in a large pot with enough water to cover and 1 tsp of salt. Bring the water to a boil and then turn down the burner to simmer. This will take 45 or more minutes. Let them boil until they are fork tender and the skins begin to split, and remove them with a slotted spoon to a bowl to cool. Once they have cooled, peel the skins and chop them into bite size pieces.

Cook the bacon to a crisp in the method you normally use, let it cool completely (cool bacon is easier to chop), then chop into small pieces (think a few sizes bigger than Bacos). Shred the cheddar cheese - I think the quantity is a little under 8oz before shredding. Chop the green onions. Mix the BBQ sauce with the sour cream in a separate bowl. Sprinkle half the bacon, cheese, and green onions over the potatoes, add some salt and pepper, and then spoon half of the BBQ/sour cream sauce over the top. Gently mix the ingredients together until they are mostly combined and then put the rest of the ingredients over the potatoes except for 2 tablespoons of the green onions. Mix the ingredients until they are combined (without mashing the potatoes!) and then sprinkle the green onions over the top for garnish.

How is this a Salad??

The green onions qualify as a vegetable, which is the only thing that makes this a salad, plus it sounds better than "Heart Attack in a Bowl."  I could argue the potatoes are a vegetable as well since the top of the plant (that is poisonous) is green, but my husband would use this blog post as an excuse to only eat meat and potatoes for the rest of his life. I can hear him now. "According to your blog post it is a vegetable. Therefore, I do not need green stuff."

I love food, which is weird. My allergies are abundant and diverse; the list of foods I cannot eat are longer than the list of foods I can consume. It has forced me to adopt a very healthy diet. Despite my restrictions or perhaps because of them I can cook really well. It's not really bragging - I literally have to cook every meal (it's too dangerous to eat out). My brother's girlfriend compared me to Beethoven when she took a bite because I can't actually eat the salad, but still manage to knock it out of the park. I've learned how to interpret my husband's shrugs and "it's okay" to get the seasoning right - and it helps to have a freakishly strong sense of smell. 

The vast majority of my recipes reflect how I choose to eat. I am a health nut. We don't have processed food in the house - everything is made from scratch. I am allergic to all grains and sugar makes some health issues flare, so I stick to lots of vegetables with some meat and fruit (for some reason fruit sugars don't bother me in moderation). It seems fitting that my first recipe is something that I cannot eat. If I'm going to deviate from my blog plan, I might as well do it with gusto!

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