spicy cole slaw

I love cole slaw the way I make it, but I'm not so fond a many of the commercial kinds that are so heavy on the sauce. I've never actually measured anything for cole slaw, but here's the list of ingredients.

1/2 cabbage, sliced thin, but not paper thin, and cut to manageable getting into your mouth length
mayonnaise, maybe three tablespoons
buttermilk or sour cream - about 2 tablespoons
sugar, about 1 tablespoon
salsa - maybe 1 tablespoon - I use medium or hot Emerald Valley salsa
salt and pepper
rice wine vinegar - maybe 2 tablespoons
1 green onion, sliced and diced - make the bits small
1 or 2 ripe, but firm avocado(s), diced up.




I make the sauce in the bowl that the salad will be served in before I add the cabbage.
First put in a nice big dollop of mayonnaise and thin a bit with buttermilk or sour cream.
The buttermilk is to add something that has less calories than mayonnaise,
and to make it so that the dressing doesn't glomp onto the cabbage.
Then stir in the sugar and salsa and salt and pepper.
Finally stir in some rice wine vinegar, maybe using a small whisk.
Taste and adjust to your taste.
When the dressing tastes right, I stir in the green onion.
Then stir in the cabbage. It takes a lot of tossing to get it well coated.
If you find that you have more dressing than needed, then slice up some more cabbage if you have it and stir in.
Or put the cabbage into a big seive, and let the excess dressing drain off.
This is not a soup, but I know that excess can happen.
Then finally, stir in the avocado.

note: I know that just about everyone in the whole world who makes cole slaw adds carrots. I don't.

And ... if you'd like you can make up the dressing in a different bowl or pitcher, and pour on as needed.

Potato Salad

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2 pounds Yukon Gold potatoes, or russets, diced
4 tablespoons dill pickle juice
4 tablespoons finely chopped dill pickles
4 tablespoon sweet pickle relish
3 tablespoons chopped parsley
1/3 cup finely chopped red onion
2 stalks celery, finely chopped
1 or 2 chopped green onions
1 - 2 hard boiled eggs, chopped (optional)

1/4 cup mayonnaise
1/4 cup sour cream
2 tablespoons sugar
2 teaspoons dijon mustard
salt and pepper to taste

Put the potatoes in a steamer and cook until tender. Put potatoes in to a large bowl add the juice from the dill pickles, the chopped pickles, parsley, onions, celery, and green onions.
In a separate small bowl, mix mayonnaise with sour cream, sugar, pickle juice, mustard and salt and pepper to taste. Mix in the dressing with the potato mixture. Add the hard boiled eggs, and salt and pepper to taste.

Now potato salad is a pretty loose thing. One can do as one likes. You can add more of this and less of that. Maybe you don’t want any eggs at all. Maybe you want bacon, or red peppers, or jalapeños. Or how about pepperocini.

"This is like deja vu all over again." Yogi Berra

My House Dressing

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1/2 cup olive oil
1/2 cup rice wine vinegar
1/3 cup water
1 clove garlic
1 to 2 tablespoons sugar
a good pinch of salt
several grinds of black pepper
1 to 2 tablespoons red onion, this is a rough measure of a hunk.
1 teaspoon dijon mustard

Put everything but the olive oil into the blender and turn the blender on. After a bit, slowly add the olive oil. Place in a large cream pitcher and insert a ladle for stirring and serving. the water makes the dressing thinner, thus not clumping to the lettuce. If you put too much dressing on the salad it ends up on the plate. This is good