Laurel's Summer Potato Salad

INGREDIENTS:

6 large boiling potatoes
1 teaspoon dried dill
1/2 cup French dressing (made with cider vinegar if homemade) plus 1/2 teaspoon dry mustard
1/4 cup minced onion
2 red apples, unpeeled but cored and diced (optional)
1 cup diced celery
6 hard-cooked eggs, chopped
4 tablespoons chopped parsley
1 1/2 cups best brand mayonnaise
1/2 cup sour cream
Salt and pepper

METHOD:
1. Place potatoes in large pot with dill. Add enough cold water to cover and salt well. Boil until just tender, about 30 minutes.
2. Drain, peel and dice them and marinate them while still hot in the French dressing. Add the onion and let stand until cold - at least an hour - while you prepare the rest of the ingredients as per instructions set out in the ingredient list.
3. Combine potato-onion mixture with remaining ingredients, including mayonnaise blended with sour cream. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

VARIATIONS:

Use this mixture instead of normal French dressing

3 tablespoons white wine vinegar
1 tablespoon caper liquid from jar
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil
Combine vinegar, caper liquid, and mustard in small bowl. Whisk in oil. Season dressing to taste with salt and pepper.

Add 1/2 cup finely chopped fresh chives, 1/2 cup chopped fresh parsley and 2 tablespoons drained capers to the salad. Pour dressing over potatoes; toss gently. Season salad with salt and pepper.

Or this mixture:
4 spring onions, sliced
1/4 cup chopped fresh mint
1/4 cup chopped fresh corriander
6 anchovy fillets, drained, chopped
1/4 cup olive oil
1/4 cup red wine vinegar

Things that can go into potato salad:
Crispy bacon
Prawns
Crumbled blue cheese
Pesto
Tarragon
Chopped dill pickles
Radishes
Horseradish sauce
Garlic
Chopped salami

This basic potato salad recipe is a winner, especially with the boys! Play around with it and add in your favour extra ingredients. p.s. there is never any leftovers of this one after a BBQ, too delicious :-)

Thai Pumpkin Soup

Ingredients:

2 T olive oil
1 onion, finely chopped
1 T brown sugar
2 cloves garlic, crushed
1 medium pumpkin (~ 1.2 kg), peeled and diced
2 c water
400 ml coconut milk
1 – 2 fresh or dried chillies, finely chopped
1 T lemongrass, minced or ½ t finely grated lemon rind
1 T fish sauce
salt
pepper
¼ c fresh coriander or parsley, chopped

Method:

1. Heat oil in a big pot and gently cook onion, sugar and garlic until softened (8 – 10 minutes).
2. Add all other ingredients except fresh coriander/parsley and simmer until tender, about 20 minutes.
3. Mash roughly.
4. Adjust seasonings to taste.Garnish with fresh coriander or parsley.

Serves 4
Freezes well

The most time consuming part of this recipe is cutting up the pumpkin. You can short circuit this by buying chopped pieces of pumpkin. Aternatively, microwaving a whole pumpkin for 10 minutes makes cutting easier.

Mum's Chocolate Cake

INGREDIENTS:

20 cm square tin
300 g butter
6 T cocoa
9 t hot water
1 ½ c sugar
1 1/8 c flour
1 ½ t baking powder
3 eggs

METHOD:

Melt butter, cocoa and hot water in a thick based saucepan.
Add sugar and stir well.
Add flour and baking powder and blend together lightly.
Stir in egg yolks and then quickly stir in stiffly beaten egg whites.
Pour into a greased tin and bake at 180ºC for 30 – 40 minutes.

ICING:

90 g cream cheese
90 g butter
2 c icing sugar
2 T cocoa
Vanilla essence

Beat cream cheese and butter to a cream.
Add the rest of the ingredients and beat until smooth.