Memorial Day Family Recipes

I have always been blessed with family and friends who love to cook their version of authentic recipes that they invented. One of the ways I celebrate their lives in rememberance is to fix my version of their recipes. It's hard sometimes to get the recipe exactly right because many times they kept their recipe secret. But I am giving it every effort to recall their recipes as original as I possibly can make them. I have added my touch to a couple of recipes that I make just to say, I love and miss them and dearly appreciated their skills as cooks, love as family, and their humor when a recipe did not turn out "perfect".

AUNT PEARL & Aunt Valetta's S RED SKIN POTATO SALAD

I stood by her side whenever she was in the mood to let me help her when she made red skin potato salad but only if I promised to get "the taste slapped out of my mouth" if I told how she made it :) She never did slap the taste out of my mouth but then I never told till now. She was raised with old time cooks in Graves Co. Ky and was well known in our town in Ohio for cooking from scratch with her own loving touches.

First of all she bought a 5 lb bag of medium "good lookin'" red potatoes which she rinsed with cold water several times as she inspected them. She dried them and cut them lengthwise in half and then cut each half in half. Aunt Pearl then put these in her "potato salad bowl" to soak in "ice water and a little salt and pepper" for about a hour in the icebox and then drained them. She would get what she called "a hotel pan" that she used at her Cafe and put a little olive oil on the cut red skin unpeeled potatoes and put salted water in that pan and steamed them in the oven, covered of course; until tender. She told me red potatoes should not get "mushy" but have a little bite left in them and th en she stuck her pickle fork in the potatoes and if she thought they were cooked just right she would cut a little bite for me so I would learn when they were done just right. While her "red beauties" were steaming in the oven she made her potato salad dressing.

Aunt Pearl said "If the potatoes are steamed right their real goodness would come out when she added them to her salad dressing but those potatoes had to be cooled first She never used formal measuring but taught me how to measure by taste, look, and smell using my clean hands as measuring tools. First she added a large spoon of apple cider viinegar to several large pinches of white granulated sugar; I measured it today and its about 1/4 cup sugar, she stirred it real good and then put two squirts from a lemon and one from a lime into it. Next she put generous amounts of salt and pepper on the potatoes and then went back to her salad dressing.

She put her vinegar, sugar, lemon and lime mixture in a saucepan and added a little brown sugar; I am guessing it was about 2 tablespoons, and simmered it till it was hot, shiny and smooth but not boiling. After that mixture cooled she added 3 pinches of paprika, sour cream and mayonaise to taste, stirred it really good and put it in the icebox. Right before she was serving her Red Skin Potato Salad she mixed the sauce she made with the potatoes. Then she cleaned 2 large headed green onions, sliced off the tops and threw them away and diced up the green and white part in and tossed them in the bowl, stirring well but gently. Next she drizzled honey all over the potato salad and "just a smidgen of dill and gently stirred it again. Of course then we got to taste it and it seemed like the longer it was refrigerated the better it tasted. She told me that her Red Skin Potato Salad recipe came from her sister, Valetta, Thanks Aunt Pearl and Aunt Valetta Miss and Love ya:)

UNCLE JACK'S & Nanna"s
CHOW CHOW

We used Uncle Jack's Chow Chow on everything chili, salads, hamburger's, hot dog's, baked beans and all by it self. It is "good looking, smells great, taste perfect, and they yell for more, he would say smiling so big. It made him so happy if anybody liked his food. He diced all the ingredients small to bite size depending on the texture of it. The ingredients are celery hearts(dice small) , cucumbers, yellow and white corn right off the cob, sweet mixed pickles, pimento's, green onions, plum tomates, yellow pepper rings, and crushed red pepper flakes. Dice all the above up together he told me he just keep a chopping until he have enough to fill one quart jar and if he was making a lot he chopped all day long. Then add a little red wine vinegar, lemon juice, honey, and olive oil to taste. He always said they stirring all the ingredients until they were all blended in was the difference between good Chow Chow and the best Chow Chow, then he put them in a tightly closed jar and shake well, keep refrigerated over night. The next day he put his quart jars with tight seals and lids in a big kettle with a lid on it and boiled the water until the jars were sealed. He used to make 24 quart jars at a time and label them with the date, time, and his signature. It makes me hungry just typing his recipe for memorial day in memory of his "Nanna" who taught him how to make real "Chow Chow". Thanks Uncle Jack and "Nanna", love and miss ya