Northern Potato Salad

8 large potatoes
1 small red onion,
1 small yellow onion
1 green bell pepper
8 large dill pickles
1 cup mayonnaise
5 strips of bacon
6 large eggs

Items Needed:

Frying pan
A pan to boil eggs in
A sharp knife
A strainer
Paper towel
Plate
Tongs or a spatula
Spoons
Measuring cups
Cutting board
Large bowl

Place eggs in a pan and add enough water to cover the eggs completely. Place on the stove top on high and bring to boil. Boil for 10 minutes. Once boiled, remove pan from heat.

In a frying pan, fry up the 5 strips of bacon over medium heat. While the bacon is cooking, lay two or three sheets of paper towel on a plate. When done, remove the bacon from the heat and place on the plate, for this step I like to use tongs. The paper towel on the plate will absorb quite a bit of the grease off of the bacon.

Rinse and wash the potatoes skins. The potatoes can be rinsed using a strainer. I use a toothbrush to lightly remove any dirt that may be on the potatoes skin. Cut the peeled potatoes into quarters. Place the potatoes in a deep dished stove top pan and cover with water. Place over medium heat and bring to boil. Check potatoes for softness. The key is to make sure that the potatoes are soft enough for chewing. To check this, use a fork and poke the potatoes. If the fork slides in and out of a potato with ease, the potatoes are ready to be removed from the heat. Drain the water off of the potatoes and run cold water into the pan to cool the temperature of the potatoes.

Now is a good time to drain the water from your hard boiled eggs and to fill the pan with cold water.

Using the cutting board, chop up the onions, bell pepper, bacon and dill pickles. Place all of the chopped ingredients into a large bowl. Add in the Mayonnaise and mix well.

Crack and peel the eggs. Be sure to rinse the eggs off afterwords just to be sure that the eggs are clean, a piece of shell may have been left behind. Chop or slice the eggs and add them to the bowl. Mix well.

Add the potatoes and mix well. Cover and refrigerate, or it can be served right away.

To decorate the potato salad, I like to add a piece or two of fresh parsley on top of the potato salad in the center of the bowl, and lay out three or four dill pickle spears in a fanned position.