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Potato salad, a summer time favorite that makes any picnic complete and is a staple at almost any potluck.  There are basically 2 types of potato salad American served chilled and German served warm.  The potato was introduced to Europeans from the America's in much the same manner as corn and it was probably a Fraulein in Munich that came up with the first recipe.  It is my husband, a superb cook in his own right with several years of professional cooking behind him, that is the inspiration for the recipe I use.  His recipe is an amalgamation of ones made by his parents.  His Scotch/Irish mother's traditional American style and his German/Hungarian fathers German style.  He is very particular about the ingredients  but then he is that way about anything he cooks and I think it's his not compromising on ingredients that makes him such a good cook.  Now the measurements in this recipe are approximant because he does it all by sight and taste.  The end result is one that is down right orgasmic hence the name "Orgasmic Potato Salad".  You will need to fudge with it to get it where you like it but I am sure it will be your potato salad of the future.  As with all my recipes if you have a question just drop me an email and I'll be happy to help you perfect it.

Making a good Italian recipe a great one begins with the sauce.  As far as I'm concerned Marinara is the mother of Italian sauces and Italian food is just not Italian unless it has a sauce of some sort.  Marinara is very easy for even the beginning cook to master.  There are two ways to approach a good Marinara Sauce, using canned tomatoes  or being a purist and using fresh Roma type tomatoes.  With today's busy lifestyles the former is best when constrained by time.  The latter though time consuming and labor intensive makes a sauce that will wow the guests at your next dinner party.  I have included both methods here with instruction on peeling and seeding your tomatoes following.

My husband say's that "chicken fried steak should be its own food group and is the mark of a good roadside restaurant".  It's a hardy entree with its roots in the south that he loves and eats ravenously.  He is the one that taught me to make a really good chicken fried steak.  Now we are not talking about the chicken fried steak that is a preformed cube steak, deep fried, then has something that is called a "country gravy" smothering it like you would get at a IHOP, Carrow's or Denny's.  We are talking about a piece of hammered round steak, dredged in well seasoned flour, bathed in milk and egg, then dredged in the well seasoned flour a second time, pan fried and garnished with a white gravy (actually a béchamel sauce) containing chunks of sausage.  According to my hubby chicken fried steak should be served only one way, with mashed potatoes and corn or green beans.  Not exactly a health conscience meal but comfort food that will make you feel warm and fuzzy.  I have included both the chicken fried steak and gravy recipes that I learned from my husband.

The great American comfort food, meat loaf always brings back memories of mom's home cooking and there are as many variations of this grand old standard as there are mom's.  However there are 3 things that are basic to meat loaf, ground meat, bread crumbs and an egg binder.  The beauty of meat loaf is that it can be prepared way in advance of cooking and the leftovers always make a tasty sandwich.  My favorite variation of what I like to refer to as the great American dish is what I call Bacon-Cheese Meat Loaf.  One of the really neat things about it is that you don't really need an actual loaf pan to make it.  You can simply mound in on a sheet pan and bake away.  If you want to do something different bake it in a ring pan.  The only limit to meat loaf is the imagination.

Well we've had a salad and entree's, now it's time for a little desert.  There is nothing quite like a nice warm piece of pie to end a hearty meal.  Being a native of the Pacific Northwest one would probably assume I would have come up with the ultimate apple pie.  However, being an Oregon girl and having sunk my teeth in to one of the Beaver State's best kept secrets fresh from the tree and being a peach lover I could not help but focus my pie endeavors on creating the penultimate peach pie.  There are 3  secrets to good pie.  The first 2 are the crust, not over cooking it and using lard in the dough.  I have never been quite sure what it is but my best pie crusts have always come from the use of lard.  Number 3 is using fresh peaches if you can get them.  Now don't get me wrong, California and Georgia both grow fine peaches but for a peach pie the sweetness of an Oregon peach can not be beat.  If you get peaches grown in the Rogue or Willamette Valley's you will have the ultimate pie peach.  One of the beauties of my pie recipe is that if you're baking for a diabetic you can replace the sugar with an equal amount of Splenda and still have a wonderfully flavorful pie even the kids will love.