Parsley chopping...bane of my existence

Made it. So good. And then I realized that citrus isn't really good for you when you have a cold, which I do (I think it tends to cause/contribute to congestion.) Ah well, this is tasty!

The only thing that might keep me from adding this recipe to any kind of Cauliflower Socks Best Hits list is the amount of fervor with which I hate chopping parsley. I don't mean to rant but, well, here goes...
1) it's gritty and so must be rinsed,
2) but then it is wet and sticks to everything.
3) I have found no effective way to dry rinsed parsley and so, attempt to chop it while it's still wet.
4) The little tiny pieces stick to my hand/finger/knife/implement. No matter how few of these things I get involved in picking up the chopped parsley, half of it seems to be attached to me or a kitchen tool.

But this salad is delicious!

Edit: All that ranting and did Bittman's recipe call for parsley? No, cilantro. D'oh! Also, I forgot the red pepper. This head cold is crowding out my brain cells.

An Autumn Potato Salad

Apparently I'm really into potato salad. I'm not sure exactly when that happened.
This sounds amazing to me...The Minimalist's Sweet Potato Salad, "presumably delicious."

How lovely are composed salads?!

One of the goals I had when I signed up for my CSA share and started this blog was to broaden my repertoire in the kitchen--to try new recipes and to be more successful with my improvisations. I can't say I've been doing a stellar job, but when I thought about making potato salad yesterday, I started to feel like a bit of a failure for repeating a dish. But I made it anyway because there were just too many potatoes! ...And guess what?

...I think it might be the best potato salad I've ever eaten. (Humility was never a goal of this blogging CSA endeavor.)

I consulted the Barefoot Contessa (I'd made her French potato salad before.), Bittman, Jacques Pépin, and Alice Waters. I really tried to seek inspiration from some new (and respectable sources) but Pépin and Waters had nothing to offer in this particular department. Here's my variation on Bittman's Double Mustard Potato Salad. I used a combination of Dijon and brown stone-ground mustards and a bit of port and apple cider vinegars. A big difference in the technique department between Bittman and BC was cutting the potatoes before boiling them (Bittman's), which I have to say worked out much better for me.
Maybe I was feeling inspired by the beautiful plating Mr. Bacon does (see below) when I decided to incorporate the salad into a Provençal-esque salad with green beans, grape tomatoes, tuna and a delicious hard-boiled egg. (P.S. this is one of the best hard-boiled eggs I've ever eaten). I think composed salads are so gorgeous. I should do this more often.
Speaking of gorgeous...my friend Mr. Bacon put my watermelon to good use in this jicama-watermelon salad. Oooo! Ahhhhh! It tasted good too.