Roasted Potato Salad with Bacon Dressing

Who is ready for summer? Who is ready for summer fun? And summer trips? And who wants to go on trip with me and a few other bloggers to see where the food on our tables actually comes from? I’ll fill you in on that opportunity right after this potato salad fills you up. Memorial Day conjures up a serious craving for barbeques and deck time. Which translates to grilling and potato salad for most any red-blooded American. And even a few border straddling Canadians. It’s the start of summer so let’s ring it in right.

This recipe is an adaptation of one my sister in law makes for nearly every BBQ feast at their house. While Chad is busy pulling his smoked salmon or ribs out of the smoker, Audrey has usually whipped up a simple, roasted potato salad that is supremely delish.

G Dawg and I were craving something similar last weekend when we had a few friends over for eats and sips. With a few errant strips of bacon languishing in the fridge, he got all inspired to create a riff on Audrey’s recipe, sans the mayo. Why no mayo? Probably because we’re a house divided on mayo/Miracle Whip preference and he didn’t want me giving my two cents on what tastes better. However I did lend my opinion on his recipe documentation skills as he scribbled his notations on a napkin. He’s a mad scientist in the kitchen with no time to dawdle around looking for paper.

Napkin notations or not, his potato creation was spot on: Create a hot bacon dressing to be soaked up by crispy, roasted, bacon spruced potatoes. Inspired it was, leftovers it was not. These babies went fast and hard and happily so.

To ring in barbeque and picnic season, I’m going to be featuring several of my favorite potato salads perfect for every occasion from canyon cookouts to luncheon main dishes. There’s so many options you’ll be potato-sized in no time.

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5 from 1 vote

Roasted Potato Salad with Bacon Dressing

Ingredients

• 2 pounds red potatoes scrubbed and rinsed
• ¼ cup plus 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
• 5 strips bacon
• ⅓ cup vinegar
• 4 hard boiled eggs peeled and cut into large chunks or wedges
• ⅓ onion red onion about ⅓ cup, thinly sliced and cut into 1-inch pieces
• 2 cloves garlic thinly sliced
• 1 teaspoon dijon mustard
• kosher salt and freshly ground pepper
• ¼ cup parsley
• 3 green onions chopped

Instructions

• Preheat oven to 450 degrees.
• Leaving the skins on, chop the cleaned red potatoes into about 1-inch chunks and drizzle with two tablespoons of olive oil. Using your hands, toss the oil with the potatoes and season with kosher salt and freshly ground pepper. Place on the middle rack of the preheated oven and cook for 20-25 minutes, stirring halfway through, until potatoes are fork tender and crispy on the bottom.
• Fry the bacon in a large skillet until crisp, drain the bacon reserving one tablespoon, let cool and then cut into a large dice.
• Add the vinegar and remaining olive oil to the skillet and cook over medium heat for 1 minute while scraping the bacon bits from the bottom of the pan. Add the onion and the sliced garlic and cook until onions soften, stirring constantly so garlic doesn't burn. Mix in the mustard.
• Remove from heat and add bacon chunks to the vinegar mixture and pour over potatoes. Add eggs, green onion and parsley and season with more kosher salt and freshly ground pepper to taste. Serve immediately or at room temperature.

Now that we’ve wrapped up all of this potato talk, let’s dig into my Friday Faves.

This week left us with tragedy again in our heartland. This was one of the heart warming stories left in the wake of the Oklahoma tornado, and I’m hoping for many more. Proof that there is some hope to be had and wishes do come true.

Ali shared her homemade Magic Shell ice cream topping and an ode to Oklahoma. My Smudge will be all over this sweet treat and it’s easy enough for her to make by herself.

I’m besotted with Britt’s Instagram feed.

I’ve been going back and forth on whether to hold out for the new iPhone 6 release with these new features, but I don’t know if I can stand it much longer or whether the new features merit the wait. Oh, the anticipation…

Dianne delivers 10 ways to writing recipes that make sense including the tip: Avoice stating the obvious. I am so guilty of #2, 4 and 8.

My pickling obsession continues thanks to Brenda.

Sally’s food photography basics, and a killer list at the end of the post of more picture taking tutorials.

You need a picnic in your future and all the gear to go with it. Did you blog hop this week to win 1 of 20 giveaways put together by 20 creative bloggers? Enter to win My Favorite Summer Essentials and check out the rest of the gang and get entering!

A better mind, body and taking time out for myself? All this motivation for free? The Super Summer Challenge is one I can get into.

The tote is adorable, the message is moving. Help the Katrinka Project put women to work.

Have a fantastic Memorial Weekend everyone! And be sure to enter the giveaways because they’ll be over come Monday.

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