The second year we belonged to a CSA farm share something shifted in my brain. I embraced the concept of not knowing what I'd get in the box until CSA day. Now I thrive on the challenge of using all the produce (by eating it fresh or putting it up for later) before the next CSA day.
This mental shift in my thinking did not come easily, and it has spilled over into the rest of my cooking. Now I keep my eyes peeled for marked-down grocery items and buy those instead of full-price ones, then figure out what to cook after I get home. It's serendipitous when a recipe I've thought about matches an ingredient that has been marked down.
I'm very lucky to have a Danish sister-in-law. In addition to loving my brother, raising wonderful kids, and being a talented designer (don't get me started on the hand-me-downs my daughter's gotten from her cousins) she's also a great cook and the best sous chef I've ever had.
Technically she's the only sous chef I've ever had, but she set the bar very high. Once during a deployment I hosted Christmas and in my little kitchen, with Christine's help, we churned out an American-style Christmas breakfast (complete with overnight yeasted sticky rolls--that's the pan in the corner photo) followed by a full-on Thanksgiving dinner several hours later. Christine chopped, stirred, and washed up like we'd been doing this together for years. And the tablescape? Amazing!Once, while I was visiting Copenhagen, Christine made a simple sauce for our steamed fingerling potatoes. She combined crème fraîche, a little mayo, garlic, salt, and pepper and served a spoonful of it alongside the potatoes. It was, obviously, memorable and every time I make it I think of her.
As the weather warms up, my family starts asking for potato salad. What they are asking for is my Confetti Potato Salad. However, my celery isn't ready to harvest yet*, and I don't want to buy any when I know I'll be filling my crispers in a few days with our CSA farm share. Kicking around in my brain was the idea of taking Christine's sauce and tossing it with crispy roasted potatoes for a potato salad. When I saw crème fraîche marked down at the store, that's exactly what I did.
This potato salad is like a Little Black Dress--it works on fine china alongside a steak or piled onto a paper plate next to a hot dog. It's tasty hot, or simply warm, and even chilled (my daughter scarfed all the leftovers, so I'm taking her word on that one). I roasted my potatoes, but if you have the grilling skills you could easily do this dish on the road--simply mix up the sauce at home and carry it to the event in a cooler, then when the potatoes are grilled, toss the whole thing together and serve.