It’s Monday afternoon in a July heatwave and the work from last Friday’s Raid is already bisque fired.  I’ll be able to take all the plates out of the kiln tomorrow morning and make a start on the glazing. My  five visitors were rather productive so the pieces have completely filled the kiln. With stilts for glazed bottoms, I doubt whether everything will get in to one glaze firing.

Eric Metcalfe, Mina Totino, Pierre Coupey, Kate Metten and Michelle’s daughter Tamara Mills joined us on Friday. I had been asked to prepare more of the large round plates so four were used. Kate and Tamara wanted the tiny little triangular dishes so they help to fill the shelves.

We had a Summery lunch with Eric’s famous potato salad, Mina’s yummy green salad, Stan’s contribution of a little meat loaf, bread, cheese and mushroom pate from Pierre, spinach and feta tarts from Kate, AND an almond lemon cake from newcomer Tamara. What a splendid tradition we seem to have started!

Already we have a further Raid scheduled for late August and I believe we’ll be celebrating a couple of birthdays.

Meanwhile I’d better get back to working with my red clay as Primavera are hoping for a dozen new jugbirds in September!

Eric’s famous Potato Salad

i approach this in most intuitive way and have developed
my own system over the many years……borrowing from
the sisters irma and marion rombauer becker’s ‘joy of cooking’;
they mention german and french methods………in the par boiling of
the potatoes in order for them to soak up a french type dressing with
oil and vinegar…….from there i add my further ingredients

so i will approximate last friday

the marinade

(1) one and half tablespoons of olive oil
(2) one and half tablespoons of white vinegar
(3) a teaspoon of salt ……..your discretion also
(4) a teaspoon of sugar….. your discretion
(5) a teaspoon of horse readish
(6) a teaspoon of french’s hot dog mustard
(7) a teaspoon of dijon mustard
(8) dozen capers or so sliced
(9) some small red capers about 7-8 (they come in a small jar ‘osages’)
(10) 6-8 sweet yum yum pickles sliced
(!!) 1 kosher pickle either ‘strubb’s’ or ‘boobies’ sliced and quartered
this gives it that new york/montreal jewish deli taste…….a must for me

this amount all mixed up in a robertson’s marmalade jar will yield 3/4 of the jar
you can a tea spoon of kosher pickle juice also

the potatoes (8-!0) must red skinned (not peeled) and to be graded to all the same size (golf ball)
in order to boil them evenly for 12-15 mins…….you don’t want them to get ‘mushy’ and keep
any eye on them to get it right……….you take them out of the pot and slice and quarter them…
put into a mixing bowl and add the above marinade and mix gently so that marinade will soak
up into the potatoes……now leave them to sit on the counter for a few hours

now add later

a large celery stick green and fresh or a second if desired and one a bunch of green onions 6-8 (store bought) all cut up finely
and mix well …..let sit in the fridge for an hour

hard boil 2-3 eggs to be added around the same time

add best foods mayonaise your discretion……i like them creamy so say three heaping table spoons +

and put in the fridge for several more hours or even better over night

garnish with sprinkled paprika and fresh parsley

good luck!

Thank you Eric.