Potato Salad with Bacon

I am forever perusing cooking blogs and I don’t even want to venture a guess as to how many recipes I have emailed to myself in hopes of making one day as I’m sure that it’s probably more than I could make in two lifetimes.  Recently though I have been working on better organizing my recipes and as I organize I’ve been watching for those recipes which I could make immediately because of having all the ingredients in the house.  This potato salad was one of those recipes and though I didn’t have the exact ingredients in the original recipe I had perfect-close-enough substitutions and honestly after making the recipe I would leave my substitutions in place as this was a perfect recipe for us.  When I saw this recipe for potato salad. something about it just worked for me so it ended up in my email box.  

Funny thing about this recipe is the night that I first served this potato salad Eammon immediately exclaimed that this was “the best potato salad ever.”  So why is that so funny?  Because Michelle at Brown Eyed Baker got this recipe from her friend’s grandmother and on that original recipe card it was titled “Best Ever Potato Salad”.  So below is my slightly adapted rendition of their Best Ever Potato Salad.

Potato Salad with Bacon (adapted from here)

4 c peeled & cubed potatoes (I used russet because that’s what I had in the house)
10 slices bacon, cut into 1-inch pieces
3/4 cup mayonnaise
1 TBS Dijon mustard
2 tsp granulated sugar
1 tsp salt
5 hard-boiled eggs, chopped
1 stalk celery, diced
1 medium Vidalia or sweet onion, chopped
1/2 medium red and/or orange pepper, chopped

Boil the potatoes until they are fork tender then drain the potatoes and set aside.

Meanwhile, cook the bacon in a fry pan over medium heat until crisp. Remove the bacon with a slotted spoon and place on a paper towel-lined plate to drain. Pour off all but 2 TBS of the bacon drippings.

Remove the fry pan from the heat and add the mayonnaise, mustard, sugar and salt to the reserved bacon drippings and whisk to combine.

In a large bowl combine the eggs, celery, onion and pepper. Pour the dressing over the ingredients and stir to evenly mix. Add the potatoes and bacon and gently stir to coat. Cover and refrigerate for at least 3 hours before serving.

Enjoy!!