A great potato salad recipe...

In response to the inquiry for a great potato salad recipe, this one is definitely one of my favorites. It is simple, and doesn't have a lot of funky ingredients (unless you hate eggs in your potato salad, as my mother does.) Handed down from a Bishop's wife in our Salt Lake City ward, it always gets compliments.

World's Best Potato Salad
8-10 medium red new potatoes
2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. pepper
1 tsp. chives
1 tsp. celery seed
1 Tbsp. prepared mustard
1/2 cup onion, chopped
2/3 cup miracle whip
2/3 cup mayonnaise
3-4 eggs, hard boiled
Cook potatoes about 45 minutes. Cool completely. Scrape off skin and chop into bite-sized pieces. Combine the rest of the ingredients and then add to chopped potatoes. Best flavor when you make this the day ahead.

Herbed Basmati Rice

From this month's Cooking Light magazine.  So good!  And I didn't even do most of it correctly.

1 t olive oil

cooking spray

1 c uncooked basmati rice (i used jasmine instead)

1 garlic clove, minced

1 c water

1 c low sodium chicken broth

1/4 t salt

1/4 c chopped green onion

1/4 c pine nuts, toasted

3 T freshly grated parmesan cheese (leave it out for non-dairy folks or add individually)

1 T chopped fresh basil

1 t chopped fresh thyme

1/2 t freshly ground black pepper

Spray medium sauce pan, heat the oil. Add rice and garlic, saute about 2 minutes, or until rice is lightly toasted. Add water, salt and broth and bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer 15 minutes or until liquid is absorbed and rice is tender (I had cooked rice so I just added the rice and garlic to the oil, added a little water, stirred it a bit, called it good).  Remove from heat, let stand 5 minutes, then stir in onion, nuts, cheese, herbs and pepper (I also left out the cheese completely and it didn't lack any flavor...).

If you don't have fresh herbs, dried will work just fine. And though I'm sure it is better if you start with raw rice, it was great for using up leftover rice.