Dill Pickle Potato Salad And Pinot Noir Taste Test For Father's Day

I grew up eating and loving my mom’s potato salad, Bev learned how to make it, and I still prefer it over all others.  It is simple with potatoes, hard boiled eggs, onion, celery, mayo, mustard, and celery seed (definitely no pickles) and eaten at room temperature after sitting for several hours for the flavors to marry.  However, when I saw the recipe for Dill Pickle Potato Salad  on the “Flavor Of The Moment” blog and knew I liked all of the ingredients, I decided to give it a try.  With the dill, I thought it was somewhat Mediterranean to go with the Greek shrimp for supper.  The trick to enjoying it was to not compare it to mom’s but think of it as an entirely different dish.  Bev made it for us and doubled the recipe as shown below.

Dill Pickle Potato Salad

Ingredients:

3 lbs. Yukon gold potatoes, cubed

6 hard boiled eggs, chopped

1 cup chopped dill pickles

1 cup chopped celery

1 cup chopped red onion

½ cup mayonnaise

½ cup sour cream

2 tablespoons dill pickle brine

3 tablespoons Dijon mustard

3 tablespoons chopped fresh dill

1 teaspoon sea salt or to taste

½ teaspoon black pepper or to taste

Instructions:

Place the potatoes in a large pot and fill with enough water to cover the potatoes by an inch with ½ Tbsp of salt and cook for 10-15 minutes or until the potatoes are tender enough to pierce with the tip of a knife. You want the potatoes to be tender but not mushy so that they hold their shape.

Drain well in a colander.

Place the chopped hard-boiled eggs, dill pickle, celery and red onion to the bowl of potatoes, mix, and set aside.

Whisk the mayonnaise, sour cream, dill pickle brine, Dijon mustard, chopped dill, salt and pepper until well incorporated in a small bowl.

Add the dressing to the potatoes and toss gently until well coated.

Taste and add salt and pepper as needed.

The Verdict:

I really liked the potato salad and it is totally different than Mom’s.  If you like dill and you like potato salad, I believe you will also enjoy this version.  This has now become  my second favorite potato salad.  The one negative is that the dressing was somewhat runny.

Pinot Noir Wine Tastes Tests

I enjoy the full range of red wine from the light Gamay to the full-bodied Cabernet Sauvignon but lately I’ve decided I like my red wine toward the lighter side which is why I really liked the Tuscan Chiantis.  Since importing my favorite from Tuscany is quite expensive, I’m on a search for a substitute so I developed a tasting plan.  I begin by tasting some locally available light Pinot Noirs made in American.  Then I will taste some locally available Chianti’s, a favorite Chianti that I imported from Tuscany and the winning Pinot Noir to to pick my go-to red wine.

We did the Pinot Noir tasting as part of our Fathers Day meal (along with the dill potato salad and two shrimp dishes) and to let the wine breath, I open the bottles at noon, then poured into the glasses at 4:30 for the 5:30 tasting.  The four wines were:

2021 Elouna from Oregon

2023 Morgan from California

2023 Patricia Green Cellars from Oregon

2022 Federalist from California

My favorite was the Morgan and now it will be tasted with the Chiantis but we’ll have to drink the opened bottles of Pinot first.

The Father's Day appetizer was Royal Red Shrimp sauteed in brown butter and homemade bread to soak up the extra butter sauce - delicious.

The entree was Greek Shrimp with Tomatoes and Feta.

Photos can be slightly enlarged by clicking on them and the blue words are links.

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by Almost Heaven South.

Larry

6/15/25 event date