Picnic Potato Salad

We're heading to the lake today and bringing a request of the host, picnic potato salad. It puts the goopy yellow stuff at the grocery store to shame. Here's how to do it:

Hard boil three eggs; I keep it old school and cover with water, bring to a boil, and pull from the burner and let them sit in the hot water for 20 minutes before peeling and chopping.

While the eggs are doing their thing, preheat the oven to 450. Once it's up to temp bake a half pound of bacon for about 17 minutes. Pull when crispy and then dice.

While the oven is preheating, rinse off about four pounds of redskin potatoes, cover with water in a large pot, and put on high until the water boils. Lower to a simmer, and drain when potatoes are fork tender. Chop into cubes.

While bacon and potatoes are baking and cooking, prep the follow ingredients and put in a large mixing bowl.

3 celery stalks, diced
4 green onions, thinly sliced
2 T chopped fresh dill
3 hard boiled eggs, diced
1 cup mayo
1 T Dijon mustard
1/2 pound bacon, diced

At this point the bacon and potatoes should be chopped and ready to go. Pour the bacon grease in a large cast iron skillet; I scrape all the brown bits in, too. Over medium heat, warm the pan and add potatoes and cook until browned and just starting to soften.

Add the potatoes to the other ingredients, salt and pepper to taste, and gently stir as to not break up the potatoes too much.

It's best served warm, but it is also great if you have to chill it and take it to a picnic.

On an aside, I made extra hard boiled eggs and prepped extra celery so I could toss together a quick egg salad, too. I added diced chives from the garden, mayo, a pinch of salt, and a couple cranks of pepper. I put it in the fridge for a quick lunch tomorrow that was prepped today with minimal extra work!