Look Ma, No Splint: Purple Viking Potato Salad

After a long month of one handed existence, I'm back. Some of you may recall that back in June, I had a fight with a wine glass - it's not hard to figure out who won. Surgery and a month in a splint ensued putting a crimp in my two main work related activities: cooking and typing.

For the first week, I kept up this site with guest posts, posts written beforehand, and short posts pecked away on my computer one handed. And then life intervened (as if it hadn't already). Learning my dad was very sick, husband, kid, and I packed up on a sunny, sticky hot July afternoon and travelled to New York. After spending a few days in a hospital, we watched as he was transported home home to hospice care, stable, and day to day.

Together, these two difficulties underscored a simple truth that I can't deny - I'm no blogger. Occasionally, I read well-written and well thought out articles about blogging. Always, inevitably, each explain the importance of an editorial calendar. After reading this well-intentioned and well-reasoned advice, I dutifully prepare one. Then life and other matters intervene, usually teaching back to back to back classes, and other Purple Asparagus matters, nowadays preparing for our upcoming fundraiser, Cork and Crayons.

So I hereby renounce the editorial calendar, reclaiming this space for the reason I started it in the first place: an outlet and a repository for recipes. I'll leave the editorial calendars for serious bloggers. Instead, I'll focus on my main role: head spear and mom.

On my first foray back into two-handed blogging, I give you a recipe made one handed during my splinted days in mid-July. It will go quite well with my beef kebab featured in Daily Candy Kids.

Purple Viking Potato Salad
Serves 3

1 pound new potatoes
1/4 cup buttermilk
1/4 cup sour cream
1 teaspoon mustard
1/2 small red onion, finely chopped
2 tablespoons finely chopped parsley
Salt and Pepper to taste

Cook the new potatoes in a pot of simmering salted water until tender. Drain and cool. When just warm to the touch, slice the potatoes 1/2-inch thick. Whisk together the remaining ingredients and toss in the potatoes. Serve.

Dining Out With Kids and Daily Candy

I have the best parents around. At least twice a year, they take my 5 1/2 year old son, Thor, on a trip either to their home in New York or some other tony location. Last Friday, they flew him to Palm Desert, California, for a visit with my aunt and uncle. Wasting no time, my husband and I use his time away to visit some of Chicago's restaurant's that are't kid-friendly, or at least shouldn't be.

Last night's plan was dinner at a well-regarded Japanese fusion restaurant, Takashi, at 6:30pm and a movie at 8:00. A delicious dinner with soba gnocchi and scallops, curried eggplant soup and pork belly buns. With a lovely bottle of wine, it should have been a delightful evening. Should have been, but marred by a couple arriving at 7:00pm with stroller in hand and a baby and two-year old in tow. The Japanese techno music was punctuated by baby shrieks and toddler exclamations.

So, in light of this, I thought it woud be a good point to introduce a few tips I gave Daily Candy recently about dining out with kids such as eating out early and selecting restaurants carefully, neither of which this couple chose to do, unfortunately for our table and those around us.

To see the rest of my tips or to download this fun placemat to keep the little ones occupied, click here.