There are times when living in a tiny Midwestern town gets the better of me and my big food plans. Like the time I foolishly went to the local store to gather up ingredients to make my arugula prosciutto pizza and practically jumped for joy in the aisle when spotting the prosciutto, only to realize last-minute that neither local store carried arugula. This was another one of those times. The preparations for this dish went a little something like this:  

• Think about making cookout-appropriate dish for 4th.

• Decide on favorite potato salad...yes, that'll do.

• Check local store in tiny Midwestern town for fresh dill — negative.

• Drive 30 minutes to bigger city to do grocery shopping for week and get said ingredients, baby in tow.

• Get all of week's groceries in cart before realizing bigger store doesn't carry fresh dill — damn.

• Think about re-evaluating recipe choice.

• Let whole week go by.

• Head to different, bigger store in bigger city 30 minutes away.

• Find fresh dill — yay.

• Buy purple potatoes instead of red because wouldn't that be fun?!

• Cook off purple potatoes and set up tripod to snap pics.

• Realize photos make purple potatoes look blue.

• Come to conclusion that purple potatoes might not look all that appetizing through computer screen.

• Send Craig on a late-night run to local store to grab red potatoes.

• Proceed with original recipe.

• Curse fridge's "produce drawer" when finding wilted, fresh dill. 

• Take deep breath.

• Finish recipe and try to remember it's only potato salad.  

Lessons learned this week:

1. Local store is for staples only (repeat slowly three times).  

2. Improv is better left to the professional acting community. 

3. Airtight crisper drawers are not to be trusted.

Seriously though, I sometimes wonder who is making these food-buying decisions at our local stores. You have kimchi but no dill? Endive but no arugula?  Oh, and what's with all the liverwurst and Braunschweiger?  How and when do you eat this? Inquiring minds would like to know.

I hope you and your families have a fun and relaxing holiday this weekend, and I hope you'll try this potato salad. I love doing a twist on a classic dish, and this recipe suits that perfectly. It's tangy, bright, a little bit spicy (from the horseradish), and would be a great complement to anything cooked on the grill. Happy 4th!

Red Potato Salad with Dill and Horseradish

Yield: 3 lbs., or about 8-10 side portions

Ingredients:

3 lbs. red potatoes
1 cup plain Greek yogurt
1 Tbsp. creamy horseradish
handful of fresh dill, chopped 
handful of green onions, chopped
s & p

Method:

• The night before (or at least three hours in advance), boil or steam potatoes for about 30 minutes or just until cooked through.

• Lay out cooked potatoes on a flat baking sheet, wait for them to stop steaming, then place the tray in the fridge to cool down at least a couple hours or preferably overnight.

• Mix together Greek yogurt and horseradish in small bowl.

• Quarter the cooled potatoes and place in large bowl.

• Salt and pepper the potatoes to taste.  

• Add a little of the yogurt mix to the potatoes and lightly turn to coat.  Use as much or as little of the yogurt mix as you like.

• Add the fresh dill and green onions (reserving a little for garnish), and lightly turn again.

• Serve over a bed of greens or in a serving dish, and garnish with reserved dill and green onions.

Tips:

• This will keep in the fridge for up to one week from the time the potatoes were cooked or the yogurt container was opened, whichever happened first.

• I used red potatoes about the size of a plum or apricot.  Depending on the size of potatoes you use, you may have to increase or decrease your boiling/steaming time.

• You will know the potatoes are cooked when you can easily push a fork or pairing knife through the center of the largest potato in the pot. 

• I used full-fat yogurt, because I like the flavor and that's what we keep around for my son, but you could easily substitute non-fat, plain Greek yogurt, or sour cream.