They call me Mellow Yellow

Yes, the KitchenAid has arrived and I love it, but today I'm posting with even greater culinary significance.

As you may or may not know my friend Jess just returned from the Middle East and year in Israel and is presently residing on my sofa. In her travels to Turkey she picked me up some authentic spice mixes and most amazingly - a few ounces of the most precious and luxurious spice: Saffron.

I'm not going to get into it now, but this stuff is pricey (it's slightly more expensive than actual gold) and hard to come by because it is made from the delicate stigmas of crocuses. It takes a football field of these flowers just to make a pound of saffron and the work is all done by hand. Jess brought me back a little baggy stuffed (about three times the amount shown here) with the exotic crimson stems. Needless to say, I am excited, but I now feel like I need a safe in the kitchen. And here is the rest of it.


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Dept. of Culinary Innovation.

I may have stumbled onto something great: mesquite-smoked, grill-roasted, garlic rosemary german potato salad with mustard vinaigrette dressing. It was massive success at my last BBQ, so now here's the dish.

Last week I developed a new recipe for potato salad. Usually I make more traditional American-style salad with my own twist: Boiled new red potatoes dressed with lemon yogurt dill sauce, salt and lots of crushed black pepper (of course). But on Friday something different happened. It was damn hot outside, and our apartment was still relatively cool. As they say, necessity is the mother of invention.

I could cook the potatoes on the grill, and better yet, I could roast them and concentrate the flavor. In a fit creativity, perhaps brought on by heatstroke, I also made a different choice in potatoes at the market. Five pounds of russets, one pound new potatoes and one pound of delicious Yukon golds.

Here's what you do:
Chop the potatoes and toss with olive oil, garlic powder, salt, pepper and fresh rosemary.

Lay out foil across the middle of your grill with space on either side to encourage convection cooking. Spread the potatoes out on the foil and place over a real charcoal fire. No "briquettes" bub! You can buy amazing mesquite chunk charcoal at Safeway so don't skimp or you potatoes will taste like chemicals.

Roast for 45 minutes and remove from heat o a bowl. Dress with canola oil, white vinegar, white wine and rough ground mustard and stir in chopped green onions. Mix throughly and serve at room temperature.

By the way, the mixer (see left) will soon be mine thanks to an amazing birthday gift from my parents and according to UPS it is scheduled to arrive in just a week!


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