What You Should Have Eaten #33

German Potato Salad with Kielbasa and Baked Beans

My grandpa “wrote” a cookbook a few years before he died. I’ve only made two dishes out of it, and that was when I was in college. One was a horrible, horrible concoction (BLT Soup), and the other, his German potato salad, was a big success. My grandpa opened a deli after he retired from the insurance game, and it was well-known and well-respected in Dubois County. Along with his Rueben sandwich, his potato salad was legendary. Heck, he was even a guest teacher one day for my middle school home ec class, and we all learned how to make his potato salad. I’m not expecting this recipe to be better than his, but dammit if it doesn’t sound tasty.

Tonight’s drink is a Calvados Cocktail. Calvados, grenadine, orange juice and orange bitters. I’m cheating a little bit. I’m using Applejack, a blended apple brandy, instead of actual Calvados. When this bottle is gone, though, I’m going to spring for the real stuff.

Three-quarters of an ounce of grenadine? I hope the OJ ends up cutting the sweetness/syrupiness of this concoction, because I’m already expecting this to be almost sickly sweet.

Yup, still too syrupy. Less grenadine, more OJ maybe, or even some more Calvados.

My kids balked at the idea of baked beans, so I let them dress up the boring old can that I bought. I’m going to include back, bratwurst, and a little experimental sauce of root beer and beer, with some cheese and bread crumbs on top. It’ll be prepared on the stove, then tossed in the oven for a bit to actually bake. I’m excited!

My homemade sauce includes A&W Root Beer, a little bit of Sweet Water Motor Boat Ale, some Dijon mustard, some Heinz 57 sauce (well, really, the Kroger equivalent), and a dash of Worchestershire.

This is only the second time I’ve cooked bacon in the oven. Last time it didn’t turn out too well because I was experimenting and not following any specific directions. Hopefully this time it’ll turn out different.

With the amount of pig I’m putting in these beans, I’m renaming this Super Pork n’ Beans. This is going to be epic.

Since I don’t like onions (and they don’t like me), I’m using a bit of garlic instead.

This is the first time I’ve worked with kale. I hope it doesn’t make the potato salad taste awful.

Did I also forget to mention that before the beans go in the oven, there’s going to be a layer of Colby jack cheese and a layer of crushed Lays honey barbeque chips added to it? Yeah, this is happening, people.

Holy freaking moley, that was a damn good dinner. I was a bit worried when the topping to the beans caught on fire in the oven, but I caught it before it burned too much, and I was able to scrape off the burned part. Next time I’ll know not to use the broiler.

My oldest son helped me come up with the ingredients for the beans. The root beer and bratwurst were his idea. He didn’t eat a damned bit of it. His loss, really. He also chose dessert: root beer floats with cookies ‘n cream ice cream. No happy plate, no dessert. My daughter at least tried everything, and she liked the potatoes and the meat from the beans. My youngest son ate his salad and his siblings’ salads. My sister and I made happy plates, though. I’m about to enjoy a float. I’ll also be enjoying leftovers all week.