I had some weisswurst from Willie’s in Frankenmuth, Michigan, defrosted and ready to make for dinner yesterday, but the question was, what to make to go with? Spaetzle is usually my go to (usually packaged, I won’t lie), but I wanted to make something else. Warm German potato salad sounded good, so that’s what I made. I have a recipe from my in-laws’ cookbook, but it just didn’t float my boat yesterday. So I did some internet sleuthing and found this one from the Five Heart Home blog. We had some parsley in our herb garden deck container, so something we grew made it into the dish. Luckily, I also had cider vinegar on hand. However, I replaced the garlic in the recipe (just because it sounded better) with half a chopped onion, cooking it in the bacon grease, vinegar, dijon mustard, sugar and salt sauce until translucent. Then poured the whole thing over the hot and slightly dried out potatoes, as the recipe says. Interestingly, when my hubby asked what was for dinner, and I told him the menu, he immediately said he didn’t like German potato salad. I, of course, responded that he hadn’t tried mine yet and recommended he should keep an open mind. Now I had something to prove, no pressure!

We needed a non-starchy veggie(s), so I added a quick chopped veggie salad with what we had on hand: green bell pepper, celery, and assorted cherry sized tomatoes (all chopped to a medium dice), with some dried cherries and sliced almonds, then tossed with a generous drizzle of Fustini’s roasted garlic olive oil and grapefruit balsamic. Super simple. Then I prepared the weisswurst the way my mother-in-law does. Place the sausages in a frying pan with 1/8-1/4 cup of water, bring the water to a boil, put the lid on the pan and steam them for about 6-8 minutes. Remove the lid, drain most of the liquid (without dumping out the sausages), letting the rest cook off. Once the liquid cooks off, you might see the sausages release some fat, which is fine, leave that, since it will help the sausages brown. Turn the sausages every minute or two until at least two sides are nicely browned. That’s it, they’re ready to serve.

So did my husband like the warm German potato salad? Why yes he did. The bigger test, however, was my daughter, twenty-two, who professes to “hate” salad. She actually dislikes cold mixed veggies in sauce (dressing). However, I explained this was a warm dish, with bacon and not really a “salad.” I really need to sell anything with the word salad in the name in order to avoid her dismissing it before even trying. I should just let her be, but I don’t want her to miss out on some good food. To my delight, she decided to try it, and no surprise, she loved it. It was a very satisfying dish, on so many levels.