Bacon O’Brien Potato Salad

Potato salad made with hash browns isn’t a new idea.  However, I have to admit I wasn’t aware of it. This recipe was put together while I was “smoking” a whole chicken on my new baby pit. (Sold as a table-top grill or side fire-box for a larger grill.) I’m still working out some of the kinks of using a small pit vs. the large pit we’ve had for several years, and the skin on the chicken breast stuck to the foil pan it was in. Since it wasn’t quite done yet, it was necessary to provide some protection for the breast meat.

Enter bacon. Two slices, cut in half, provided the coverage my chicken breast needed. But what to do with the bacon afterward? Sure, it could have just been eaten later. However, I needed a side dish. I had hash browns in the freezer. A cheesy casserole made with the potatoes and bacon would have been good. I just didn’t have enough cheese. (It’s time to go grocery shopping.)  I did have the ingredients to make potato salad, though.

Potato salad isn’t something I make from scratch very often because of all the prep. Thanks to hash browns, I will never buy the deli stuff again. There aren’t very many of those I’ve liked enough to buy a second time, mostly because of the dressing. We don’t care so much for salads heavy on vinegar. Making your own means it can be customized the way you like it. Potato salad should have some tang, and a buttermilk dressing provides acidity without being harsh. It’s also tasty with bacon. If you use the O’Brien potatoes, diced bell pepper and onion are included. They give your salad a fresh element, but if you like pickle relish it can be added. Since I wanted to tame the acidity a bit, it wasn’t included. Prepared yellow mustard has vinegar in it too. It provided some additional bite without overwhelming the flavor of the bacon or veggies.

1 Pkg. O’Brien Potatoes

2-4 Hard Boiled Eggs, diced

2 Slices Bacon, crumbled

¾ c. Mayonnaise

½ c. Plain Yogurt (not low-fat, not Greek)

3 tbsp. Yellow Mustard

1 tbsp. Ranch Dressing Mix

½ tsp. Celery Seeds

Salt & pepper to taste

Prepare a ½ sheet pan with foil and cooking spray.  Spread the package of frozen potatoes/veggies evenly over the pan and place in cold oven. Set temp at 450°F. Leave the potatoes in the oven long enough to warm up and dry out a bit. Stir periodically and keep an eye on them. They may need to be removed before the oven reaches temp.

Set potatoes aside to cool and use remaining ingredients to make dressing in a large bowl. If you put foil on a sheet pan, you can pick up the foil and pour the potatoes into the bowl. Pull the long edges together and use both hands to lift. Combine thoroughly, cover and refrigerate. (It may look like you have too much dressing, but the potatoes will absorb a lot of the liquid.) Allow to sit for at least an hour.

I would say this makes 6-8 servings. For a larger crowd, doubling or tripling doesn’t require complicated math like a baking recipe. So, go forth and make potato salad!

Though I mentioned buttermilk dressing, you will notice plain yogurt in this recipe. If you’re having any digestive issues like bloating, irregularity, or the symptoms of IBS, take a close look at the ingredient list of the foods you consume. Carrageenan is an additive found in some dairy products and many non-dairy substitutes to provide a creamy mouth feel. However, it doesn’t agree with everyone. Cultured buttermilk is just one of many products where you will find it. Rather than making “buttermilk” with milk and an acid, I use whole milk plain yogurt (2 ingredients - milk and culture) as a substitute. For recipes like quick breads, pancakes or waffles I combine yogurt and milk. A half & half ratio is a good rule of thumb. Exp:. For 1 ½ cups of buttermilk use ¾ c. each of yogurt and milk. Besides giving you the consistency of store-bought buttermilk, it’s faster. Milk with an acid added to it needs at least 5 minutes to curdle. Put your yogurt and milk in a liquids measuring cup and beat it with a whisk. Viola! Buttermilk in less than 2 minutes. Put the yogurt in first. It’s OK if it isn’t an exact measurement. Just top off with milk to the amount needed and combine.

I used this green gadget to dice my hard-boiled eggs.

I used to have an egg slicer with the wires you push down through the egg.

It was starting to show its age though, and some wires broke recently.

While making my potato salad, I found this item in my utensil drawer.

My husband used to be an orchestra teacher and I think it came
from one of his fundraisers.

Hard-boiled eggs can be slippery.

This little number did a decent job of keeping my eggs where I wanted them

while slicing with a paring knife.

The Project Queen

Ramblin’ Rabbits

Benjamin playing in the tent.

I was listening to music while supervising. The soundtrack wasn’t planned.

My Kindle was shuffling songs on my list and Pat Benatar popped up.

My apologies for not posting more frequently here. We’ve been busy with our Airstream and “The Stellar Land Yacht” blog. (As well as the daily living stuff that keeps intruding on our projects.) We also just returned from a five week trip with said Airstream, which is the reason for this post.

Because we are a special kind of crazy, our five dogs have traveled with us twice now. And my four rabbits came with us on the second trip courtesy of our new tow vehicle, Bumble, the Abominable Snow Van. (Details about him coming up soon on our other blog.)

Most sane people are probably wondering why someone would travel for more than a month with nine animals. And it is a valid question whose answer wouldn’t suit everyone. The biggest reason we took the most recent trip was our younger daughter’s graduation on May 7, from the University of South Dakota. Which is over 1000 miles north of us. She also wanted us to help her move to another apartment at the end of the month. (She has no immediate plans to return to Texas.) Calculate the cost of boarding/hiring a pet sitter for more than a month, or trying to find someone who is familiar with the care of high-maintenance rabbits, then tell me, who’s crazy? (Yes, we are, for having so many pets in the first place.)

Traveling long distance with rabbits does present a special set of challenges, even more so than those who travel with dogs or cats will encounter. For their continued good health, it’s essential to keep a rabbit’s very specific needs in mind when planning a trip which includes them. Generally, rabbits aren’t good travelers. Lots of motion, and roads in poor condition, can be very disruptive to their delicate digestive systems. If you need to travel more than 4 hours in a day to reach a destination, reconsider bringing a pet rabbit. (Unless you’re relocating and have no choice.) My husband, as a disabled veteran, doesn’t care to spend a full day on the road any longer, so his needs and those of my rabbits actually mesh pretty well.

Unless your rabbit already lives in a small cage, finding the appropriate traveling habitat is going to be your first order of business. I knew from the beginning most of our forays with the travel trailer would be at least a few weeks long. The cages I have here at home are far too large for traveling. But travel cages would have to large enough for each rabbit to stretch out and relax. They were going to spend a significant amount of time in them when not at home. A traveling cage is called a carrier, and my best advice is to find the show rabbit carriers with wire bottoms and a drop pan. It doesn’t matter if your rabbit is short or long-haired. Do both yourself and the rabbit a favor and keep them out of their messes while traveling. (A litter box may take up too much room to be included). A cage with a drop pan also allowed me to clean cages quickly. I lined each drop pan with 2 potty pads and just replaced what was dirty. I could also separate the cage from the pan, with the rabbit still in it. I purchased single-compartment Angora show cages. They are 16”x24”x16”, which is the largest carrier I could find. They are stackable, another handy feature if you need more than one. Mine were purchased from BunnyRabbit.com. since they offer the option of having them shipped flat. Of course, that does mean you have to assemble, but compare the cost of having a completed cage shipped vs. flat. (In case you haven’t noticed, shipping carriers like UPS and FedEx determine costs by volume just as much as weight. You’re getting charged according to the amount of space your package takes in their vehicles. That’s why customer service breaks out a tape measure whenever you bring a package to their stores.)

Besides making sure there are no changes to diet, and keeping everyone on their schedules, the other thing you must consider is a means to provide safe exercise. Just as it is for any animal (including people), rabbits need the opportunity to play. Physical movement is crucial to keeping the digestive track moving, too. Any rabbit could die of wool-block if they ingest enough loose hair, though it is a much bigger problem for Angoras. Daily exercise is a big help in prevention, and one of the first treatments recommended to resolve it. It’s also crucial in making sure your rabbit eats when you’re away from home. While you’re in motion, they will not feel like eating much. Providing exercise opportunities while stopped will help them regain their appetites. When necessary, I let them out in the trailer, one at a time, to stretch their legs while I cleaned cages. Otherwise, when we were at a location for several days, we set up a large tent, which included a floor. They could hang out there and enjoy their play time (the rabbit romper room). But here’s the kicker. You have to pay close attention to temperatures and the weather. If it starts getting over 80 degrees, they will have difficulty with over-heating. A tent isn’t the most secure shelter during severe storms either. (Though ours held up amazingly well, even during a hail storm.) Depending on circumstances, the long-eared weirdoes either moved to the van or the trailer when necessary, including at night. Regardless of their location, their playtime was always supervised. I didn’t want anyone chewing thru the tent, and it’s always best to clean up messes immediately.

Grooming is another chore that can’t be neglected, especially if you travel with Angoras, like I did. I received a free, zippered tote bag with my cages which came in handy for packing my grooming tools. Angus and Lola were sheared before we left, but their hair grew out more than an inch before we got home. For at least 2 weeks after we arrived up North, the weather turned chilly, especially at night. Colder temps don’t usually bother rabbits since they’re well insulated, and if they have plenty to eat and drink. But it started warming up, and of course, getting down-right hot while we were on our way back home. I had to complete at least 75% of the Angora haircuts before we got too far South. Otherwise, traveling was going to get more stressful for them. Buns and Benjamin needed to be kept clean and tidy as well.

For the most part, everyone did fine during their adventure from home. Lola and Benjamin handled it the best. Lola is amazingly hardy for an English Angora rabbit, but she’s still young at 1 ½ years. Benjamin is mostly short-haired and usually trouble-free at home. Angus and Buns are more fragile. Angus is getting older at 6 years. Buns is 3, but he’s a mixed breed. I suspect English Angora and perhaps a short-haired dwarf, but I’ll never really know for sure. His ancestry might have something to do with his general constitution, or it’s just the way he is. Even though his hair isn’t as extreme as the EAs, I usually have to be more careful with him. He doesn’t tolerate changes to his diet very well. But I do know having the opportunity to get out of their cages made a big difference to the well-being of all while away from home. They had a grand time playing in the tent, and it was entertaining to watch them.

The tent will definitely be included if the rabbits travel again. Another item will probably be one litter box provided for playtime. Hopefully, it will help minimize messes on the tent floor. It takes some time to make sure everything is clean before the tent is packed up. Leak-proof water bottles are also a must. I wasn’t able to purchase them before we left. Typical water bottles are not travel friendly, especially on rough roads. Most of the time I resorted to keeping just a small amount of water in them, and a sharp eye on anyone running out. Four cups of water in the bottom of a cage is a royal pain in the behind. Otherwise, the cages held up well, and can certainly be used again. Their only downside is the lid on top. It offers plenty of access to the interior of the cage. The flaw presents itself when the cages are stacked. To reach a rabbit lower in the stack, cages on top have to be moved. If the rabbits needed to come into the trailer for AC, the cages were stacked 4 high to keep things from getting too cozy. Which meant shuffling 3 cages to reach the bottom for feeding and cleaning. I’m not yet sure what the solution will be.

There is no doubt traveling with 9 animals is a lot of work. However, it does come with a silver lining or two. If you’re going to be away from home for awhile, having your pets with you can provide some peace of mind. After all, no one is going to care for them the same way you do. Walking dogs and shuffling rabbit cages is also an effective way to lose some weight. Who knew?

Don’t be afraid to include your pets in your adventures. Just take the time to research your options and the necessary practicalities, especially if traveling out of your home state. That saying about prevention vs. cure is especially true here. It’s up to us to make sure everyone enjoys the journey and comes home safely.

This 2-room tent was the rabbit romper room.

It suffered a little bit of wear, but then it was used for at least 3 weeks of our trip.

It was exposed to plenty of wind, rain and hail. 

Some of the heavy rain did create small puddles in a corner of two.

Even so, it was not only additional living space, but a place to put the camp chairs

when the weather got nasty. 

The Project Queen