Labor Day Love

Well, folks, it is officially the last holiday of the summer before we dive into about 6 months of cold weather. Naturally, all of America seems to turn to the outdoors on Labor Day; I was among the millions spending time on decks, beaches, and/or patios with a grill nearby and a beer in my hand.
Hosting a dinner party for foodies is always a good time; attending a dinner party thrown by other foodies... sometimes is even better. The lack of preparation, not having to keep an eye on your guests at all times, not as much clean-up. As much as I do love having people over, I was grateful to go over to a friend's home yesterday and participate in a Labor Day Grill-Out. The food was as eclectic as the company; both were fantastic, though. Unlike every other party that Nik and I are invited to, we were assigned to bring an appetizer and a side-dish. Well, the side dish wasn't too hard to come up with: all-American potato salad. I mean, come on! It is about as Midwestern as corn on the cob. Because I wasn't able to get a hold of my mother, whose potato salad has always been a magical experience, I was left to my own devices and ended up creating my own fantastic dish.
Beneath that recipe is going to be my explanation of how I managed to stumble across a pretty great way of making Jalapeno Poppers without any kind of frying.

All in all, it was a fantastic day.

Scott's Potato Salad

2 lbs of potatoes (either Russet or Red), cooked and cubed
1 celery stalk, diced
1/2 red onion, diced
1 Tablespoon celery seed
1 cup (ish) of mayonnaise
3 Tablespoons yellow mustard
1 Tablespoon brown mustard seed
1 Tablespoon yellow mustard powder
1 Tablespoon garlic
1 Tablespoon paprika
Salt and pepper to taste
2 hard-boiled eggs peeled and diced
pinch of cayenne pepper

After cubing the potatoes, I cooked them until they were fairly soft but still sturdy. Because that took about 20 minutes to get the water boiling and getting them to the right consistency, I had plenty of time to dice up the onion and celery; then mix those in with all of the other ingredients (not the eggs). Speaking of eggs, Nik threw them in with the potatoes as they cooked- so we had one less pot on the stove. Genius idea.

Once the potatoes were done, all I had to do was stir them into the mayo mix. It probably would have been better to let them cool for about 20-30 minutes, though I was in a rush. Because it was so warm, it changed the consistency of the mayo (separating it a little)- but the end product was still delicious. I knew that not everybody likes their potato salad with egg in it, so I diced them and put them on top of the whole thing instead of mixing them in. I added a little bit more brown mustard seed as well as a fair amount of pepper. Delicious.

Jalapeno Poppers

15 jalapeno peppers, split length-wise and seeds removed

1 egg
2-3 Tb of milk
**mix together in a bowl

1 1/2 cups bread crumbs (stale bread, saltine crackers, or whatever)
2 Tb of flour
2 tsp garlic
2 tsp paprika
2 tsp onion powder
dash of cayenne pepper
**mix together in food processor or mash up in ziplock bag with a meat mallet, then shake around until mixed together

1 package cream cheese
4 oz shredded mozzarella
4 oz shredded monterey jack cheese
**cream together

1- spoon cheese mixture into peppers (or use a pastry bag with a wide tip)
2- dip filled jalapenos in milk mixture and then dredge in the bread crumbs
3- set onto cookie sheet with aluminum foil
4- sprinkle remaining bread crumbs on top of all the peppers
5- cook on 400 for 20 minutes, then switch to low broil for 3-5 minutes