Bacon potato salad

Most of our picnics are transported in motorcycle saddlebags, or in a car in a 40-quart cooler. So sometimes I forget about the concept of just walking to a picnic table, several of which are in easy range of our home.

Sunday offered perfect weather, with a glorious breeze and only wispy clouds. We unloaded our backpacks at a table we've walked not far from hundreds of times, but never stopped at before. It offered a view of the lake and this unusual view of the willow with a seeming hole in it, something we've never noticed because we never stopped in just that spot.

Lyonnaise Potato Salad
Adapted from "The Picnic," by Marnie Hanel, Andrea Slonecker, and Jen Stevenson, founders of the Portland Picnic Society. This book elevates the simple picnic into an art form. It captures all things picnic related, from recipes to presentation to food safety and more. This is the first recipe I've tried from this inspiring book, and I look forward to trying several more.

Ingredients
1 pounds small potatoes
3 tablespoons olive oil (or less, depending on how fatty your bacon is)
4 ounces bacon, sliced crosswise into 1/4-inch strips
1 large shallot, chopped

1/4 cup red wine vinegar
2 teaspoon Dijon mustard
1 teaspoon fresh thyme leaves
1/3 cup chopped fresh parsley, divided
1 hard-cooked egg
salt and pepper

Method
Slice potatoes in half if quite small, or in quarters if fingerling size. Place in a pot filled two-thirds full of salted water. Bring to a boil and simmer until just tender. Drain and transfer to a bowl.

Cook bacon in a skillet until crisp, adding 1 tablespoon olive oil if you have very lean bacon. Remove bacon strips to bowl with potatoes, leaving oil in pan.

Saute shallots until just softened; you don't want them crispy. Add to bowl with potatoes, reserving oil.

Stir vinegar, mustard, thyme and most of the parsley into baking fat. Add oil and fresh pepper as desired. Toss with potato mixture.Cover and refrigerate. (Can be made a day or two ahead.) Shortly before serving, grate on the egg over the top and garnish with remaining parsley.

Rating: Delightful. The vinegar-bacon combo always turns into something that's like meat candy. The grated egg works perfectly in this recipe. And admittedly, having a fresh supply of lemon thyme to use in this recipe was probably cheating.

To go with the potato salad, we had guacamole turkey sandwiches and green bean-cherry tomato salad with kalamata vinaigrette from the July 2001 Bon Appetit. We're still overrun with pole beans and have lots of little cherry tomatoes, and this salad is a fine enough use. The dressing in particular has lots of other uses.