Potato Salad with Mushrooms and Goat Cheese, my new hoe

Our favorite main course salad is grilled sausages, potatoes, lettuce and goat cheese.

This is my favorite potato salad…..

Do you recognize a pattern?

Warm, crisp, sautéed potatoes, mushrooms and garlic enveloped in creamy, melted soft goat cheese, finished with lots of fresh basil and chives – this is not your ordinary potato salad.

If you like goat cheese it will be your favorite, too.

Potato Salad with Mushrooms and Goat Cheese

Total time: 30 minutes

Ingredients:

1/3 container soft goat cheese (chevre) (2oz, 60gr) my ‘brand’ is Chevraux, I think in the U.S. it’s Chavrie; it comes in a square-ish cardboard or plastic container, 5.5oz (150gr).

handful fresh basil leaves – about 3 tbs

2 tbs fresh chives, snipped

2 tbs olive oil

Instructions:

Slice potatoes into quarters the long way and then 1/2″ (1.25cm) thick slices.

Trim and slice mushrooms.

Mince garlic.

Heat 1 tbs oil in large nonstick skillet over medium heat. Add mushrooms, garlic and sauté until they start to brown, about 5 minutes.

Remove to a bowl and set aside. Do not cover.

Add remaining tbs oil and potatoes to skillet. Toss a bit to coat potatoes with oil, then cover and let cook about 10 minutes.

Uncover, stir and let sauté, turning occasionally. You want them nice and brown. If they start getting too brown before you are ready to finish just turn the heat to low and keep warm in the skillet.

When ready to finish add potatoes to mushrooms and garlic.

Add chevre and toss to coat – the cheese will melt a bit from the heat of the potatoes.

Snip basil and chives with scissors and add, stirring to combine. Serve.

Farmer Kate has a new hoe.

My old hoe, on the left, was getting a bit worn from being sharpened over the years. I’ve had it for so long I have no idea if I bought it or if it was an old hoe that my parents gave me when I moved into my first house. The handle is cracked – thus the duct tape to hold it together.

Why, you may wonder, haven’t I replaced it?

The hoes here in France are big and square. I want a pointed hoe. The ground here is like concrete when it’s dry and I need all the help I can get….

We went to the local farm store when we were in Spain. Our friend is now keeping chickens and he was dropping off eggs and picking up chicken feed.

I found a pointy hoe.

Isn’t it wonderful when you find something you’ve been looking for forever when you aren’t looking at all?

So….

Now I have this wonderful new hoe and my garden is such a jungle I can’t get in to do any hoeing.

For the record….. there are no weeds in there.

Well, I don’t think there are.

What you see is three rows of corn, three acorn squash and three spaghetti squash.

I have no idea what, if anything, I should do. The leaves are so huge and the vines are so thick I don’t know if I’ll be getting 500 squashes or none.

My two rows of green beans are so thick I can barely walk between them. In prior years I had lettuce planted between them…. I’ll either get enough for the entire village or none.

I place the blame squarely on that load of manure the farmer dumped last fall.

I don’t know if I should start trimming and cutting back or let them fight it out and hope for the best….

Survival of the fittest and all that.

Any thoughts?

Last update on July 15, 2014