I have this recipe for French Silk Pie. I love French Silk Pie, but the best recipe I’ve ever found for it is a pain to make, so I don’t make it very often. The pie is also very rich, so making an entire pie for two people, while we could eat the whole thing, is not a good idea. I wanted to make the pie earlier this summer, but didn’t and I still wanted the pie, so I needed an excuse to make it. It is the end of my summer, it is time to get back to work, so why not invite a few people over for dinner to celebrate that … and have pie.

You can’t have just pie for dinner … ok you can, but it’s not a very good idea. So I decided to roast a chicken, make some antipasto vegetables and try my hand at a German Potato Salad.

The chicken was interesting. I picked up a whole chicken from Whole Foods last weekend and then set about trying to figure out how to make this thing. It has been a while since I’ve cooked meat, and even longer since I’ve tried a whole anything. I decided to prep the bird like I did the turkey on Thanksgiving (which came out great according to everyone who ate it) but then use the grill to cook the bird, which then required butterflying to ensure even cooking. This was not my favorite task, but after reading a few tips and watching a video or two, I think I got it. It did work, and the chicken came out pretty good.  I probably should have removed it from the grill a minute or two earlier, but it was good.

To go with the chicken, I grilled some vegetables – eggplant, zucchini, carrots, tomato and a yellow pepper. I actually let the natural flavor and sweetness of the vegetables speak for themselves – just rub on a little olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper. To keep them warm while the chicken cooked (the grill is not that large) I covered them and left them in a 250 degree oven. It worked, they were prefect and tasted really good.

Potato salad. I wanted to try my hand at a German potato salad – I figured it could be an alternative lunch option if I could get it to work. I read a lot of different recipes – a lot. There are a ton of variations of German potato salad out there and they are all very different. I finally decided on a recipe from my Test Kitchen Cookbook (the same place I got the pie recipe from) and altered it a bit. Dill, vinegar, salt and cucumbers to marinade while the potatoes cook. Cook the potatoes with a combination of water and vinegar. Use the marinade to make the rest of the sauce; cook down some bacon and use a little of the bacon fat to cook the onion in then add whole grain mustard to the marinade and mix it with the onion. Add the potatoes and bacon back in, let everything coat a bit then add in the cucumbers.

By the time I finished making everything, I forgot to take a picture of a completed plate. Will have to settle for a cute cat picture instead.

The dinner was a success and everyone had a good time eating and drinking and just enjoying the final days of summer. Yes, this is Florida and we will have summer weather until October but we all know it really is coming to an end.