Aunt Rosie’s Hot Potato Salad and Her Squash

Aunt Rosie’s Hot Potato Salad

Aunt Rosie (at left with me and Gram Werner) is my godmother. She and Uncle Buddy lived in Erie, PA most of their lives and I spent many lovely summer vacations with them. Uncle Buddy is the one who got me interested in the maritime history of Lake Erie and The Old Mermaid’s Tale is dedicated to him. I remember that Aunt Rosie was a good cook but I don’t have a lot of recipes of hers in my cookbook. Probably because she cooked a lot of the stuff that Gram and Mom did. I was talking to her recently and we got talking about rhubarb pie. Oh, the memories of rhubarb pie! These two vegetable recipes are from Aunt Rosie:

Fry 4 slices of bacon until crisp and remove them from the pan. Into the grease stir 1 ½ T flour and mix well. Add 1 T sugar, 1 t salt, 1 T prepared mustard and stir well. Add ½ c vinegar and ½ c water and simmer until sauce thickens. Gently add 4 cups sliced, boiled potatoes and the bacon crumbled. Simmer 10 minutes and serve.

Aunt Rosie’s Squash

Slice several young zucchini and/or yellow squash and a medium onion into a heavy sauce pan. Add a small amount of water and cook, covered, until just tender. Drain well. Add salt and pepper to taste and place a 4 oz block of cream cheese on the hot veggies. Cover and let it melt. Stir gently before serving.

This works well in the microwave and is also good with broccoli, lima beans, and/or spinach.