Bacon

My wife requested I make this last night on Christmas Eve to go with our traditional supper of lobster. With me unemployed this year we could have never afforded to buy lobster, but fortunately my wife had 4 of them in the freezer from when she'd found them dirt-cheap and prefrozen back when I was among the employed.

I am not a big fan at all of the potato salad we all know so well from family picnics - drenched in mayonaise as it is. But German Potato Salad on the other hand is heaven on earth! It is a completely different thing altogether, with tart malt vinegar, bacon bits, celery and more. And it goes together surprisingly easy with a mini chopper food processor.

If you are vegetarian, I'm sure this may still be worthwhile, but to me the bacon really makes the recipe. Especially since I used my home made bacon this time around.

This is my mom's recipe, which is enough for 5 pies. I give her original recipe, as well as my own version below which is good for just 1 pie if you don't need the full amount. Her recipe calls for lard but you can use vegetable shortening if you wish. I actually use my own home-rendered pork fat. Another fun thing to do is save up your bacon fat and use it, to get a wonderful bacon-flavoured pie crust!

• 5 cups flour (I use whole wheat)
• 2 tsp brown sugar
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 egg
• 1/4 tsp baking powder
• 4 tsp vinegar in
• 3/4 cup cold water (may need up to 1/4 cup more)
• 1 lb lard or shortening