A good potato salad is something of an essential for the backyard cookout or grilling session.  It can be made ahead, and adds that substantial heft to a burger or hot dog plate.  And a homemade potato salad is so much better than a bag of cheap chips.  Served next to a steak, it’s downright elegant.

A very good cook I know, with, let’s say a few more years of wisdom than me, shared the vinegar secret.  She told me the only way to get any flavor in potato salad is vinegar in the water and vinegar on the spuds.  And I think she’s right.  I prefer mellow cider vinegar, but plain old white works just as well.  This dressing is a garlic-y riff on classic green goddess herb dressing.  I add some crumbled bacon because I like bacon with, well, everything, but feel free to leave it out if you are having a meat-heavy meal.

Garlic Goddess Potato Salad

2 pounds small potatoes, yellow, red or a mix

¾ cup cider vinegar, divided

½ cup mayonnaise

½ cup well-shaken buttermilk

2 green onions

3 Tablespoons finely chopped chives

Generous handful of parsley leaves, finely chopped

2- 3 cloves garlic

½ pound bacon, cooked and chopped into pieces (optional)

Scrub the potatoes well and cut them into bite-sized pieces, all about the same size so they cook evenly. Place the potatoes in a large Dutch oven and cover with water by about 1 inch.  Add ½ cup of the vinegar and bring to a boil.  Cook the potatoes until tender when pierced with a sharp knife, about 15 minutes.  You want your potatoes cooked through and soft, but not falling apart.

Drain the potatoes in a colander, and return to the pan.  Pour over the remaining ¼ cup vinegar and gently stir to coat the potatoes. Leave to cool while you make the dressing.

Place the mayonnaise, buttermilk, herbs and garlic in the carafe of a blender and blend until smooth. Taste it, and if you’d like to add more garlic, feel free.  Pour the dressing over the cooled potatoes and toss lightly to coat without breaking up the potatoes.  Add the bacon if you are using it. Taste, and add salt if needed. Chill until ready to serve.

The potato salad will keep covered in the fridge for up to 2 days, though you might consider tossing in the bacon right before serving to keep it crispy.

Serves 6

Field peas are one of my favorite summer time treats.  Though to be honest, I spend enough time in  summer portioning little bags and stashing them in the freezer that I can enjoy them all year round now.  And I’ll be honest; I don’t veer too much off my standard method of cooking them.  Peas, water, a piece of pork of some variety, maybe onion or garlic and hot sauce.  When the farmers market is going full swing, I even pick up a good naturally smoked ham hock from the fine pork purveyor and make some hock stock to tuck away in the freezer with the peas.  Then I can have a quick summery dish of purple hulls or cream peas or zippers or blackeyes or butter beans in the middle of winter.

But I have always wanted to try field peas in a cold bean salad.  It makes so much sense in summer, refreshing when the heat is so oppressive. The idea has been rattling around in my noggin for a while, but I couldn’t quite put my finger on where I wanted to go with it.  Then, as recipes sometimes do, it literally jumped out of my brain, while I was in the car one day, driving around on mundane errands.  I could make a vinaigrette with bacon drippings, coat the peas in rich dressing and add the crispy bacon for texture.  From there, pimento peppers and green onions seemed like the most Southern of additions for flavor and color.

In my book, this is the ultimate summer farmers market salad, incorporating many of my favorite Southern farm products. Bags of freshly shelled field peas, the magnificent Berkshire hog bacon, shiny red pimentos and good ol’ green onions (we don’t call them scallions around here). Purple Hulls seem to be the most readily available field pea, but any variety will do.  Just adjust the cooking time accordingly, cooked, but still with a little bite.  If you can’t find fresh pimento peppers, use jarred and drained pimentos, or keep it fresh with a chopped red pepper.

Purple Hull Salad with Bacon Vinaigrette

2 pounds purple hull peas

2 cups chicken broth

2 fresh pimento peppers

4 green onions

1 pound bacon

For the Vinaigrette

¼ cup bacon drippings, not solidified

½ cup vegetable oil

4 Tablespoons cider vinegar

1 Tablespoon sorghum or dark honey

1 teaspoon hot sauce (or more to taste)

Generous grinding of black pepper

Salt to taste

For the Purple Hull Peas:

Place the purple hulls in a large bowl and cover with water.  Let the peas settle, then remove any floaters and pick out any trash or bad peas.  Use a slotted spoon to remove them to a large pan, leaving behind any debris.  Cook the peas with the chicken broth and  enough fresh water to cover by an inch and bring to a boil.  Spoon off any scum that rises, then reduce to a simmer and cook until just tender, about 30 minutes.  For a cold pea salad, you want a little bite to the peas, so don’t let them get mushy. Drain the peas in a colander, rinse them well and drain again.  Transfer the peas to a large bowl and chill in the refrigerator.

Cook the bacon until crispy, then remove to paper towels to drain.  Save ¼ cup of the drippings for the dressing and set it aside to cool, but not solidify. Dice the crispy bacon into small pieces.

Remove the seeds and the ribs from the pimento peppers and cut into a small dice.  Dice the green onions, whites and some of the green parts.  Toss these into the bowl with the chilled peas to combine.

For the Vinaigrette:

In a jar with a tight fitting lid, mix all the dressing ingredients and shake vigorously to emulsify the dressing, making sure the sorghum is blended in.  Pour the dressing over the peas and stir to coat.  You may not want all the dressing.  Taste the salad and add some salt if needed.  These peas tend to need quite a bit.

Chill the salad until ready to serve.  Toss the crumbled bacon into the salad right before serving.  The salad (without the bacon) will keep for up to 2 days covered in the fridge.

Serves 8 – 10

My favorite summer treat is definitely fresh corn, straight off the cob. I eat more corn in summer than I ought to admit.  Usually just straight up, with a little butter and salt.  When corn starts appearing in the farmers market, I buy bushels of it to put up for the winter. I ration out those little frozen bags of golden jewels like they really are precious gems.  And when I light up the grill, I love to throw on some corn.  Usually way more than my guests and I will eat, so I can cut the leftovers off the cobs and enjoy it later.

Mexican-style grilled corn, or elote, is another one of those food ideas that I read about for years before ever actually trying it.  When I finally did take the plunge, slathering a freshly cooked cob of corn in mayonnaise and rolling it in salty cheese, I was hooked.  This is now my favorite way to eat corn on the cob.  When I started serving it at cook-outs, many friends were reluctant to try mayo on their corn, but the brave ones who did were hooked too.  Now there is an amazing Mexican deli in town that serves elote, and when I hear folks rave about it, I love to say I told you so.

When I have a smaller group of friends to serve, I grill the cobs and put them on a big platter.  Next to that I put a bowl of mayonnaise for spreading, a dish of chili powder for sprinkling, a plate of crumbled cheese for rolling and some lime wedges for squeezing.  Interactive food is always fun.  But with a larger group, that is not always practical, in part because I only have corn cob holders for six ears.  So when planning a larger gathering once, it occurred to me that maybe I could transform the idea into a salad.  It works beautifully, with all the flavor of a traditional elote.  It’s great for a crowd, but is also a great way to take fresh corn along to a party.  If you don’t have the grill going, it is perfectly fine with just-boiled kernels.

Mexican Corn Salad

Cotija cheese is a salty Mexican cheese you’ll find in with other Hispanic cheeses at most god groceries.  If you don’t find cotija, queso fresco is a good substitute.  I prefer to buy blocks and crumble it myself to get even chunks.

¼ cup mayonnaise (or more to taste)                                                                       

Juice of 2 limes

1 teaspoon mild chili powder

½ teaspoon ground cumin

8 ears of fresh corn, shucked and silks removed

1 cup crumbled cojita cheese (about 4 ounces)

Salt to taste

In a small bowl, mix together the mayonnaise, juice of one lime, the chili powder and the ground cumin.  Blend well and set aside.

Cook the corn on the cob. You can bring a large pot of water to the boil, drop in the cobs and bring the water back to the boil.  Remove the pot from the heat, cover it and let the cobs cook for five minutes. If you’ve got the grill going, you can then place the cobs on the grill to get a nice char on the kernels, but its fine if you don’t grill.  When cool enough to handle, cut the kernels from the cobs using a sharp knife.  Place the corn in a large bowl and squeeze over the juice of one lime.  Toss the kernels around to absorb the lime juice.  Add the cotija cheese and toss to combine.  Stir in the mayonnaise dressing to coat all the corn kernels.  Add salt to taste and mix well.

This salad will keep covered in the fridge for 24 hours.

Serves 6 – 8, can be doubled or tripled

Years ago, during my event planning days, I helped a client plan a lovely riverside party, with a good old-fashioned fish fry.  This client was very particular.  About everything.  But particularly about slaw.  He insisted on vinegar-based slaw, not mayonnaise dressed.  The caterer took copious notes on his slaw pronouncements and produced what I (and everyone else who ate it) thought was a lovely slaw.  The client was not pleased however.  He insisted it had mayonnaise in it.  It had a creamy texture, but no mayonnaise.  The caterer explained exactly how it was made – with a vinegar dressing – but he refused to believe there was no mayo.  The rest of the evening was, to say the least, tense.

But all the talk of slaw led to a discussion of slaw preferences among the event staff back in the kitchen.  Everyone had an opinion – mayo, no  mayo, no vinegar, carrots, purple cabbage, green cabbage, bought pre-shredded or handcut.  I was not a real slaw aficionado, so I had no idea there were this many opinions.  Everyone was swapping ideas, writing down notes on napkins and this is the one I wrote down.  The lovely lady that shared this told me, “Honey, this’ll keep crispy in the fridge for weeks.”  I’ve never left it around for weeks, but it will stay nice and crisp through a long weekend.  In fact, that’s one of the reasons I call this picnic slaw, as opposed the ubiquitous creamy barbecue slaw served in every barbecue joint in Memphis.  Because of the vinegar dressing, this slaw holds very well in a cooler or on a picnic table. The salt water soak keeps the vegetables crispy and mellows the bite of the onions and the dressing is sweet-tart with the tang of vinegar and mustard seeds.

Crisp Picnic Slaw

I buy the ingredients for this at the farmers market, and when I saw the purple peppers I knew it would add a nice touch of color, but feel free to use only green.

1 medium head green cabbage

2 bell peppers (green and purple are my choice)

1 medium onion

2 Tablespoons salt

1 ½ cups cider vinegar

1 ½ cups sugar

½ Tablespoon mustard seeds

½ Tablespoon dill seed

Remove the outer leaves of the cabbage, cut it in half and remove the core.  Cut the halves in two, then shred the cabbage on a mandolin or in the food processor using the slicing disc.  Remove the seeds and thick ribs from the peppers, cut into quarters, and slice thinly like the cabbage.  Peel and quarter the onion and finely slice like the cabbage and peppers.  Toss everything together in a very big bowl.

Dissolve the 2 Tablespoons of salt in 8 cups of water.  I find table salt dissolves best.  Pour the salted water over the vegetables in the bowl and stir to distribute everything.  Soak the vegetables for 3- 4 hours, stirring occasionally.  Leave the bowl on the counter while doing this.

Meanwhile, stir the vinegar, sugar and seeds together in a saucepan and bring to a boil over high heat.  Boil for two minutes, then set aside to cool.

Drain the vegetables, shaking out as much water as possible.  Transfer the mix to a clean tea towel, roll it up and ring out as much water as possible from the cabbage.  Rinse and dry the big bowl, then return the cabbage mix, separating it and fluffing it up with your hands.  Pour over the vinegar dressing and toss to coat all the vegetables.  It may look like a lot of dressing, but that’s fine.  Cover the slaw with plastic wrap and refrigerate. The slaw can be eaten as soon as it is cold, but will stay crispy in the fridge for several days.  Serve with a slotted spoon to drain off excess dressing.

This makes a good amount of slaw, and will serve 8 nice big side portions, but many more smaller helpings.

My garden (including a weed)

The main attraction in these early days of the farmers markets here is the wide variety of lettuces and salad greens.  But I skip right past those stalls, because this year I have a big beautiful, bed of lettuces in my own backyard, with a little help from Bennett-Burk Farm.  I have eaten lettuce every day, and passed on large amounts to family and friends.  With all this lettuce going around, I had to create the perfect Southern salad dressing to go with it all, so I turned to local pecans and pecan oil for nuttiness and crunch.

A local pecan grower here sells pecan oil, which adds such a nice, rich pecan taste.  They sell it online, but if you can’t find pecan oil, use a neutral flavored oil like canola or light olive (not extra virgin, the taste would be too strong.)

Southern Pecan Salad Dressing

3 large cloves of garlic

½ teaspoon granulated sugar

½ teaspoon kosher salt

½ teaspoon ground black pepper

¼ cup red wine vinegar

¾ cup pecan oil or vegetable oil

¼ cup chopped pecans

Place the garlic, sugar, salt and pepper in the carafe of a blender and pulse a few times.  Add the vinegar and blend until smooth.  With the motor running, drizzle in the oil until the dressing is emulsified and looks creamy.  Pour the dressing into a tightly sealing jar, add the chopped pecans and shake.

The dressing will keep for 2 days in the fridge in the sealed jar.  Shake to combine before using.

Makes 1 cup dressing

Nothing motivates one to get in the kitchen more than a funeral.  We all seem to harbor that primordial need to comfort with food.  And there are fixed ideas – recipes that we keep in mind, or maybe on a card at the front of the recipe box for easy access.  A hearty, comforting dish that we know how to make and how to make well that we can whip up the instant the call comes.  Turkey Tetrazzini? Chicken Divan?  I am sure it varies region to region.  The popular green bean casserole that I understand is a standard part of the traditional Thanksgiving table in many parts of the country is almost universally known in this part of the world as “funeral beans.”  But I don’t think I have every seen a table at a Southern visitation without Tomato Aspic.  The visitation is the reception, frequently the day before, or immediately after the funeral.  It’s a chance for everyone to talk to the bereaved, share memories of the deceased and really get their feed on.  And, equally importantly, for the ladies in the equation to show off their skills in the kitchen.  Friends and family of the recently departed are in the kitchen, bustling around in their funeral best,  maybe an apron thrown on top, looking for serving pieces and saran wrap, deciding what goes on the table and what goes in the fridge for later,

Tomato aspic is made in a mold. And this can vary from person to person.  My mother has a whole collection of aspic molds, from plain round to fancy.  Party aspic is generally formed in a ring mold, so the center can be mounded up with shrimp, chicken salad, mayonnaise (homemade of course), artichoke hearts… You name it, someone has put in the center of an aspic.  This party tomato aspic is always served on a silver tray, usually resting on a bed of lettuce leaves, with parsley around the edge of the tray.  And it is the rare chance to use the silver aspic server that was a wedding gift, or inherited from a grandmother; a silver handle with a flat, round or slightly pointed surface, sometimes plain, sometimes intricately etched.

Though aspic always appears at funerals, it is not the only time it makes an appearance.  For tomato aspic is the mainstay of the ladies luncheon. For this application, it is sometimes made in little individual molds (two sizes of these also appear in my mother’s collection), served on lettuce with a dollop of homemade mayonnaise on top.  Though more often, a slice of aspic is the centerpiece of a three salad plate, the other two salads vary from chicken salad, tuna salad, fruit salad – you get the picture.

I will be honest here, I am not a huge fan of tomato aspic.  I am a polite Southern girl though, and always eat it when it is put in front of me. And I do feel that for full Southern lady credentials, you have to be able to make an aspic. The recipe below is the version I prefer, tailored to my own tastes, with a nice celery tang and plenty of tomato flavor and a minimum of the truly odd ingredients you sometimes see in old recipes.  Members of my family are aspic eaters and they have always given this a thumbs up. 

Tomato Aspic

5 ¾ cups (46 ounces) tomato juice

3 packets unflavored gelatin

½ medium onion, chopped

½ cup chopped celery leaves

2 Tablespoons Worcestershire sauce

1 Tablespoon sugar

1 teaspoon celery salt

1 teaspoon salt

Lightly brush a 5-cup ring mold or equivalent individual molds with flavorless vegetable oil.  This is a vital step – cooking spray doesn’t work well.

Place 2 cups of the tomato juice in a small bowl and stir in the gelatin to dissolve.  Set aside.

Pour the remaining tomato juice into a large saucepan, add the remaining ingredients and stir to combine.  Bring to a boil, then simmer reduce the heat, cover the pan and simmer for ten minutes.

Strain the juice into a bowl with a pouring spout. Press on the solids to release any juice then discard.  Whisk in the reserved gelatin mixture until thoroughly combined.  Carefully pour into the prepared ring mold, filling as full as possible.

Very carefully transfer the mold to the refrigerator.  When the aspic has cooled, cover the mold with plastic wrap, then chill until firm, at least 8 hours or overnight.

Unmold the aspic onto an elegant tray, and surround with parsley.

Back in the summer, I boasted to you that I am a chicken salad savant and that I have versions for every imaginable occasion and all seasons.  This is my favorite fall chicken salad, full of the crispy, crunchy, bold flavors of the season.  And yes, chicken salad is perfect in fall – it’s not just for summer anymore.  And if you’ve got visitors in the house for the holidays, having a nice bowl of chicken salad in the fridge is a great help, for a ready lunch or a nice snack.  And I love the autumnal russet, red, gold and brown colors.

This fall iteration of chicken salad has hearty roasted chicken, crispy apples, crunchy walnuts, smoky bacon, sweet cranberries all bound in a perfectly fall maple-tinged dressing.  Roasting skin-on, bone in breasts gives you nice, rich flavor that stands up to the other bold components. And using dark, grade-B maple syrup boosts the maple flavor.  I tend to prefer this version eaten with a fork, maybe over a few fall green leaves so I leave it a little chunky, but if you prefer it in a sandwich, cut your chicken and apples into appropriately sized pieces.  This recipe makes about four nice-sized servings, but feel free to double or triple the recipe.  And yes, this would be brilliant with leftover Thanksgiving turkey meat.

Maple Mustard Chicken Salad

2 large bone-in, skin one chicken breasts

½ cup mayonnaise

2 Tablespoons Dijon mustard

2 Tablespoons grade-B maple syrup

6 strips of bacon

½ cup walnuts

1 small tart red apple

¼ cup dried cranberries

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  Place the chicken breasts on a baking tray lined with foil. Drizzle the chicken with olive oil, season generously with salt and pepper and bake until just cooked, about 35- 40 minutes.  A thermometer inserted into the thickest part of the meat should register 165 degrees.  Remove the chicken from the oven to cool, then remove the skin, pull the meat from the bones and shred or chop into bite-sized pieces. Place the chicken meat into a large bowl.

While the chicken in cooking, cut the bacon into small pieces and cook until crispy.  Drain on paper towels and set aside.  Toast the walnut pieces in a dry skillet, just until they release a nice nutty smell.  Watch carefully as nuts can burn quickly. Set aside.

In a small bowl, whisk together the mayonnaise, mustard and maple syrup until smooth.  Core the apple and chop into bite-sized pieces and drop into the bowl with the chicken.  Pour over a little of the dressing and stir to coat.  This will prevent the apples from browning.  Drop in the bacon, walnuts and cranberries and stir to combine.  Add the dressing as you go, a little at a time, until you get the consistency you like.  I think this is the right amount of dressing, but you may prefer to use less.  Taste the finished salad and add salt if you need it – the bacon may take care of this completely.  Refrigerate for several hours to allow the flavors to blend.  The chicken salad will keep in the fridge tightly covered for several days.

Serves about 4

Easy and good. Maybe two of the best words ever for busy cooks. This is a great little recipe for a simple, crispy salad that highlights autumn’s goodness.  I make this for myself throughout the season.  I love it beside a peanut butter sandwich, but I have also put it in a pita with a few spinach leaves.  I’ve made this for kids and it’s always a big hit. You can serve it on its own, or over greens. This can be an elegant accompaniment or a great lunchbox treat.  What more could you ask for?

Frozen apple juice concentrate provides sweetness and apple tang and does not thin the dressing too much as apple juice would.  I think you’ll love this salad and want to make it often, so you can transfer the remaining concentrate to a freezer container and save it for your next batch.  You can also use the leftover to sweeten an autumn iced tea made with spice or cinnamon tea bags.  The mayonnaise adds a great tang, and you can use low-fat if you must.  A handful of dried cranberries would not go amiss in this salad.

Cinnamon Apple Salad

2 Tablespoons frozen apple juice concentrate, slightly thawed

1/2 cup mayonnaise

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1 green apple

1 red apple

1 cup red or purple grapes

1/2 cup walnut pieces

In a medium bowl, whisk the mayonnaise, apple juice concentrate and cinnamon together.

Cut the apples in half, remove the core and chop into small pieces.  As you cut the apples, drop them into the bowl with the dressing and stir to coat and prevent browning.  Cut the grapes in half and add to the bowl, stirring to coat.  Add the walnuts and stir to coat and combine.

The salad will keep covered in the fridge for 3 days.

 Serves 6

This is hardly a recipe, more like a set of instructions, but I wanted to share it before this long weekend of picnics and cookouts and gatherings, because it is so good and so simple and so perfect for this last official weekend of summer. 

I first had this in South Africa several years ago, as part of a big beautiful lunch spread at a safari camp.  I was impressed by its simplicity, and I had never seen the combo of watermelon and feta before and thought it very exotic.  I have since seen many more dressed-up versions of this – drizzled with vinaigrette, tossed with olives, served with onions slivers.  But I love this simple, fresh, three ingredient original.  I was recently invited to dinner at a friend’s, and we all volunteered to bring something.  Before I expressed a preference, I was ordered to bring ”that watermelon salad” by another friend (not the hostess)!  It reminded me of just how good this salad is.  You can obviously make a larger or smaller batch for your gathering.

Watermelon and Feta Salad

I highly recommend using blocks of feta cut into chunks.  Don’t be tempted by the pre-crumbled variety here as it tends to break down and coat the watermelon with a sandy grit.

½ of a medium-sized watermelon

2 (8-ounce) blocks of feta cheese

A nice big handful of fresh mint leaves

Cut the pink flesh of the watermelon into small, bite-sized chunks and place in large bowl.  I like a pretty glass one to show off the gorgeous colors.  Cut the feta into chunks roughly the same size as the watermelon pieces and add to the bowl.  Finley chop the mint leaves and sprinkle half over the watermelon and feta.  Toss VERY gently to combine, adding the rest of the mint as you do so it is evenly distributed.

This salad does best made within an hour of serving, so the feta doesn’t break down.  To make it ahead, chop the watermelon and toss with the mint, cover and refrigerate.  Cut the feta into chunks and store separately in the fridge.  Toss together shortly before serving.

Serves 8

I am something of a chicken salad savant.  I came late to the party, having an unreasonable and unfathomable aversion to mayonnaise in my youth and childhood.  That, and little exposure to good chicken salad.  I only choked down bad, plastic-container chicken salad out of politeness at parties and luncheons, and maybe a school cafeteria. Chewy chicken, gloopy mayo, or more likely “salad dressing” and unidentifiable chunks of lord-only-knows, frequently scooped like a baseball.  But when the possibilities of chicken salad opened up to me, it was a culinary floodgate released.  I have such a catalog of chicken salads, for every season, every taste, every occasion, it is hard for me to believe that I haven’t posted one here yet. 

Chicken salad done well is a revelation.  Tender cooked chicken lightly bound in a flavorful dressing, perfectly seasoned, with enough additional ingredients to make it interesting, but no so many to make it overwhelming.  A nice bowl of good chicken salad in the fridge means you never go hungry and is a real boon in the steamy summer months.  It’s a great take along for a weekend away or a picnic.  This Lemon Dill version is a favorite of mine, even though I originally created it for my mom, featuring two of her favorite flavors.  The chicken is cooked to maximize the lemon flavor, crispy vegetables and crunchy pine nuts provide texture and a touch of buttermilk in the minimal dressing adds a nice tang.

You may want to argue about my method of cooking the chicken – but I promise, you will be impressed.  It’s based on the way I often cook Moroccan tagines.  Tightly covered, the chicken and lemons will produce a lot of juice and basically poach in a flavorful broth.  The chicken comes out tender and infused with lemon and dill.  It takes an hour to cook, but a few seconds to put together.

Lemon Dill Chicken Salad

Serve this in a sandwich, spooned into lettuce leaves, or on it’s own with a few crackers

4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts

2 lemons

1 bunch fresh dill

1 carrot

1 celery stalk

¼ cup pine nuts (or slivered almonds)

½ cup mayonnaise

3 Tablespoon buttermilk

Salt and pepper

Preheat the oven to 300 degrees.  Place the chicken breasts in an 8 by 8 inch baking dish and season with salt.  Slice one of the lemons and place over the chicken breasts.  Scatter half of the dill stalks over the chicken and lemons.  Cover the dish tightly with a double layer of foil and bake for 1 hour. 

Meanwhile, finely dice the carrot and celery.  When the chicken is cooked and cool enough to handle, cut it into small, bite-sized pieces.  Place the chicken in a large bowl with the diced carrots and celery.  Toss together with the pine nuts.

In a small bowl, whisk the mayonnaise and buttermilk.  Zest the remaining lemon into the mayonnaise.  Finely chop the remaining dill fronds and add to the mayonnaise dressing with salt to taste and a few grinds of pepper.  Squeeze the juice from the lemon over the chicken in the bowl and toss to coat.  Pour over the dressing and stir to coat evenly.

This chicken salad will keep in an airtight container in the fridge for several days.  Do not leave it out and return to the fridge.  Spoon out what you need and leave the rest chilling.

Serves 6