Fiches de cuisine des USA: "Le potato salad"

French friends and acquaintances often ask me if I "cook French" or "American," as if the former would be unlikely and the latter would be unfortunate.

I answer, quite airily, that I do all sorts of cooking...French, American, Italian, Indian, Chinese, Mexican. That usually shuts them up.

To be honest, though, at least half of my cooking falls into the traditional French category. There's so much to master in one cuisine alone that I don't really want to flitter and flutter all over the world's cooking. I would also lose the thematic unity of my blog, which is, after all, about everyday French cooking.

We are in the USA now, and are enjoying some excellent dishes prepared by my mother and best friend. Every summer I promise to make a mental note of which recipes are big hits in order to make them back in France, but I'm not very good about reading mental notes. So this year, I'll try to blog about a few great American dishes that I can later work into my half-French, half-international kitchen.

The first, and the one my daughters clamor for most, is "le potato salad." Now don't tell me that pomme de terre, patate, and salade are all feminine words -- in my family's French-American vernacular, the above treat is somehow masculine.

Inspired by my grandmother, I make a simple combination of potatoes, bacon, green onions, hard-boiled eggs and pickles with a fairly light coating of mayonnaise. I do add a little "French touch": fresh herbs.

It's a nice change from the ever-present rice salads served all over France all summer.