Little Homestead's Potato Salad Recipe, Homemade Ranch Dressing & No-Bake Hay Stack Cookies

Little Homestead Potato Salad-
One thing I've always made when summer starts is potato salad! I love the stuff. My typical salad has been mostly mayo, heavy on the stone ground mustard, some celery salt, pepper and lots of celery. Dave's never been a fan, so I tried German potato salad. I'm not a fan :(  So what to do? I browsed thru some recipes and decided to switch it up. I used-

9 medium/large sized red taters, cooked, cooled and diced to about 1"-1 1/2" chunks, or so. I then added- 2 diced red peppers, 4 diced green onions, 3 stalks celery, 1/4 cup fresh chopped flat leaf parsley. Toss gently.
For the dressing I used- 1 cup mayo, 5 heaping tsp. (or so) of Dijon mustard, pepper to taste, 1/2 tsp. celery seed, 1/2 tsp. dried dill, 1/2 tsp. pepper, 1 tsp. sugar. Mix well with a whisk, then taste for flavor. I added a lot more mustard than I thought I would need to, but it's subtle. Pour, then toss, the sauce very gently over the potatoes. Refrigerate before serving. Dave's review? Pretty good! I thought it was a much lighter flavor and I like it! Next time I'd add some crumbled bacon or maybe some capers, and fresh garlic...

Homemade Ranch Dressing-
Since I love buttermilk I finally found a recipe that looked good for ranch dressing Ranch Dressing Recipe  I steered clear of the ones that are mostly mayo, ew.  I did add some celery seeds to this recipe. I love using fresh herbs from the garden. It's great! Try it!!!

No-Bake Hay Stack Cookies-
I found this recipe on another blog a while back, sadly I don't remember which one! If it's yours, please post that and I can add a link back. It's a no-bake cookie, great for hot days, and Dave and I love them! He said his Aunt used to make them for the holidays. I put them in the freezer for a couple of hours, since my fridge is pretty full to chill. Here's the basics-

3 cups rolled oats
3/4 cup sugar
3/4 cup milk
5 TBL. cocoa powder, or to taste
1 TBS. pure vanilla extract
1 cup peanut butter (I used crunchy)  You could try almond butter too?

Put all the ingredients in a saucepan, except the oats and P. butter. Heat, then stir in the P. butter and bring to a boil, simmer 1 minute. Add the oats. I used 1 saucepan here, very easy. Toss well and coat all the oats. Take off the heat, and use spoon to form mounds on wax paper/parchment on a cookie sheet.  Refrigerate til chilled, and store in fridge in warm weather. Fast and easy!!!