Potato Salad~Everybody Makes It Different

I was just throwing together some potato salad and I was thinking about all the different ways people make this traditional summer dish. When I say "throwing together" that's the way it is for me.  I boil some potatoes...if I buy them special, I buy the white or red potatoes but on days like today (or yesterday because that's when I thought of it) I just boil some old brown Russet spuds.  And of course some eggs.  Once they cool off in the refrigerator, then I throw the salad together. Peel and chop up the spuds & hard boiled eggs, a squirt or two of mustard, some dill pickle juice (I can't stand cut up pickles in potato salad), cut up little green onion, add a dash of salt, pepper, garlic powder and celery salt. Put in a small can of drained sliced olives and a few blops of Best Foods Mayonnaise (Hellman's on the east side of the Rocky Mts) and mix together. Scoop out into a suitable bowl, sprinkle paprika on the top, cover & back into the fridge until time to eat it.  It never tastes the same because I don't measure the wet ingredients.   That's the way my mom cooked, and in most cases I do the same thing.  Oh and if I'm taking it to a get together, I do boil extra eggs, slice them and place them neatly on top for decoration (or something?)

When Bob makes it, he takes a separate bowl and puts the mayo, etc in it and carefully adds the other wet ingredients, keeps tasting it to make sure it just right.  He spends at least an hour or more making a batch of potato salad, when I throw it together in like 15 minutes.  He carefully dices up dill pickles, again making sure he has just enough.  Drives me nuts!

I've been to picnics and potlucks where some people put diced celery, etc. in it.  And the stuff you buy at the deli counter in the store is so nasty...it always has a bitter taste from whatever they add for a preservative.  I never buy it from a deli counter.  I'd rather go without.

I guess you could say potato salad is as individual as we are, all a little different in some way.   By the way, there's no picnic here today, it's windy & rainy again and not that warm.  But if I wait for summer to make a batch of potato salad, it will never happen.    Besides it will taste real good with the broccoli  and salmon steaks I'm cooking for dinner tonight.   Until next time......Linda

P.S. the potato salad in the picture is not mine.

P.S. #2  I haven't gotten one single alert today, so don't be mad if I don't get by your journal to comment.

Tags: potato salad, summer, picnics, salmon