TATER SALAD

Of course, the real star of this recipe is my mom, Mary. She makes, hands down, the best potato salad I have ever eaten. I make a good rendition, but hers is still the best ever. The following recipe is as close to a reasonable facismile as I have been able to come up with since my Mom doesn't measure anything she puts into hers and I make it the same way. This recipe is deceptively simple. The key to just how good this is has to do with the combination of warm ingredients and the order they are added to the mixture.

What You Need:
5 lbs potatoes, peeled and quartered (this salad is better with the potatoes peeled)
1/2 Cup Mayonnaise or Miracle Whip (keep the jar handy, just in case)
3 Tablespoons of Apple Cider Vinegar in which you dissolve 1 teaspoon of sugar
1/2 Cup Sweet Pickles (any kind will do, but we use homemade pickles)
1-1 1/2 large sweet onions, coarsely chopped (I use two...I like lots of onion)
1/2 Cup Chopped Celery* (Optional)
3 Hard-boiled Eggs*, peeled and coarsely chopped (Optional)

Cook the potatoes in a salted water until well done. Drain potatoes and leave in the pot (off the heat). Add the above ingredients in the order they are listed. Stir the potato salad well after the addition of each ingredient. If potato salad seems dry after you add the mayo, add some more until it stirs easily. This is not a chunky potato salad; it almost, but not quite, has the consistancy of lumpy mashed potatoes. Because you are adding the ingredients to warm potatoes in a warm pot, the flavors blend very well. A big key here to this recipe is to make sure you keep tasting it as you make it. If it need more salt, add more salt. If if needs more pickles, add more pickles. You get the idea. You can add the hard cooked eggs at the end, if you want. Put into your serving dish and garnish with a sprinkle of paprika.

After all ingredients are blended, let the salad sit at room temp for a while before you refrigerate. We always make this about 30 minutes before the meal and it is served warm. Of course, it is good cold, too, but it is so good warm that I have been know to nuke leftovers...which we always have because this recipe makes a LOT of potato salad!

There is a story I want to tell about this recipe. More than that, it is about why sometimes I seem to be going on with little asides and special isntructions in my recipes. Many years ago, I had a friend who was a very young newlywed (her 16, him 20). One day, she called me up and asked me for this recipe. She said her husband had raved over how good my potato salad was and that she should learn how to make it. My friend and her husband were going to have a picnic on Saturday, the next day, to celebrate their 6 week anniversary (how cute is that?) and she wanted to make it to surprise him. Since the only thing she could make with any skill was peanut butter and jelly sandwiches with oreo cookies on the side, she thought that a decent meal was an excellent celebration. So, I gave her what I thought were detailed instructions.
Now, I knew that this girl didn't know how to cook very well and I should have thought about the recipe more, but I made too many assumptions about her level of cooking skill. The next day, the phone rang and when I answered it was my friend, almost hysterical, sobbing into the phone. When I got her calmed down, I asked her what the problem was. She said that she had made my potato salad and that it was the worst thing that had ever been placed on a plate. She said it was so awful that her hubby had yelled at her for wasting all that money on ingredients and that he planned on eating out for the rest of his life if that was the best she could do (sensitive guy, no?). I was really at a loss for what could have been the problem, so I asked her to repeat to me exactly what steps she had followed. Between sniffles, she said, "First I made the instant mashed potatoes....." Where my recipe instructed "use 5 lbs of cooked potatoes", she had used 5 lbs of instant mashed potatoes to which she added all of the rest of the above ingredients. No wonder Mr. Sensitive was miffed. That was 35 years ago and everytime I make potato salad, I remember this story. I lost touch with my friend, but it made me realize that I should always be aware of a person's ability.