All-American Potato Salad

We had a church picnic this weekend to celebrate the fourth of July. I know - it was a bit early but living in a bedroom community where this holiday is routinely celebrated on a day that is not the fourth, I'm able to handle this kind of shake-up. When your six year old son makes a big colorful poster (complete with his depiction of exploding fireworks) that proudly proclaims "Happy Third of July" you know you're living in a neighborhood that has screwed up the holiday dates one time too many.

Ok, back to this years first of July celebration. The sign-up sheet for the event was a little more specific than is the norm at our church. In fact, we usually don't even bother with advance notice of who's bringing what, opting instead for the surprise system of waiting to see who shows up with what. But not this time - not only were we encouraged (cajoled, begged, coerced) to sign up, we were only given three options of what to bring! The church would provide hamburgers, hot dogs, and all the fixins, plus drinks. Our part was to provide 1) potato salad 2) baked beans and 3) dessert. In a church of such racial diversity this list seemed a bit limited but, being my usual compliant and non-racially diverse self, I decided to obediently show up with a potato salad.

This one tasted pretty good and got good reviews from folks at the picnic. At least those who ate my version, as opposed to the other 15 potato salads!

I'll say one more thing about potato salad, before writing out the recipe. My mom had her own version that was widely loved by anyone who ever ate it. And no wonder. She spent a lot of time whipping up a sauce that was kind of tangy sweet and made you want to eat gallons of the stuff. That's the potato salad I grew up eating so when I tasted my first non-sweetish version I was surprised and probably a bit aghast at how anyone could possibly think I or anyone one else would want to eat such a watered down, bland version. I've changed my mind over the years, mostly because Martin doesn't like the sweeter versions. Which is not to say I wouldn't kill for a big-bowlful of my mom's best ever potato salad. Sigh....

All-American Potato Salad

modified from AllRecipes

(yes, Cindy - I did MODIFY this recipe by taste!)

5 potatoes

3 eggs

1 cup chopped celery

1/2 cup chopped onion (I used chives to add color)

1/2 cup sweet pickle relish (I used dill pickles cut up into small pieces)

1/4 teaspoon garlic salt

1/4 teaspoon celery salt

1 tablespoon prepared mustard

ground black pepper to taste

1/4 cup mayonnaise (I added a bit more mayo because it seemed dry. And it's saying something when I add mayo as I'm not a huge lover of wet mayonaisey type mixes.)

Black olives (I didn't put these in because Martin won't eat them but I love olives in potato salad.)

Directions

Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Add potatoes and cook until tender but still firm, about 15 minutes. Drain, cool, peel and chop.

Place eggs in a saucepan and cover with cold water. Bring water to a boil; cover, remove from heat, and let eggs stand in hot water for 10 to 12 minutes. Remove from hot water, cool, peel and chop.

In a large bowl, combine the potatoes, eggs, celery, onion, relish, garlic salt, celery salt, mustard, pepper and mayonnaise. Mix together well and refrigerate until chilled.