Food Memories - Potato Salad

I won't be cooking supper tonight. The guys practice on Wednesday and I don't get home in time to cook, so it is just catch as catch can for us. So instead, I want to talk about a subject near and dear to my heart, potato salad.

My Mother made the BEST potato salad. I can't share her recipe, I wish I could, but there was no recipe. It never occurred to me that Mother made the world's best potato salad until she was no longer here to make it for me. It was beautiful in its simplicity, nothing fancy.

I never really tried to make potato salad often before 2002, so I just assumed mine would taste like Mother's....... yea right. Eight years later I am getting a bit closer, as I eliminate ingredients that just don't need to be there, like red bell peppers, bacon bits, ranch dressing and hot sauce. How can this be............., all these ingredients that I love ruin "my" potato salad. I guess I was oblivious to what actually went in this great southern tradition, or else I "went along paying no attention", as my Daddy has said to me hundreds of times.

Another debate among people I talk to seems to be weather to add eggs or not. I used to think all potato salad had eggs. Especially since it has just been in the last few years that I would ever order potato salad in a restaurant. It was always one of those dishes that just never tasted like it should outside of my parents house. I am slowly beginning to understand why.

I was a skinny kid (if you can believe that), who really didn't like to eat when I was little. So Mother and Daddy catered to my every whim where food was concerned. If I didn't like what was on the table someone would get up and fix me something I did like, whatever I thought I might eat. I have a memory of Mother straining the beans out of the cooking broth so I could just have the soupy part. Kinda pathetic, I know, but that is how I got my way with potato salad growing up. I refused to eat it cold, I would only have it warm. While I will on occasion have it cold now, I still love it warm.

I said all that to say ( I know I have that habit of going around my elbow to get to my back side, drives Ronnie absolutely crazy) that the recipe from Kraft seems to be closest to my recollection of perfect potato salad. Not quite the same but close. I am sharing that recipe today but I have a really big favor to ask of you. Please, please, please share your potato salad recipe with us. I would love to try your favorites during this upcoming picnic season. Even if you don't want to sign in and post in comments you can email your recipe to me by clicking the little envelope at the end of this post. With your permission I will post it here for everyone to try.

Kraft Potato Salad

1/2 cup Kraft Real Mayo Mayonnaise
1 Tbsp. yellow mustard (don't go getting fancy here, the yellow hot dog stuff is perfect)
1/2 tsp. celery seed
1/2 tsp. salt
1/8 tsp. pepper
4 cups cubed potatoes, cooked, cooled
2 hard-cooked eggs, chopped
1 onion, chopped
2 stalks celery, sliced (I leave this out)
1/3 cup pickle relish
(Not in the recipe but I add a 1/2 tsp. of sugar)

Mix first 5 ingredients in large bowl. Add remaining ingredients; mix lightly.
Oh, and under no circumstances leave off the sprinkling of paprika over top. It wouldn't be potato salad without the paprika. Kraft got that part wrong when they left it off.

So, Until Tomorrow...............
S~~~