Special Potato Salad and Homemade Freezer Pickles

For Potato Salad

Ingredients:

4 C peeled and cubed potatoes
1 tsp. salt
1/4 C finely chopped onion
1/4 C finely chopped celery
1/4 C finely chopped carrots
1/2 C mayonnaise or salad dressing
1/4 C sour cream
1 tsp. prepared mustard
2 tbls. ketchup
salt and pepper to taste
2 hard-boiled eggs, chopped
Paprika
Chopped Chives

Directions:

Place potatoes in saucepan. Cover with water, add salt. Boil potatoes until tender. Drain. To make dressing, stir together onion, celery, carrots, mayonnaise or salad dresing, sour cream, mustard, ketchip and additional salt if necessary, and pepper. Gently add warm potatoes and chopped egg to dressing. Sprinkle with paprika and chopped chives. Chill thoroughly. Serve with hot dogs, hamburgers and lots of iced tea and homemade freezer pickles. Delicious!



For Homemade Freezer Pickles:

Ingredients:

2 C sugar
1 C white vinegar
7 C sliced pickling cuccumbers (1/4-inch thick) not peeled
1 green or red sweet pepper, cut into thin strips
1 C sliced onion
1 1/2 tbls. salt
1/2 tbls. celery salt
1 tbls. celery seed


Directions:

Put the sugar and vinegar in a saucepan and bring to a boil. Stir until the sugar is dissolved. Remove from the heat. Put the cuccumbers, peppers, onion, salt, celery salt and celery seed into a bowl and mix. Pour the vinegar mixture over the cuccumber mixture. Place into smaller containers and freeze. Thaw in the refrigerator before serving. These are crunchy and mouth-puckeringly delicious.

Potato salad sounds really good, may add more eggs. Mom always said the eggs make potato salad.
Pickles, we make pickles at our plant, so always have plenty. Thanks for the recipes. CF

Good morning, CF - I absolutely don't mind in the slightest because your "improvements" are always just that - improvements - and I'm always in favour of making a good thing better! But it does, nonetheless, always make me laugh, that your fingers begin to itch and you can never resist the urge to improve on a recipe!

As well, my friend, I did want to thank you for your response to my son's taking over of my "space" on the forum to write you with questions. He's so proud of your answers and put a sign up on his bulletin board beside what he had printed off the computer that night that "this is a REAL cook"! Until I figure out how he fits me into that particular equation, the jury's still out!!

Katie

What can I say, I love playing with my food.
I have had some really good teachers. My Grandmother and my Mother. I will be 75 years old this year And still learn each day.

Pleased that Ian was happy with my reply. Tell him to keep thinking, and never get to the point he thinks he has no more to learn. Do it, just because nobody else does. Who knows it might work. CF

Excellent advice...and I'll pass it along to Ian. He didn't really feel comfortable, initially, going to cooking school in Boston because he was going to be the oldest one in his class (as far as he's concerned, 29 is nearing senility! My boys will be 30 in October - now I'm approaching that senility.) but the family pushed and prodded until he finally applied and got accepted and loves every single minute of it. He continues to learn new things on the subject every single day. Occasionally, he shares one or two of his tips and new ideas with his poor old mother, too. One is never, ever too old to learn new things and try new ideas. And I like "playing with my food", as well - trying new things, experimenting. One's sense of taste never wears out! I'm no longer inventing "grow taller" foods, however. Only the "grow-bigger-arounder" type.

I hear ya, No grow taller food here either, or at least it isn't working. CF

Really good potato salad is one of life's greatest pleasures- especially this time of year.

I too like it w/ chopped hard-boiled eggs- the way my Mom used to make it. And her's also always had chopped green bell peppers- some make it without, but I hafta have'em in it!

I also had a cook once when managing the Greens Creek Silver-Mine Camp on Admiralty Island, Alaska who added salty diced smoked ham to his potato salad- and sometimes even frozen green peas- I loved his version, and it was always one of the most popular things on his salad bar when it was offered.

I admit that I cannot make good potato salad- for whatever reason. It just never tastes as good to me as my Mom's did- or good ones made by others...

I have the Naomi Judd Cookbook- which is a good one by the way, and available used at Amazon most mere pennies... anyway, her potato salad calls for tossing the still-warm cooked diced potatoes w/ a couple tablespoons of bottled French Dressing, setting aside half an hour- then finishing w/ mayo/mustard and all the usual ingredients. Never tried her rendition but have always wanted to.

Similarly I have often seen recipes where one tosses the still-warm cooked potatoes w/ a couple tablespoons of cider vinegar before dressing w/ mayo/mustard, etc.

the cider vinegar adds a special taste to it - I love my potato and macaroni salads and you can add whatever you want - sometimes I will add finely chopped red bell pepper - just for the color - and I use plenty of eggs as well - and celery - sometimes diced onion and maybe a shot of yellow mustard - it all depends on my mood!

Mama, I have read or heard something about onions in potato salad. It said that mayo in potato salad was not the reason to keep on ice. It was the onions that caused it to go bad quickly. This was talking about picnic potato salad. I like onions in mine and don't do any picnicking. Your thoughts? CF

For any outdoor activites - and salads using mayo/salad dressing - I make sure I keep them on ice. I like onions - and onions themselves will not spoil like salad with mayo. Go to a hotdog stand and they have the condiments out all day - including the chopped onions - no problem.