Potato Salad

Everyone has a favorite potato salad recipe. When Gary and I first start cohabiting, he wasn't all that keen on mine but now he requests it. It has more "zip" than ordinary potato salad.  Today he made barbecued ribs and that meant I had to go to work to provide the salad.  

I don't have a recipe since I seldom use cookbooks, but I can give my readers a rough idea of the procedure. 

First thing of course is to boil potatoes and eggs.  While they are boiling, I chop up onions and celery.  These go into a microwaveable bowl with butter and Italian dressing in equal amounts to be microwaved for about a minute or until the butter is melted. By cooking the celery and onions a bit, they are less crunchy but that is the way I like them. 

While the peeled and sliced potatoes are still hot (so hot my fingers hurt), I add the onion/celery mixture. The hotter the potatoes , the more they absorb the buttery mix.  

Next I add the eggs and chopped up green olives with pimentos.  I add boiled salad dressing (like Miracle Whip), mustard, salt and pepper.  I grate carrots into the mix, mostly to add color.

It is the Italian dressing that makes the difference though it is really the vinegar that makes a difference. I've even used the "juice" from a jar of green olives, so when I use up the olives, I save the juice and the bright red pimentos, which add more color.  

My potato salad evolved from my mother's, though I've added the Italian dressing, butter, carrots and pimentos.