Potato Salad: The Queen of the Cookout

I will be honest, potatoes are my favorite food group. I love them scalloped, home fried, baked, or drenched in cheese. I can't think of a potato I met that I didn't like. I mean, can you think of a more versatile food?! Okay, I suppose eggs are a close second, but not everyone eats eggs. Any way you slice 'em (see what I did there?), they are magnificent. We often associate potatoes with cold winter days and hardy stews, but if you ask me, summertime is when they truly shine.

Potato salad has about a million variations, and there's a style for everybody. We often think of potato salad as being as American as apple pie, but did you know it actually originated in Germany? Danke sehr, Deutschland! Okay, I digress. I just love potato salad. It is literally my favorite food. No backyard barbeque or potluck is complete without a heap of tater salad. I will admit that I won't touch the stuff if there are sweet pickles lurking in there, but hey, whatever floats your boat.

I love my stepmom's version, she puts black olives in there. This was a bit shocking at first, but turns out, it's bomb.com. I make a lightened-up version that uses sour cream and Greek yogurt with a crap-ton (official measurement there) of fresh herbs. But the King Kamehameha, best of all time, my most supreme fave, is my mom's version. Now, that's really saying something because cooking is not exactly her forte. I mean, I started cooking at seven and then went to culinary school so that I could learn to cook *not* from a box. I will give credit where credit's due though, and say that her potato salad is so good I will eat it for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. No joke, I am gonna call her when I'm done writing this and beg her to make me a batch (it just doesn't taste the same if I make it). There really isn't an official recipe, but it goes something like this:

-Red potatoes, skin on (cook 'em whole and then chunk them up for a better texture)

-Red onion, diced

-Celery, diced

-Hard-boiled eggs, diced

-Bacon, diced (I don't eat pork anymore, so I've been experimenting with coconut bacon, parsnip pancetta, and tempeh bacon)

-Mayo

-Dijon mustard

-A butt load of dill, parsley, and chives (fresh or dried)

-Salt & Pepper

-Cayenne to taste of you're feeling *spicy*

Any potato salad connoisseur will tell you that it tastes better after it's sat for a while, letting those glorious flavors meld together, and ain't that the truth! You gotta let it sit at least a couple of hours in the fridge, then throw some more mayo and seasoning in there for it to reach its true potential. It's got to have that sticky, gloppy sound when you stir it, ya know?! It's so gross, but that's how you know it's good.

Potato salad is summer magic in a bowl.

There's just something about potato salad that fills your nose with the smell of hot charcoal and sunscreen. I think the beauty of it is that it's not just delicious, it's a conversation starter and a bridge across generational gaps. It can bring together people of all walks of life, because everybody had their favorite recipe, their own secret ingredient, their favorite memory of the food. It's self expression and creative release. It also takes patience and a loving hand. You know the old saying, "If you love it so much, why don't you marry it?" Well if I could, I would. I do, potato salad, I do. Please don't tell my husband.