Sometimes on a summer day nothing hits the spot like potato salad. With so many different styles to choose from, what’s not to like? There are many types of potato salad, from Southern to Amish to Canadian, with just enough variance to tell them apart. Since we happen to like different points of each, we combined them into our favorite which we call Mish-Mash Potato Salad. Since this blog is about cooking with kids, we’ll start with where they come in. I boiled the potatoes the night before because I like them to have that fluffy, starchy feel that seems to only work with cold potatoes. I had them gather all the ingredients and place them on the island, and tried to instill a clean-as-you-go mindset as we worked.
We had the small fry start because his patience runs out quickly. He didn’t really want any part of this at first, but since his favorite past time is eating, he was easily bribed with the finished product. We asked him to add the mayo. He seemed to have a bit of a struggle with this.
It got a little messy.
We cleaned up quickly though and moved on.
The older boys worked on chopping, dicing, and measuring the rest of the ingredients. A couple were not too thrilled to be working with mayonnaise but they sucked it up and did it anyway. (They’re weird like that.) After a bit of confusion, some checking and rechecking, they brought it all together into a pretty fantastic dish, if I do say so myself. It was a really nice change for them to do the cooking for once; all I had to do was eat! They did a fantastic job and worked together really well.
By the end, we all learned something new. They boys learned a new recipe for potato salad…and I learned to never trust Jules with kitchen knives.
They had a great time cooking together, a fair bit of male teenage humor, and a pretty significant mess to cleanup. All in all I call that a success.
If you would like to try our recipe for Mish-Mash Potato Salad here’s what you’ll need:
- 2 1/1 lbs. of boiled potatoes. (We like Russets.)
- 3 Green Onions, chopped
- 1 1/2 tbsp. Celery Seed
- 1/2 c. Banana Peppers, chopped
- 1/2 c. Garlic Pickles, 2 to 3 spears.
- 4 Hard Boiled Eggs.
- 1/2 c. of Mayo.
- 1/2 c. of Sour Cream.
- 1/4 c. of Dijon Mustard.
- Salt, Pepper, Paprika and Parsley for Taste.
Place the potatoes in a mixing bowl alongside the mayo and sour cream, mixing it thoroughly and then adding Dijon mustard. Stir thoroughly. Chop green onions, toss in. Add diced garlic pickles, chop banana peppers thinly, toss in celery seed, stir. Chop 3 eggs coarsely, toss in. Add spices to taste, slice remaining egg, set around top, sprinkle with more paprika. Enjoy!
Our favorite way to eat this potato salad is heaped gorgeously on top of crab cakes topped with hot sauce. Yum! Next Thursday we’ll be trying our hand at those crab cakes so be sure to check it out.
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