Fast Easy Potato Salad with Picky Eater Option

My kids are sometimes very willing to try different things, and other times not. For some reason, they are very picky about a food that most kids have no problem eating... potatoes. For instance, my daughter loves mashed potatoes, and my son won't touch them (maybe a texture thing? He doesn't like mushy foods...) He prefers very simple baked potatoes, which my daughter isn't excited about.

As for the adults in the family, we like variety, and we'll eat potatoes any old way, but what I really like is a FAST recipe, because potatoes take some time to make, especially if you want them to taste really good! I can put this recipe together in 45 minutes beginning to end and it's so good that I've made it twice in the past week.

I found and tried this recipe from Southern Living Magazine, and it worked really well for us. Here is what I did to make it work for the entire family:

Ingredients:

For the potatoes:
2 pounds small fingerling potatoes (I used red potatoes), halved or quartered
1 tsp salt

For the dressing:
1/2 cup mayonnaise
1 Tablespoon red wine vinegar
1 Tablespoon whole grain mustard
2 teaspoons chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon pepper
1 garlic clove, minced
1/8 teaspoon ground red pepper (I omitted this, but if you like heat...)

Instructions:

As the recipe states, wash, quarter, and place the red potatoes in cold water with salt. Bring to a boil then simmer on low for 15 minutes. Immediately strain potatoes and place in a bowl to cool to room temperature for an additional 15 minutes. (You don't want them to get too cooked/soft.)

EXTRA STEP: Remove a portion of the cooked potatoes from the main bowl. Mix with a bit of salted butter and keep warm while preparing the rest of dinner (or reheat them before serving... or serve them room temperature as the Plainest Potato Salad Ever). Serve to the picky eaters!

While preparing potatoes, combine the mayonnaise, vinegar, mustard, parsley, salt, pepper(s), and garlic in a small bowl and whisk together.

When ready to serve, add preferred amount of dressing to potatoes. Note: you will probably have more dresssing than you need, so you can use the extra, as a topping for fish, or steamed asparagus, or just save it to use as salad dressing on a salad!

How to Slice a Shallot

When I first came across a recipe containing shallots, I found myself feeling particularly gourmet. Dicing the darn things took forever, and as far as I can tell, taking forever is the main criteria for a gourmet recipe. It seemed like I spent forever peeling and dicing them!

But they're delicious; they add a garlicky onion-type flavor to dishes, so I'm glad that I've found a faster way to deal with them, which leads me to use them more often, such as in my Shallot Green Bean recipe.

First, slice the root end off the shallot.

Peel the dry layers off the outside of the shallot.

Hold the shallot at the top end, and use a very sharp knife to very thinly slice the shallot into discs.

Optional: place the discs in a pile and quickly chop the pile into smaller pieces.

I tend to leave mine as discs, and let them separate while sauteing them in olive oil. Be careful; they brown and crisp up quickly! They're delicious!

Linked to WFMW.

Can This Be Washed? Results

The results are in: I threw my experimental items into the washing machine (all together!) and turned it on (Gentle Cycle with cold water). Would the items shrink? Fall apart? Bleed? Here are the results:

The Handbag

I treated the stains before washing, and pulled out the lining to help the bag dry, and I'm happy to report that the bag is ready for Summer 2012, no need for a purse funeral! It is now in storage, I just set it on a closet shelf packed with inflated shipping bags to keep the shape.

Next I think I will wash some of our resusable canvas shopping bags, which are getting quite dirty.

Lunch Bags

The lunch bags turned out okay. I don't recommend them for machine washing because for some reason... they float. At least they are cleaner now than they were. I ony picture one because the other one is currently holding someone's lunch at school. :) Maybe I will try washing them in the dishwasher next, that would get around the floating problem.

The Ball Cap

Stains came clean! Still has it's shape! No longer stinks! My son is pleased.

Slippers

The shearling inside doesn't look any cleaner, but they didn't shrink, bleed, or do anything else alarming, so I will call it a success!

Linked to WFMW!

Can This Be Washed?

I have a number some things that need to be cleaned, and I thought, why not? I'll just throw them all in the washing machine together and see how things turn out. (Results are here!)

Fossil Handbag

My summer handbag (for the past 2 years) was the victim of a ketchup explosion at a sporting event this summer. There was also an incident with some sort of red molding clay in the side pocket.

Fortunately, the bag is made of canvas and leather, and I already know from experience that the bag washes up beautifully on a cold gentle cycle in the washing machine.

Lunch Bags

All year I've been periodically scrubbing out the insides of the kids' lunch bags, but the cloth-like exteriors have been growing grundgier by the month. I thought I would throw them in the wash (unzipped) and see if their looks improve.

Baseball Cap

My son's favorite cap is coated with sweat, dirt, and several unidentifiable stains. It's just a promotional cap that was handed out at the beginning of a baseball game, so I am not sure how durable it is. We'll find out...

Slippers

Cool weather is coming, and I would like to freshen up my shearling LL Bean slippers. I have been hesitating to clean them because I like them so much--I don't want to shrink them or somehow mess them up! I'm just going to throw them in the wash and see what happens...

See the results here...

Linked to WFMW!