Summer "Salads"

Last weekend, I had my first outside-amazing-weather weekend.  On Saturday Stud and I cashed in on our Christmas present from his sister and husband.  We spent the day at Talon Winery, one of sixty (I am shocked there are so many) vineyards in Kentucky with a wine tasting and a picnic outside.  It was so.much.fun.  Like I want to do it every weekend.  There are sixty to hit!  We did our tasting first and then sat outside for who knows how long talking, getting sunburned and enjoying our picnic.  Since I knew we would be sitting outside, I jumped on the chance to bring some summer "salads" that I have missed over the past winter months.  The first up was potato salad from my go-to source, Cooks Illustrated.  And please ignore the tupperware, it was all packed for the picnic!  Aaaaand I tried as many times as my patience allowed to get that picture right side up.  It refused.  Gah, technology.

Classic Potato Salad
2 lbs yukon gold potatoes, cut into small cubes
2 T. white vinegar
2 T. grated red onion
3 T. sweet pickle relish
1/2 c mayonnaise
3/4 t. powdered mustard
3/4 t. celery seed
2 T. minced fresh parsley
3 hard boiled eggs

Cook the potatoes until they are slightly tender.  I also left the skins on mine, but they can be removed.  Once they are finished, drain the potatoes and immediately toss with the vinegar and set aside to cool, about 20 minutes.  Dice the hard boiled eggs and add to the potatoes with the rest of the ingredients and toss gently until it's all combined.

Yeah, so the eggs are amazing.  You can also dice the red onion instead of grating it.  I just didn't want to bite into pieces of red onion.  All these weird ingredients make so many layers of flavor, I kept snacking on it before it even made it into the to go container.  And we did use light mayonnaise in the name of health.  The one issue we encountered was the consistency, which was all our fault.  I cooked the potatoes for too long (I am used to mashed potatoes) and then Stud was a little over-enthusiastic with the stirring (his favorite sous chef activity) and the combination of the two made our potato salad a little more like chunky mashed potatoes.  So make sure you cook them just until tender and not so a fork slides through.