Chelsey's Favorite Potato Salad

Submitted by Caryn Dalton

"Posted by request. This is the only potato salad my eldest daughter, Chelsey will eat. Here you go, sweety. Be sure and follow the directions carefully! Enjoy. The instructions are designed for a juvenile cook."

 

• Ready In: 23mins
• Ingredients: 11
• Serves: 6

ingredients

• 8 medium potatoes (yukon gold or red potatoes about half as big as your hand)
• 1⁄2 teaspoon vegetable oil
• 1 cup Kraft mayonnaise (not miracle whip and not fat free. Use regular or light kind)
• 1⁄4 cup apricot preserves
• 1 teaspoon celery seed
• 1⁄2 teaspoon garlic salt
• 1⁄8 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1 teaspoon onion powder
• 1 tablespoon sweet pickle juice
• 1⁄2 teaspoon French dressing
• 1⁄4 teaspoon hot mustard (chinese mustard)

directions

1. You will need the following:

2. A big strainer in one side of your clean sink.
3. Have a long handled spoon with small holes and a small bowl to help you skim off any froth during the boiling process. Keep the spoon handy by the stove.
4. Get a big bowl ready to transfer potatoes in once they are done boiling and also for making the potato salad inches.
5. A long handled pasta server (looks like a ladle with spikey edges or a ladle with holes for dipping out cooked potatoes.
6. Scrub potatoes with a scrubber till clean.
7. Put a big pot about half full of water on the stove on high heat. Add the 1/2 tsp of vegetable oil to the water to help with the froth that happens when you boil potatoes. It wont eliminate it, but it'll help.
8. Here's how to cut potatoes into cubes. Start with a sharp knife that is not too much bigger or smaller than the potato at its widest part. Carefully slice potatoes into 1/2 inch thick slices.keeping the shape of the potato together. Split the stack of slices in half. One stack at a time, place the flat end of the stack on the cutting board and slice downward. Try to keep the shape of the potato together without cutting your fingers. Now, keeping the flat end of the potato on the cutting board, rotate the potato so that you can make slices again -- across the ones you just made. When you get done slicing the third time, you will have cubes. Repeat for all the potatoes.
9. Put cubed potatoes in the bottom of a ladel that has holes in it.or a long handled pasta server. Use the ladle to lower the cubed potatoes into the pot of water. Never toss the cubes in the water because they could splash boiling water back on you. Believe me.I know.
10. Try to keep track of when the water starts to boil on the stove. When you see it begin to boil, turn the water down to medium high heat. Watch that froth so that it doesn't boil over all over the stove and skim it off the top of the water when you need to.skim it right into the small bowl. You can discard the froth later.
11. After you get all the potatoes in the water and the water has begun boiling, you want to boil the potatoes about 15 minutes or so. Test one of the biggest cubes by taking it out, putting it on a plate and trying to squish it with a fork. It should be soft enough to squish without much pressure.but too soft and you'll be making a weird sort of mashed potatoes. You want the potatoes to keep their shape a little when you stir them but not hard or chewy.
12. When they are done, TURN OFF THE HEAT TO THE BURNER and remove the potatoes with your ladle or pasta server into the bowl. Take the bowl to the sink and dump the bowl of potato cubes into the strainer. While the potatoes drain completely, put all the other ingredients except the vegetable oil (used in your boiling water already) in the same bowl.
13. Stir together very well until you can't make out any of the ingredients individually. Taste it with a different spoon. Now is the time to add something if it needs it.
14. If it is the way you like it, add your cooked potatoes and stir gently to coat. Chill or eat warm.
15. Enjoy!