Creamy Potato Salad

I love a good potato salad.  And I do mean loooooove.

But I hate a bad potato salad.  Bleh.

To me a really good potato salad is a little creamy, a little chunky, and a bit ranch-y.

There are two potato salads that are over the moon.  One is at Whole Hog Cafe (a bbq restaurant), and the other is red skin potato salad at Walmart (can you believe it?).

Colin and I are trying to cook more and eat really fresh.  We went to the grocery store this week and bought a ton of veggies and fresh meat.  We bought so much that it's forcing us to cook; otherwise we'll have to throw out a lot of food in a week or so, and that's always sad.  So, cook it is!

Last night Colin cooked pork loins and made a salad we tried in California.  The salad was at the LAX airport (their airport food is much different than most airports I've been in!).  It was arugula, blue cheese, balsamic vinegar dressing, and fresh figs.  By the way, fresh figs are amazing!  I just discovered how much I love them when they were all over California!  Maybe when the weather gets a bit cooler, I'll be able to find them in our Arkansas grocery store.  We had to substitute the recipe with dried figs (not the same, but still worked).

Just a quick photo I snapped with my phone before diving in!

So, what was I to make to contribute to the meal?  We had a few bags of different types of potatoes in the pantry.  On more than one occasion I've had to throw soft and moldy potatoes into the compost pile, because I would fix something out of a box before I used the potatoes I had.  And again, that makes me sad.  Potato salad was born!

I'm sorry that the recipe doesn't have exact measurements.  I didn't make it with the blog in mind.  It wasn't until we were sitting down eating that Colin looked at me and said, "You have to put this on your blog!"

I chopped and boiled about 10 small red skin potatoes.  LEAVE THE SKIN ON!  Do you hear me?  Do it.  It adds texture and color, and the skin holds the majority of the nutrition.

Once the potatoes were soft enough to eat but still firm, I put them in a colander and let them sit a minute to cool down.  Don't rinse them.  That will shock them and stop the cooking process, and you want them to be warm to help melt the ingredients together.

Dump the potatoes into a bowl and add your ingredients in this order (stirring after each):

-3 tbsp of butter/margarine

-6-7 ounces of low-fat sour cream
-ranch dressing to taste

-salt and cayenne pepper to taste

-shredded cheddar cheese (I didn't measure...just add to your heart's content)

-fresh chopped green onions/chives

-I didn't have bacon, but I would have added it if I did!

I used a spatula to stir after each ingredient was added.  Don't smoosh the potatoes.  As you stir, they should cream a bit but still leave some chunks.

This will make a lot.  If you're like us and don't have kids, you'll have leftovers for a few days.  I love leftovers!  Potato salad for breakfast it is!