Holy Moses, I've Become My Grandmother and A Handy Tip!

Tonight I have been making potato salad for our church's annual father/son camp out. I will gladly do this because the testosterone level at my house will drop by 2/3 for 24 glorious hours! Every toilet seat in the house will remain in the prone position during this time! Dear daughter (child #2) and I will be able to watch "chick" flicks, and/ or have control of the remote. We will not have to watch sports or the Outdoor Channel. We can eat chocolate and feel zero guilt.Oh, the joy in small things! Anyway, I have been making salad for the last 30 minutes. I always worry when I cook for family/ neighborhood/ church parties that there will not be enough food (I have never actually been to any of those functions when there wasn't oodles of food leftover), so I always make a little extra (just in case). Well, I just finished, and as I lifted the bowl I realized it much weigh at least twenty pounds (this IS NOT an exaggeration)! Take a look for yourself:



I really had to laugh about this, because the Tupperware bowl that the salad is in was my Grandma's. I inherited it when she passed away last year (that's not the funny part. I miss my sweet Grandma). The funny part is that my Grandma could not make any salad unless it ended up feeding an army (which is why Grandma's salad was always called "Army Salad"), and it usually ended up in this bowl. All of my growing up years this bowl brought macaroni or potato salad to our family parties. Leftover's (and there were always leftover's) went home with assorted relatives (in five pound cottage cheese containers she would save for just such an occasion). I must be her posterity (or channeling her spirit), because I just realized I do that exact same thing (except I save three pound sour cream and Cool Whip containers for just such an occasion). Heaven help us!

Now, for the handy tip. I scored squeeze bottles of Kraft Mayo for dirt cheap at the grocery store last month (because they were at their sell by date). I was using these to make the potato salad. I used one up completely, but the neck of the jar was not big enough to put a rubber scraper inside to scrape it clean (also a SIN!). I always add pickle juice to my potato salad, and because this salad weighs a ton, I need about 1/3 cup of pickle juice. I put a funnel in the neck of the jar, and poured the juice into the empty mayo container. Then, I put the lid back on tightly (this is important if you don't to wear the pickle juice/mayo concoction), and gave it a good shaking. It cleaned the side of the jar and the mayo was thin enough to pour out of the jar into the salad. If you are not a pickle juice lover a little milk will do the same thing and not change the flavor. Now, I can sleep tonight. The salad is in the fridge chilling, and I didn't waste an once of mayonaise. Grandma would be so proud!