German Potato Salad

My family loves my German potato salad and have all been given the recipe.  But they continually lose it.  I promised Kevin that I would post the recipe on my blog. I even gave it a new label so they won't lose it.  I've been making this for about 40 years.  I got the recipe from a cookbook I would probably not use anymore because none of the recipes take 5 hours and 9 pots to make.  But here it is:

Potatoes - should be russet because they soak up more stuff.  Peel, put in cold salty water and boil until you can stick a knife through them.  How many?  How many are you feeding?  How many left overs do you want? Really, I can't tell you everything.  Should you cut them before you put them into the water?  That depends on how soon you are eating.

Eggs - hard boil them.  I can't stand eggs, so I push them through a sieve until they disappear. You can also just cut them up if you don't mind seeing those egg whites in your salad.  Ewwwwww. Oh, there you go again.  How many?  If I use a full five pound bag of russets, I'll use a full dozen eggs.

Bacon - fry and break into pieces.  Everyone likes bacon, so a pound goes well with even two potatoes.

Green olives -  You know, the kind with pimentos in them.  Chop them up.  I emphasize green because one nephew tried this recipe and used black olives.  Ugh.  

Salad dressing - The original recipe called for Lawry's dry Caesar Salad dressing mix.  I like any of their dry dressings for this and have used any number of them because they don't always have that one.  I use the prescribed amount of olive oil and red wine vinegar.  Quantity depends on the number of potatoes.  Two packets is usually enough.

Final prep - Cut the cooked potatoes into wierd shapes by running a knife through the drained potatoes.  Throw in the eggs, bacon, green olives and dressing.  Fold everything together.  Try not to be too vigorous or you will have well flavored mashed potatoes.  

If it seems too dry, you can make more salad dressing or add more olive oil or water.  Just taste to make sure that it is really salty and not too vinegary.  I've added chopped green onions and that is good.  And chopped fresh flat parsely adds a nice color.  Just know that if you are making this for my nephews and brothers, you'd better make a lot.