Out of this World Potato Salad

My devoted father-in-law makes a mean dish of potato salad and I could REALLY go for a HUGE glob of it right now! Hey, I'm pregnant... My waist line would be growing regardless so don't judge me! He is the type of cook who adds a pinch of this and try a little bit of that to his recipes so getting him to sit down and share his recipe took a little bit of nagging... well nagging through my husband. Luckily for us, we were in the midst of compiling family recipes to make a cookbook for my sister-in-law who was getting married. (I highly recommend Blurb for a project like this!) Well anyhow, I was able to secure this tasty recipe and have since received his blessing to share it here with you all. You better believe this is on our meal plan for the week! 

5 potatoes

2 1/2 cups Miracle Whip

2/3 cup sweet pickle relish

1/6 cup dill hamburger slice pickle juice

1 tablespoon salt

4 tablespoons sugar

dry instant mashed potato

6 hard cooked eggs

1 full stalk chopped celery

1/6 cup yellow mustard

paprika

Peel potatoes and cut in to approximately 3/8" cubes. Cook in boiling water until edges begin to soften. Do not overcook. Rinse. Drain. Cool.

Hard cook 6 eggs. Cool.

For Miracle Whip mixture, combine Miracle Whip, mustard, dill pickle juice, salt and sugar. Cool. Best to do the potatoes, eggs and Miracle Whip mixture the day before to be sure that all ingredients are cool in the refrigerator.

Slice hard cooked eggs and set aside the best slices for decoration of finished product and chop the rest.

Combine potatoes, celery and chopped eggs, mix well. Add Miracle Whip mixture and mix well. Add dry instant mashed potato to limit the amount of moisture in salad and make the product more creamy. This is the difficult part since potatoes vary greatly in moisture content. If too much dry mashed potato is added, just add a little more Miracle Whip to adjust consistency.

Transfer product to serving bowl, add sliced hard cooked egg for decoration and a sprinkle of Paprika for color. Serve. (this is a highly perishable product-keep cold at all times and discard after 7 days)

Variations: some guests like a more or less mustard color and/or taste. Some guests like a little onion in the recipe. The trick is to only add very small amounts of mustard and/or onion to taste. It is somewhat difficult to take mustard and/or onion out if too much is added. :-)