Hot Potato Salad -- A Moveable Feast

I rarely make hot or cold potato salad the same way from one time to the next. It's my own personal Moveable Feast, or at least a moveable recipe.

One problem is that I don't make it often enough to remember that, "Oh, there is a can of black olives in the cupboard" and "Oh yes, I do have a red onion on hand after all." It was only in writing this blog post that I remembered the onion. (Is that a book or movie? -- "Remember the Onion!")

That said, I like potato salad, usually with as many ingredients as I can toss in. In the case of last night's salad (accompanied by salmon and broccoli), I added: thinly sliced celery, roasted red peppers, olives cut in half,  at least 1/4 cup of chopped parsley, and bits of leftover asparagus. Other times I add green olives instead of black, or chopped dill pickles or, sometimes, capers.

I frequently use a prepared sesame-ginger dressing (Newman's Own), but last night I made a mustard-mayo dressing and added some whole mustard seeds. I didn't add enough salt and pepper though and had to do that at the table -- it makes such a big difference.

I prefer potato salad cold, but as I think I've been mentioning, we are having record cold spring  temperatures in the Pacific Northwest that are not at all conducive to cold salads. I had already bought the celery and was determined to make potato salad, so hot it was.

One last question about potato salad. Why is it that kids traditionally don't like meals where everything is smushed together, but adults really do? More sensitive taste buds? Too much confusion?