Potato Salad

Nothing says summer like cook outs and nothing says cook out like potato salad...well unless you count like, grilled meat or something.

I find that people generally have a recipe for two things that they think are the best. Chili and potato salad. It doesn't matter if they came up with that recipe, inherited it from gramma, stole it from the Junior League or just looked it up at allrecipes.com. Once you've found the one you'll never love any other chili or potato salad again. Some people might argue that chicken salad falls into this category but I feel like chicken salad is way too regional to be sought after with this kind of fervor. And while people are crazy about certain kinds of BBQ most people are not so interested in making it at home.

A few years ago for the sake of science I decided to host a potato salad cook off at my house. We provided note cards so people could label their offerings anonymously with letters and then made sure to have paper plates with corresponding labels. My husband made his famous traditional mayonnaise based potato salad, I made made my mom's garlic-y mustard dish and our friends contributed numerous other delights.

(Also, B and I made a fake one with canned potatoes, cool whip, cocktail onions, canned sauerkraut and hot dog relish. The smell was unbelievable. It was bad.)

Do you have a favorite potato salad recipe? Do you prefer sweeter salads or mustard based? Who makes the best potato salad you've ever had?