Great-Grandma Weber's Summer German Potato Salad

 This was a staple at our family's summer outings for as long as I can remember.  My youngest sister asked me for the recipe so I thought I would put it here- so that anyone in the family who wished could make it.

Here are the ingredients:

 3 pounds new potatoes 

1/4 pound bacon 

4 stalks celery

1 medium-large onion

1 bell pepper

4 ounces  Spanish olives

1/2 cup brine from olives

1/2 cup apple cider vinegar

Pepper to taste

Optional:

1.2 tsp dried summer savory or other summer herbs

Make this the night before you want to use it for the flavors to meld.

1) Boil whole unpeeled potatoes in water until just tender.  You want to be able to slice these very thin and have the slices hold their shape.  Once boiled, drain and put in cold water until cooled.  Peel the potatoes- the peels should just slide off.  If not, then peel getting off just the outside peel.  You want the yellow inside layer on skin on.

2) Chop up bacon into 1/4 inch chunks.  Mom used chunk bacon whenever she could get it.  If you have a local farmer in your area selling bacon, you may be able to get chunks of bacon- if not just slice the bacon across the slice in 1/4 chunks.  Fry bacon until crisp- reserve all the bacon fat.

3) Slice the potatoes very thin into a 4 quart bowl. You should be able to see the knife passing through the potato.

4)  Slice the olives.  A small manzilla olive should be sliced into 4 pieces.  Layer these over these over the potatoes.

5) Chop up the celery into 1/4 inch chucks- layer these over the olives.

6) Chop the pepper and layer the celery

7) Chop up the onion over the pepper.

When layering the veggies, you should know you have enough if all of the layers look a shade of light green.

8) Pour the bacon and fat over the veggies

9) Into a pint jar or larger- pour the vinegar, olive juice, egg and 1/2cup water.  Add herbs, salt and pepper.

10)  Shake up dressing and pour over the salad.  Mix all ingredients well and refrigerate overnight.

11) Serve on a large platter with sliced tomatoes around the border. Sprinkle paprika over the top.

If anyone remembers something different-add it to the comments below.

If I was making this- think it would be more accurate- but right now I can't eat fresh vegetables so doing this from memory- which is not as good as muscle memory!  Enjoy!  Unless you don't like olives, you'll love this potato salad!  Even people who hate potato salad say they like this version!  Enjoy!