(43-15) Two Great Uses for Mayonnaise

Our kitchen table is an oval shape in black distressed wood and it's one of my favorite pieces of furniture.  I recently had a friend over and she noticed that we had a number of water rings on the table but said that she knew of a way to get rid of them.  She said "I know that this is gonna sound crazy, but do you have any mayonnaise?"  I immediately produced my jar of  Best Foods (Hellmann's for those of you on the East coast;) and she then asked for a plastic baggy.  My friend then put the bag over her hand, grabbed a  fistful of mayo and proceeded to wipe it all over my table.  We left the mayo on for no more than 10 minutes (not that I think any damage would be done if you left it on longer;) and then we wiped the table off and all of the water rings were GONE.  Believe it or not.  I NEVER would have known about this had my friend not shared her Grandma's tip; and so, of course I just had to share this with you.

As for tip # 2, once again I refer back to my March 4 2009 post "100 Random Things About Me," and today I would like to address (ironically enough) # 43. "People tell me that I'm a good cook but I have a limited repertoire."  Well this past year I have challenged myself and expanded my offerings, since we've been making a conscious effort to eat the majority of our meals at home.  I'm not quite Julia Child at this point, but I think that what I've been doing, I've been doing well.  Sometimes I'm a little intimidated when it comes to following recipes but a few weeks ago we were having company for dinner and along with the burgers and hot dogs that Luis was going to grill, I wanted to make this baked potato salad that my friend Mari had made like 2 years ago.  How sad is that... It had been over 2 years and I STILL had a very vivid memory of her potato salad.  I called Mari and asked if she could tell me how to make it, but she didn't fully remember.  I decided not to make it THAT night, and instead I looked up recipes online until I devised one of my own.  I've now made my baked potato salad at least 3 times and each time to rave reviews, so I think this recipe is a keeper and in the interest of  yup, say it with me; "THE GREATER GOOD," I'm gonna share my recipe with you.

BAKED POTATO SALAD:
Ingredients: Yukon Gold Potatoes, Green Onions, Celery, Crumbled Bacon Pieces, and Mayonnaise
Preheat the oven to 425
Wrap the potatoes in foil and bake for 1 hour
Upon removing the potatoes from the oven, take off the foil and let the potatoes cool (an hour seems to work well; but if you don't have that much time to spare, that's OK.)
Cut the potatoes into chunks (the skin is very tender, so there is no need to remove it unless you really want to.)
Dice celery (use the amount that suits you)
Finely slice green onion (and again, use the amount that suits you - I usually use 2 or 3 and both the white and green parts)
Add crumbled bacon (or not; if you're not a fan of bacon the recipe will still be great without it)
Add mayonnaise to coat the mixture and stir.
If time allows chill the potato salad before serving.

Now truly this recipe couldn't be any easier, and even if you're not a fan of mayonnaise, I think that you'll really like this because it  just tastes like an awesome baked potato.

If you give either of these handy dandy tips a try, let me know how it works out for you.  I've removed the letter verification box from the comment area so you should have no problem keeping in touch.
Till next time...
Queen of EVERYTHING