We started a new tradition at the house lately – Tuesday Night Dinners.

Without going into details, let’s just say they haven’t really involved too much work on my part.

“Amor, dinner is ready.”

And I would magically appear at the table. Life was good. Really good.

But last week, for some strange reason, I volunteered to prepare Tuesday Night Dinner.

Yikes.

And for another strange reason, I was craving warm German potato salad, just like my dad used to make.

So I planned out a Wisconsin-themed Tuesday Night Dinner centering on Johnsonville brats, sauerkraut and warm German potato salad.

You can’t go wrong with any recipe that calls for bacon. And bacon grease.

Trouble is, my dad didn’t bequeath me his unwritten warm German potato salad, so I had to rely on my iPad and the Food Network recipe search feature.

Luckily, Paula Deen hadn’t posted any warm German potato salad recipes, so I was good to go. In making my gargantuan grocery list, I told Brenda I needed vinegar.

“Oh, we have vinegar,” she assured me.

Little did I know…

While crafting the warm German potato salad, I noted that I really needed “apple cider vinegar.”

Apple cider vinegar?

Crap. I didn’t really want to go back to the grocery store. I was on Tuesday deadline here.

Into the beautiful Brenda pantry I ventured, only to discover a veritable variety of vim and vigor vinegars:

*Distilled white vinegar.

*White wine vinegar.

*Red wine vinegar.

*Balsamic vinegar of Modena (two bottles).

*Raspberry balsamic vinegar.

*Rice vinegar.

What the heck...

How many vinegars are there in this world? And are they all represented in our pantry?

And, finally, lurking way in the back – “apple cider” vinegar (two bottles, no less).

I only needed a third of a cup, but I was in business for warm German potato salad.

Last week I was fully educated on the questionable benefits of “boba” by Let’s Go! Editor Linda McThrall. I had to admit – I had never heard of boba.

Of course I’ve heard of vinegar, but I realized I didn’t really know what it was. It’s used for all kinds of stuff, but what exactly is it? And why are there 5 billion varieties of vinegar?

According to ask.com, vinegar consists mainly of acetic acid and water. The acid is produced by the fermentation of ethanol.

The word vinegar comes from the French word “vinaigre,” which means “sour wine.” It was likely discovered by accident thousands of years ago after a cask of wine had gone bad.

Today, vinegar can be fermented from herbs, fruit, beer, cane, honey and even vegetables.

Who knew?

I was pleased to realize that our pantry did not contain all vinegars known to mankind and aliens.

As for the warm German potato salad? It wasn’t bad, but I think I need more practice. Not quite like my dad’s…

How about beer vinegar next time?