Except... I have no potato masher, and I think these potatoes are more starchy than waxy. My cookbook recommends waxy potatoes for potato salad since they're less likely to fall apart when cut up into bits. Also, I haven't been grocery shopping in a while and even though the store isn't that far away, it would use up more precious moments of my day if I make a trip to the store. But I could. I'm out of a number of staples, including milk, eggs, and onions. The onions are thus far proving the most problematic of these lacks. (I can work around this. I have enough assorted other ingredients to make do,, although I wish I had onions.) Oh, and there's no where to heat up something so big, except a microwave, in the department, but the only appropriately and disposable container I have to bring the dish into school in is made of metal. Also, I have to be on campus 3 hours before the potluck for a meeting, which means it'll be cold by the time the dinner happens.
So... cold, lumpy mashed potatoes or falling apart potato salad which will show off my lack of onions more strikingly?