Improvisation - Tarter Sauce

I've always been a firm believer in the phrase, "necessity is the mother of invention." While it's typically been applied to things like the invention of the wheel and indoor plumbing, I'd like to apply the same logic to tarter sauce.

Okay so, technically, I'm sure that I could have eaten my popcorn shrimp by themselves or with ketchup, but sometimes, you want what you want. And, of course, what I wanted was sweet and tangy tarter sauce, but I didn't have any of the bottled stuff.

Too lazy to hop on my computer and find an actual recipe, I just whipped out what I thought were the basic ingredients (mayonnaise, pickles and lemon juice)...



...and set about figuring it out. Since I was alone with Parker, I only needed a single serving for my already cooked popcorn shrimp, so I put a heaping tablespoon of mayonnaise into my ramekin.



Then, I sliced up some dill pickles and added them in as well.



Finally, I squeezed in a healthy amount of lemon juice as well and gave it a good mix.



Since I don't customarily eat tarter sauce out of the jar, I dipped one of my shrimp into it...



and it came out perfectly! It was smooth and tangy and better yet, it was fresh. I didn't need to adjust any of the amounts and I happily sat down to polish off my popcorn shrimp. I've also vowed never to buy tarter sauce from the store again. Why bother? I always have the three ingredients on hand and this way, I won't be consuming any of the extra preservatives.