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Wednesday, June 6, 2012

Hot Days, Cold Salad

**Recipe updated...see blue in text below**
June 6 - Reverb Broads
Share a recipe or meal that is a summertime favorite. (Bonus: Pick someone else's recipe or meal and make it, then blog about your results later on this month). 
Suggested by Me 


Summertime. Early hazy mornings and long dusky evenings. Even in MN and WI those days can be so hot and so humid that a person can't even muster the energy to contemplate cooking much less actually making a meal. Especially one like me who thrives on those eyelash-frosting, booger-freezing -40 days of a deep winter high pressure system.

On those hot humid days it's best just to eat cold things. For me, that's tuna salad and watermelon. Not tuna salad like on a sandwich, but a macaroni and tuna salad.

Tuna (Macaroni) Salad - serves 4ish as an entree

1 C. elbow macaroni
4 eggs (hardboiled...there is one set of instructions in the text below, but you're welcome to hard-boil them any way you like)
1 onion, finely diced (in thinking about it, that seems like a lot of onion, depending on the size of onion..you should have (in my opinion, because I like onion) about as much onion as the drained tuna)
2 or 3 ribs celery, finely sliced
1 5 oz can tuna fish (and, to make it taste just right Starkist Chunk Light in water - but go with what you like.  Also, you can use more if you like)

And approximately:
1/3 C. Miracle Whip (again, for a taste just right experience),
2 Tbl milk
1 tsp sugar
3 Tbl white vinegar
Salt and pepper to taste
Cook macaroni per package directions. Drain and rinse with cold water. Place in a large bowl.

Place eggs in a medium-sized sauce pan and cover with cold water. Cook, uncovered to a rolling boil. Turn off the heat, remove pan from burner, cover, and let sit for 15 minutes. Rinse eggs with cold/ice water. Peel and and slice. Add to macaroni

Add onion, celery, and tuna to the macaroni bowl.

Stir to mix.

Now, here comes the tricky part, mix the remaining ingredients together to make the dressing. It should be smooth and runny enough to coat everything. It's okay if it's a little too runny, the macaroni will soak up some of the moisture, but it it's too runny it will pool at the bottom of the bowl and drag all the flavor down with it. It should be more tangy (from the vinegar) than sweet (from the sugar) and you'll have to play around until it's right. Sadly, I've ended up with way more dressing than I need, attempting to get it just right.

Pour the dressing over the macaroni mixture. Stir to coat. Cover and refrigerate for at least 4 hours to allow the flavors to meld.

The wonderful thing with this is that it can be made first thing in the morning before things get hot and then is ready to serve for lunch or supper (or both).

Serve with potato chips (Lay's, again if you're going for that just right flavor) and icy cold watermelon.

3 comments:

  1. Yum! That sounds tasty, but then I love macaroni salad in all its forms.

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    Replies
    1. It is yummy. Especially when using the potato chips as an eating utensil. Sigh. See updates above.

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  2. Potato chips are the essential macaroni salad eating utensil. But I'm a Ruffles fan - at least for my macaroni salad.

    ReplyDelete