Macaroni Salad

My mother had a unique recipe for macaroni salad, and we all loved it. When I went to camp one summer as a counselor, the cooks at camp had a different recipe for mac salad, and I enjoyed that as well, but mom's macaroni salad has always been my favorite, and I often make it for lunch for Alan and me.

You need (serves 4-6):

elbow macaroni (1 cup)
1 small can tuna (in water)
1/2 green olives chopped
1/2 cup black olives chopped
1/2 cup celery
mayonnaise (I don't measure this, but usually I put in three heaping tablespoons or more if it doesn't mix well)
a spritz of lemon (no substitutions to the real thing, please)

Cook the elbow according to package directions. Don't forget to salt the water. After the macaroni is cooked run it under cold water to cool it down. Drain.

While the macaroni is cooking you can open the can of tuna, and drain off the water; chop the olives and celery, and put all these in a bowl. Spritz the lemon over these chopped items. Add the tuna and noodles and mayonnaise. Mix. I sprinkle it liberally with fresh ground pepper, but mom didn't.

To make this for two people, I only use 1/2 cup of macaroni. You will notice then that you have more tuna in the salad which is how Alan likes it.

The recipe at camp was macaroni, chopped celery, chopped green pepper, chopped onion, and chopped farm-fresh tomatoes, and mayonnaise. I enjoyed this. The camp needed to use up the fresh veggies that were donated to it, and this is something the cooks came up with to use them up. In addition to the mac salad, we had platters of fresh sliced home-grown tomatoes. I can hardly wait for summer because I LOVE, love, love home-grown tomatoes.

Enjoy.

ttfn