Macaroni Salad - musings and a recipe

See these guys in this picture? They are frowning because they bit down on something crunchy in their otherwise soft macaroni salad. Either that or they forgot you are supposed to refrigerate things with eggs and mayonnaise and they all got belly aches.

I always loved my mom's macaroni salad. Well that is except I seem to remember that she put in chopped celery which created a horrible dissonance in my mouth. There I would be chewing along on some soft macaroni and hard boiled eggs with a creamy sauce and then out of nowhere CRUNCH.

"What was that?!" my mind would scream to my mouth. "Was that a bug?!"

"I know it was a bug! Yuck spit it out spit it out! Wait - not a bug...maybe it was a VEGETABLE!!!! "

Well I have outgrown that reaction to some degree but I still have it when I bite into a chewy raisin in an otherwise crunchy cookie. (but I digress)

Here is my mom's basic recipe but with my modifications. I know my sisters have all modified it to their own tastes as well.

Mix together the basic three ingredients

• 16oz box of elbow macaroni cooked and drained according to package directions


• 1 qt Miracle Whip


• 1 doz. hardboiled eggs peel and chop all but 3 or 4 which will be for slicing and placing decoratively on the top

The rest is up to you but here is what I put in mine

• Onion minced very fine


• Peeled and chopped cucumber


• Lawry's Seasoned Pepper

Some people like to put these things in their macaroni salad as well

• Olives


• Pimentos


• Celery


• Red and Green Bell Peppers


• Vinegar


• Sugar

I like to stick pretty much to the basics. Sometimes I use a different kind of macaroni such as bowtie macaroni or twisted macaroni or sometimes the little straight tubular shape and sometimes I even get really crazy and go for the tricolor macaroni product that is made with spinach or tomato in the dough.

Check out my Spaghetti Squash recipe.