If you change a family recipe....

My sister makes this noodle salad- Grandma's Mac Salad

A recipe she got from her husbands grandma- hence the name. She makes this for most family gatherings- we love it! It's simple and creamy... easy to make. But- yeah always a but, I didn't have elbow macaroni and wanted to make a couple dishes for a cook-out without running to the store. I did however have rotini- whole wheat rotini. Did you know- 8 oz of mac and 16 oz of rotini isn't the same. I don't even think 8 oz of mac and 8 ozs of rotini is the same. Well, in my hurry to get my food done- I didn't read the whole recipe. So- I made the dressing for the 8 oz of mac (while boiling 16 oz of rotini), mixed it up, covered it, and tossed in the fridge to chill. I did not look at this again until we where at my brothers and ready to eat. How horrible, to open up this much loved salad and see a dry mess. Needless to say, it soon went into the garbage. Of course, us being us- we still had plenty of food, but I did miss the mac salad.

1 cup Hellman's Mayo

1 TB mustard

2 TB white vinegar

1 tsp sugar

1 tsp salt

8 oz. mac

2 stalks of celery- diced small

1 bell pepper- diced small

That is all you have to do- READ THE RECIPE!!! There is no tricks, no special lighting- just boil some darn noodles, cut up a couple veg, and make an easy little dressing. And I screwed it up. I was so proud- we decided at 9:30 in the morning that we wanted to have a cook-out at 1. I wasn't going to hit the store and be part of that huge crowd- I was just going to make things from stuff on hand. I had plenty of options, no camera, and a couple hours. I chose to make the mac salad, my AWARD winning baked beans, pumpkin bars, and banana chocolate chip monkey bread (before you get all excited- I used a mix that a friend gave me for the monkey bread).

I don't know about you- but my special tried and true recipes all end up in a cookbook. My first cookbook came from a mother of a guy I dated for most of my young adult life. She was like a second mother to me. We used to hang out all the time. She had a cookbook, and on the inside cover was recipes she got from her family. She made the most wonderful yeast rolls for Sunday dinner. Oh- so warm and yeasty- a little butter... I regress. One Christmas she got me that same cookbook- and shared some of her recipes with me. Now all of my special recipes- Grandma's Mac Salad, Blue slaw (from the restaurant blue- I used to work at), and Jay's grandmas fudge are on the inside of my cookbook.