Grandma Mary Ann’s Famous Macaroni Salad
Growing up with very limited resources accompanied by a constant fervent tapeworm appetite equalled only by my little brother and 2 full grown hungry ditch diggers after a very long day of ditch digging, my mom had to come up with dishes that she could make in great quantity at a low cost. Her Macaroni Salad was one such dish. She would make these huge bowls full of the stuff and we loved it. Which was a good thing because we had almost every other week. It was something she could make 20lbs of on Saturday and it would last till maybe Tuesday at lunch unless it was summer with no school, then it was done by Monday. Anyway, I have carried on that tradition and my family has always enjoyed it, so I thought I would write it down.
Ingredients
1 box of your favorite Macaroni
1 green pepper, diced medium fine
1 medium sweet onion, diced medium fine
~ 25 stuffed Spanish green olives, sliced fine
~ 6 Tbs sweet pickle relish
6 eggs, hard boiled and diced medium fine
~ 1 cup mayo
Salt and Pepper to taste
Smoked Paprika for garnish
Optional additions: Diced Ham or Crispy Smoked Thick Bacon, Grated Sharp Cheddar Cheese
Fresh Roma Tomatoes, chopped coarse
Directions
- Bring 2-3 qt of cold tap water to a boil.
- Cook macaroni until it reaches the firmness you like, I like it fairly firm but others like their mac salad noodles very soft. Your choice. I usually just add my eggs to the cold water and cook them with the pasta.
- Prepare your veggie ingredients while the pasta is cooking.
- Drain the pasta completely and rinse in cold water until cool. When you noodles are cool makes sure that they are completely drained of water by shaking and turning them in the colander until dry.
- In a large bowl, combine pasta, green pepper, onion, relish, eggs, olives and mayo until the salad has the consistency you prefer. Salt and Pepper to taste.
- You may wish to add additional sweet relish or olives to get the right balance for your salad. You may also wish to add any of the options my mom would use to mix it up when finances dictated the salad be served more frequently or as a main course.
- Place in the refrigerator for at least 2 hours to allow the flavors to combine and the salad to get very cold. Sprinkle with Smoked Paprika just before your bring the salad to the table.
- Enjoy this tasty salad as part of any picnic, cook out, or holiday bash where you have a lot of people to feed.This salad is great to serve with sandwiches, pork chops, grilled steaks, fish or chicken.