I was packing up the family and heading East the other weekend to go celebrate my Father’s (too short lived) life… We had a drive ahead of us and we were crashing at a friends house… I knew I was going to not have time to make something up for the memorial once we arrived… and I wanted to bring something that would feed a bunch of mouths… you know you just never know how many people are going to show up… Its not like too many people actually RSVP to a memorial service 😉
Well I figured I’d be safe making up some kind of pasta salad … I knew it could hold up in an ice chest with the 5… ok maybe it was a 6 hour drive ahead of us… those darn kids… I swear there was an extra 5 “potty” breaks on our hands! The last 3 were on the shoulder of I-90 for the 5 year old… My Husband thought it was a good idea to let the kids pick out their own Gatorade on one of the pit stops… He then in return decided it was an even better idea to just hit the shoulder, jump out and aim for the tire… The 5 year old got a kick out of that… and there was 2 more identical stops after the first! Kinda reminded me of the trips I use to take when I was pregnant. Alright back to the subject at hand… Maybe a little TMI… But that’s what you get with my family!
So I went and checked the pantry and noticed I had a big bag of macaroni noddles… Macaroni Salad it is!!! First stop… Pioneer Women of course… She’s my all time favorite… I have all of her books… and I even got to attend her book tour last year with my girlfriends! She ended up being the last stop too… I usually always have luck with her! I rolled across her “Best Macaroni Salad Ever” check the ingredients… checked my stock… I was missing the roasted red peppers… but I figured I’d sub them out with some celery and shredded carrots… and I decided to add some chucks of cheddar cheese… because I can never say no to cheese 🙂
Hope you enjoy!
The Best Macaroni Salad Ever
Ingredients:
- 4 cups elbow macaroni
- 3 whole roasted red peppers, chopped (this is what I didn’t have on had… I don’t think it was missed)
- 1/2 cup chopped black olives
- 6 pickles diced… your choice I used baby dills
- 3 whole green onions chopped
- 1 large carrot shredded
- 2 celery chopped
- 1/4 of a 1lb block of medium cheddar cheese cut into chunks
- 1/2 cup mayonnaise
- 1 TBLS red wine, or distilled vinegar
- 3 tsp sugar
- 1/4 tsp salt
- black pepper to taste
- 1/4 cups milk
- splash of pickle juice
- optional… TBLS mustard… I used spicy brown
Steps:
- Cook the macaroni noodles in salted water. Drain, rinse in cold water and set aside.
- Prep red peppers, olives, pickles, green onion, carrot, celery & cheese.
- Mix together mayo, vinegar, sugar, mustard, salt & pepper… Add enough milk to make it pour-able. Add pickle juice for extra flavor.
- Add the everything together and pour sauce over… mix well.
- Cover and refrigerate at least one hour before serving… or just make yourself a bowl like my husband did… no need to wait… I guess you always need a taste tester!!
Follow the pictures for complete step by step tutorial…
