Part One of a Twofer! Salads: Macaroni Salad

Holy moly, I'm so far behind in updating this blog.  Bad blogger, bad.  It's like I'm letting my education and fathering my children get in the way of exploring the food of the 50s.  Stupid education.  Stinky kids.  Seriously though, I made these two dishes back in April or May and it's been weighing on my mind ever since that I've not yet written about these two very special recipes.  But taking prereqs for nursing school and keeping busy with the boys has kept me pretty busy.  Fear not, faithful reader, I have not abandoned the cook book.  I may not be posting once a week like I did last summer, but I am hoping to update at least monthly.

OH, and lest I forget, Aaron and Sarah's 5th Annual Pie-Off is coming up soon.  We've got over 20 people (plus associated family members) who have RSVPed, so I expect that we'll have at least 20 pies to stuff ourselves with.  This year's Pie-Off categories are:

• Pretty Pretty Princess
• State Fair Wannabe
• Not a Pie, but Nice Try
• 'Merica, the Pie
• No Kids Allowed

If you are interested in joining us, let me know in the comments.  All you need to do is bring a pie, even if it is your first ever homemade pie, and show up ready to stuff yourself.

So now, on to business.  As it has been a couple months, I won't be able to go in as much depth as I usually do simply 'cause I don't remember all of the details.  Oh well.  So first is...

Preparation - Macaroni Salad

There aren't any glaring issues with the recipe, but considering that canned pineapple is the most colorful part of this salad, it's pretty clear that this would make a great addition to one of the white dinners I had growing up.  Who needs color anyway?  The biggest issue I see is with the apples, and the issue is actually two-fold.  It calls for "delicious apples".  Fortunately, it doesn't call for Delicious apples, because Red Delicious apples are atrocious.  It wouldn't surprise me if it was Red Delicious apples that were used simply due to market share at the time, but I'm just going to pretend the recipe author meant delicious with a small 'd', and was thinking about one of the great varieties developed by the U of M.  The second issue with the apples was the amount.  The apples I bought weren't huge, but six apples seemed like a lot.  So I decided that apples in 1951 were probably smaller, so I just used three apples.  But I'm getting ahead of myself here.  On to the recipe!

I'm done blocking out the other recipes.  I don't know why I did that in the first place.

So we're looking at a sweetened beaten egg sauce, poured over noodles and fruit.  Once upon a time, someone thought this was a good idea.  Once upon the same time, other people agreed and thought the whole congregation of Zion Lutheran in Thief River Falls should know about this recipe.  Once upon a time, people were weird.

Our cast of characters.

Lemon juice, pineapple juice, sugar, flour, and eggs.  Piece of cake.  Instead of buying a bottle of pineapple juice, I decided to drain the canned pineapple.  I don't think overly syrupy pineapple would probably make for the right texture if it was mixed in without draining.

Look at all that color!

Believe it or not, I've only ever double boiled once or twice before.  This was exciting in a not-very-exciting sort of way

After I chilled the sauce, it was time to boil, and rinse (to cool??) the pasta.  Did you know macaroni and pasta has a long and interesting history?  Here's a long and interesting read about that long and interesting history.  Then I peeled, cored, and chopped my apples.  I do this a lot these days with the boys at home, minus the peeling... though considering Thomas only takes bites out of the middles of the apple pieces, maybe I should peel them.  I'm just too lazy.

C'mon kid, just eat your whole apple pieces.

After everything was cool, I added the whipped cream to the sauce, much to Sarah's dismay.  Again, anytime whipped cream goes into one of these recipes, she gets sad.  Apparently, it is a waste of perfectly good whipped cream to go in them instead of on hot chocolate or on her coffee.  But it goes in anyway.  Sorry Sarah, this whipped cream is being used in the name of history!

If you listen carefully, you can hear Sarah sobbing in the background

Mmmmmonochromatic

Tasting and Reaction

There's not much to be surprised by here.  It is a kind of slimy, overly sweet, pile of consumable.  It wasn't bad, but we can safely say that this won't be making an appearance again in our house.  I don't have the bite by bite reaction to the food that I normally provide.  Deal with it.  I do have a couple pictures though.

James thinks it is tip top?  Compared to whatever else it is we made him that night, it looks more appetizing.

Thomas, in pointing out the window, must be indicating where the salad should go.  My gosh, he is so much bigger than he was even a couple months ago.

And lastly, here's the aftermath of making this "food".

That's a lot of dirty dishes for some pretty mediocre pasta salad.

The verdict?  Disappointment on a plate.  I think I'd rather eat all of the ingredients separately and unadulterated than combined like this.  The whole is less than the sum of the parts.

Up next:  Cracker Jack!