Let us make some macaroni salad!! First start by filling a pot halfway with water and add a pinch of salt and bring the salted water to a rolling boil. Then take your choice of pasta and pour it in your pot of boiling water. I'm not huge fan of pasta so I use a very small simple pasta.
I like to boil my pasta till it's just al dente. Then I drain it ...set it aside to cool down while I work on the other ingredients.
So I have seen many many many macaroni salad recipes..pretty much there are a variety of spins to just about every recipe out there ..this is just my spin (well my dads actually) this is only a general "how to" you can tweak any way you like. So moving on....
I then pull out celery, a red bell pepper and a red onion. For this size bag of pasta I finely dice 1 1/2 cups of each. And then add to the pasta.
Now I feel the need to mention that I am NOT a Miracle Whip fan at all!! And you can use any mayonnaise that you choose...but for this recipe alone I will cast aside my favorite mayonnaise Best Foods and use Miracle Whip. I can't explain why but it just makes this salad what it is.
This is the only macaroni salad that I will eat thus far to date. I will not eat store bought or restaurant versions because I do not like vinegar or sugar added in it.
So that being said I now mix the mayonnaise in.
Now I take Tillamook white extra sharp cheddar cheese and cubed in small pieces and add it to the pot. But again you can use any cheese of your choosing that makes you happy.
Now I take one piece of ham steak and cube it very small to make 1 cup...and I add to the to the salad.
Final step is to add 2 cups of thawed frozen peas. Do not cook. Just mix in to to salad ...add a little more mayonnaise and I like shake some black pepper into it and call it done.
Now this is mainly a summer dish to most people ..it's comfort food for me . But it's delicious whatever time of year you make it.
Hope you enjoy it...as always much Love from Vegas xo
