We had a little get together while my son, Ryan, was home on leave from the Army. My Mum brought this family favourite.

In our family cook book she wrote of this salad:

” When I was in high school,  I would sometimes have lunch at the Elite Cafe. They always had a lunch special which included a hamburger with your choice of macaroni salad, potatoes and gravy or french fries. I loved the macaroni salad. When Mom went to work as a cook for the Elite Cafe she taught me how to make the macaroni salad the way they made it there. It is my favourite salad. The secret and key ingredient is the the green peppers; you can vary the other ingredients, but don’t ever leave out the green peppers!”  …  ” This salad without the shrimp, radishes and black olives is the approximate salad that the Elite Cafe used for their salad when I was in high school. It was so good that we would eat it every day!”

 She always makes such a lovely presentation. I think it is a gorgeous salad – simple and very delicious too!

Here’s the recipe as given by my Mum- Sherrill:

Macaroni Salad

• 4-6 cups cooked macaroni, drained well
• Best Foods/Hellmann’s mayonnaise- enough to moisten all other ingredients
• 1 medium chopped onion
• 1 green bell pepper, chopped
• 1 cup chopped celery
• 1/2 head iceberg or other crisp lettuce, chopped
• 1 large tomato, diced
• fresh radishes, sliced (optional)
• ripe black pitted olives, drained (optional)
• small shrimp, cooked and drained (optional)
• cucumber slices (optional)
• salt and pepper to taste
• Paprika, sweet to taste

Place macaroni in a large bowl, add the onion, green pepper, celery, lettuce and tomato. Stir in enough mayonnaise to make salad fairly moist.  Add salt and pepper to taste. Sprinkle the top with paprika and garnish with the radishes, black olives, shrimp and cucumber if desired.  Make it pretty- like Mum!

Thanks to my Mum- for letting me show her salad and give you her recipe. I hope you all enjoy!

xo