The Salad Bar: Macaroni Salad

My new thing is finding blogging groups. I like having a theme and a designated day to post something. It gives me a challenge and holds me food-responsible for something.

Last month I joined The Salad Bar Blogging Group, which is a Facebook group for bloggers who have a themed salad recipe. The theme last month was fruit and I was sad I didn't get a chance to participate so I made an extra effort to participate in this one.

Anyway, the theme for this month is Potluck salads. I immediately knew that I wanted to make macaroni salad. My mom makes it all of the time and usually adds in shrimp, but I opted to skip that since its warm out and mayo and shrimp in a salad during warm temps is just asking for trouble.

Macaroni Salad
Source: Food Network
Servings: 6
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Ingredients:

• 2 cups macaroni noodles
• 3 stalks celery, diced
• ½ cup mayonnaise
• 3 tbsp. sour cream
• 1 ½ tbsp. cider vinegar
• 1 ½ tsp. sugar
• 1 tsp. dry mustard
• salt and pepper, to taste

Directions:
1. Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Cook macaroni noodles according to package directions.
2. Drain and rinse. Set aside until slightly cooled.
3. Meanwhile, combine mayonnaise, sour cream, cider vinegar, sugar and dry mustard together in a small bowl.
4. Once macaroni is slightly cooled, stir in celery and mayonnaise mixture until all of the macaroni is covered. Season liberally with salt and pepper.
5. Transfer to a lidded bowl and refrigerate until chilled or up to 3 days.

The Food Network recipe calls for onion and parsley in the recipe which I opted to omit. My mom never puts onion in her macaroni salad and I just can't picture it in there. I had initially planned to keep the parsley in the salad, but my parsley plant was looking a little sparse after some frequent uses recently so I decided to just skip it.

The best thing about this salad is how far in advance you can prepare it. The flavors only get stronger over time so there's nothing wrong with making this on a Thursday to serve to your Saturday party guests.