Tuesday, June 7, 2011

Tuna Pasta Salad

OK - I know this is simple. Really, it's a no brainer. But this food holds such dear memories for me that I just had to tell you how my friend would eat it and how I feel wrong eating it any other way.

When I was younger, before I had my kidlet... so that was like YEARS ago, I had this tiny, little friend named Roxanne. She was small. Like small small. She was 4'10 and hung right around 90 pounds. She was single mom to two boys and she was feisty as ever. She was mean. I was scared of her sometimes and that's really saying something.

Before I met her, I'd never had tuna pasta salad or if I had, it wasn't memorable. I don't remember how she made it, just how she ate it. So, this is how I make it:

1 box any kind of pasta (I actually used two half boxes. One was WW penne, the other was WW small shells. Don't tell anyone. =])
2 cans tuna (in water), drained
1 can peas or frozen peas, thawed
2 hard boiled eggs, chopped
some celery, chopped
some onion, chopped
mayo to taste
salt, pepper, any other "spicey type thing" you want to add

Cook the pasta. Drain. Rinse well with cold water. Add the tuna to a large bowl and break it into smallish pieces, add the peas, celery, onion and mix. Then add the mayo, mix. Then the salt, pepper, and any other "spicey type thing" you added. Finally, mix in the eggs. I save them until last so they don't get all broken and mushy in the process of mixing. OK... now it has to get cold, so I refrigerate mine overnight, but a couple of hours would be good, too.

Here comes the memorable part... When Roxanne would make this, she'd sit with a bowl on her lap (all 90 lbs. of her) and a sleeve of saltine crackers. She would put a spoonful of pasta salad on top of the cracker and pop it into her mouth. It's absurd, right? Who eats crackers with a pasta salad?? Oh, but then I tried it. Yum. I think it's the combo of the crunchy and soft, the salty and the tuna... I don't know, but it's good. Darn good. Now, when I eat it (which is maybe every two years), I eat it with pretzel thins... sort of a preztel, sort of a cracker. It's almost as good as it is with a saltine. I've also put it into a bowl and added oyster crackers. I know, it is weird. You can judge me all you want. =]

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