Macaroni Salad

We were invited to a Memorial Day barbeque and I knew that all I wanted to bring was macaroni salad. I'd never made one before, but I found this recipe at Allrecipes.com It turned out very well. I accidentally forgot to buy a green pepper, so I replaced that with peas. And next time I might cut back on the sugar just a tad.

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4 cups uncooked elbow macaroni
1 cup mayonnaise
1/4 cup distilled white vinegar
2/3 cup white sugar
2 1/2 tablespoons prepared yellow mustard
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
1 sweet onion, chopped
2 stalks celery, chopped
1 green bell pepper, seeded and chopped
1/4 cup grated carrot

Place the chopped onion in a bowl of ice and let set in the refrigerator about 30 min.

Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a boil. Add the macaroni, and cook until tender. Rinse under cold water and drain.

In a large bowl, mix together the mayonnaise, vinegar, sugar, mustard, salt and pepper. Drain excess water from chopped onion. Stir onion, celery, green pepper, carrot, and macaroni into mayonnaise mixture. Refrigerate for at least 4 hours before serving, but preferably overnight.

Sicilian Blood Orange Salad

It's blood orange season! Yum! I got so excited to see these beautiful things in the store that I bought quite a lot. And for dinner I tried this recipe from The Splendid Table for a Sicilian Blood Orange Salad..something I only vaguely remembered from my mission days. It was delicious and beautiful.

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ice
water
1/2 red onion, thinly sliced
2 blood oranges, thinly sliced
1 navel orange, thinly sliced
1/2 cup kalamata olives, roughly chopped
1/4 cup orange juice
2 tbsp olive oil
very smalll quantities:
black pepper
salt
paprika
cinnamon

Place the sliced red onion in a bowl of ice and water, leave in the refrigerator at least 20 minutes to take away their "sting".

In a shallow bowl, mix the different colored orange slices. Drain and pat dry the onion slices and mix with oranges. Add juice and drizzle with olive oil. Add olives. Season to taste.

Mom's Block Party Favorites

I remember these at all Fourth of July block parties, church potlucks, and other family get-togethers.

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Apple Cake

4cups apples, chunked
3cups flour
3 eggs
2cups sugar
1cup oil
2tsp cinnamon
2tsp vanilla
1tsp salt
1tsp baking soda
1cup nuts/raisins (optional)

Mix all ingredients together. Spoon into 9x13 cake pan. Bake at 350F for 1 hour.
*Also works well for muffins!
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Tomato & Pepper Salad

4 tomatoes
2 green peppers
Olive oil
Salt
Pepper
Garlic salt

Slice tomatoes and peppers. Mix together in bowl or square baking dish. Drizzle with olive oil. Season with salt, pepper, and garlic salt. Mix well. Place a few ice cubes on top and place in refrigerator until ready to serve.