Summer Salads from Marta Perry

Greetings from Marta Perry!

Despite the fact that it’s rained every day for the past ten days, my thoughts are turning to summertime food. Even if picnics are moved inside because of rain, it’s still all about the food!

Most of my recipes for summertime salads come from by Pennsylvania Dutch background, and we use mayonnaise—boy, do we ever use mayonnaise. Maybe I shouldn’t even think about the amount of calories in some of our popular dishes. At a typical church picnic around here, you’re likely to find an array of salads to suit every possible taste.

My two favorites to take to events are potato salad and tuna and shells salad, both of which I make with my mother’s recipe. My husband is usually so happy to see me making the potato salad that he offers to chop all the onions and celery for me!

I thought you might enjoy my recipe for Tuna and Shells salad, so I’ve included it below. I make potato salad in exactly the same way, except substitute six to eight large cooked potatoes to the pasta and delete the tuna.

Do you have favorite foods that say ‘summer’ to you?


TUNA AND SHELLS SALAD

¾ box of pasta: elbows, shells, or rotelli, cooked and drained
2 cans tuna, drained
5-6 eggs, hard-cooked and chopped
¾ cup chopped celery
¾ cup chopped onion
½ cup chopped bread and butter pickles

Dressing:

1 cup mayonnaise
1 T Dijon mustard
1 T pickle liquid
1 t sugar

Combine salad ingredients. Combine dressing ingredients and adjust to taste. Combine dressing and ingredients, mix. Add more mayo as needed. Salt and pepper.