Whenever burgers or hotdogs are involved I have to make my mom's macaroni salad
MOM'S MACARONI SALAD
8 oz. box elbow macaroni (cooked, drained, and cooled. This is one time I rinse the macaroni well or you have to double the dressing and entire salad is too dry.)
-sliced radishes, 4 or 5 large
-cucumber, cut long ways, seeds removed, and sliced
-1 yellow pepper, chopped
-1 tomato, chopped (you can use any type of tomato i.e., Roma, grape, etc. If using grape still cut in half so tomato juice flavors salad)
-1 med-large carrot ribbons or just sliced carrots
-2 hard boiled eggs, grated (a must for this salad)
DRESSING
1 cup Miracle Whip
1 cup mayonnaise
1 TBS apple cider vinegar
1 TBS sugar
salt and pepper to taste (heavy on the pepper)
Mix all dressing ingredients first. Add veggies to macaroni and then mix most of dressing with everything. Refrigerate for about 1 hour to let flavors blend. Not totally necessary but it does help. Right before serving mix rest of dressing in with everything else.
Serves 8-10
This is great with the burgers we always make with it at the following link-
http://www.discusscooking.com/forums...269#post181269
Another good thing is this - but like the recipe indicates it MUST be refrigerated for 2 hours prior to eating it.
BEAN AND PASTA SALAD
8 oz. uncooked rotini
1 can black beans
1 can great Northern beans
1 can kidney beans
1 11-oz. can whole kernel corn
1 2-oz. jar pimiento, chopped
1/2 cup mayonnaise
1/2 cup Zesty Italian dressing (I use Kraft)
1/2 tsp. ground red pepper
1/2 tsp. dry mustard
Cook and cool rotini. Mix all beans, corn and pimiento in bowl with juice from cans. While pasta is cooking and beans are soaking in a bowl mix mayo, Italian dressing, pepper, and mustard.
Pour bean mixture into colander, rinse and drain. Mix mayo mixture with the bean mixture making sure everything is coated well and refrigerate for 2 hours.
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MY NOTES: The mixture HAS to refrigerate for 2 hours to let the Italian dressing "calm" down. After 2 hours you can't taste it like you can at first. It will taste nothing like it does at first. ALSO to make it more kid-friendly you can leave out the ground red pepper or just cut down on it. Even though the recipe doesn't call for much it has a wee bit of an impact on the dish.
Now, to make this a chicken dish you can pre-grill some chicken breasts (pound them out first), cut in nice chunks (but not so big you have to have knives!!) and add to bowl to sit in fridge for 2 hours.
p.s. - you know you're from North/South Carolina when someone asks what to serve with BBQ and you automatically think about your favorite side dishes to serve with pulled pork