Grandma absolutely adored the coast! We would be 30-45 minutes inland on our way there and she would roll down the window in the car, let out a sigh, and say “mmmm, do you smell that salt air yet, Krystal?” On nearly every coast trip, Grandma would pack us a picnic lunch of fried chicken and ham or turkey sandwiches, potato chips, sodas, and her picnic perfect old fashioned macaroni salad. We would take her for a trip to the coast pretty much every 2-3 weeks when I was a kid. But boy oh boy did I get to see her love of the ocean! Grandpa passed when I was just 9 months old, so I never really got to see her love of him…just hear it in stories. I loved this creamy macaroni salad speckled with chopped dill pickles, hard boiled eggs, and black olives because it was delicious and made with love.īut, and perhaps more importantly, I also loved it because it was a signal that we were about to take a trip to the coast! My grandma had two big loves in her life…my grandpa and the ocean. This simple pasta salad brings back a flood of good memories for me any time I eat it. One of my favorite dishes that my Grandma made when I was growing up was her Old Fashioned Macaroni Salad. Grandma’s Picnic Perfect Old Fashioned Macaroni Salad I hope that you’ll find these heirloom recipes interesting and be tempted into making them along with me. I’ll be peppering the heirloom recipes of my family, their friends, and historical publications like old cookbooks passed down to me among my own original, approachable recipes that I’ve come to create over the years. What was equally interesting was to see the recipes that they took care to obtain from their friends as well as those that caught their eyes in magazines, digests, and promotional materials that were common place in their day.

But it was so interesting to see the original recipes that my Grandma and other family members had come up with during their time. Looking through a couple of antique heirloom recipes boxes while I prepared to launch this site got me all in my feelings, for sure. It’s a platform ripe with opportunity for new experiences in taste, texture, and smell that can help us create bonds with people half way around the world and connect us to our family, both those we know/knew and those we never got the chance to meet. Food is something that we will all always have in common. I’ve always loved how food transcends cultural barriers and eras in time. Today, I’m sharing my Grandma’s picnic perfect old fashioned macaroni salad as I kick off a new series of content here on the blog-heirloom recipes.

Old fashioned macaroni salad pasta