Recipe - Seafood Salad

Another Mother's Day has come and gone, signaling that warm days of outdoor living are just around the corner.  I was a bit too optimistic about the weather this year and planned an outdoor picnic, but we ended up having to eat inside.  We had a quite a crowd on Sunday, including all three of my daughters here for Mother's Day for the first time in several years. We all went to church together, everyone helped with dinner, and we Skyped with our beloved missionary in San Diego.  What could be better?

The night before, however, things weren't quite so pretty.  After a fun-filled Saturday, everyone was tucked into bed except husband and I.  It was 11:35 p.m. and I was making a few last-minute food preparations, when it suddenly became apparent that I needed a vital item from the store. I knew Maceys closed at midnight, so I grabbed my purse and hurried out the door in the rain, only to realize I was blocked in by two other cars.  By the time we found which keys were in which girl's purse, I had wasted ten minutes.

Arriving at Maceys with only minutes to spare before closing, I was shocked to learn they were totally out of my item!  Thus ensued a desperate hour-long search all over town to every single grocery store--but to no avail.  For your future information, Logan rolls up its sidewalks on Saturday night. Only Walmart is open (I tried them both, but they were out too).  At Smith's I actually made it through the automatic doors with a jubilant smile, only to be stopped by workers firmly announcing the store had closed 12 minutes ago.  I could go on, but let's just end this pitiful tale by saying that much later, driving home dejectedly through the rain, I remembered a large ham sitting at home in my garage fridge and came up with a slightly altered dinner plan.  So everything came out OK in the end, with the high points of our meal being this delicious Snicker's Brownie Ice Cream Cake my daughters made . . .

 . . . and my favorite Seafood Salad (pictured above), which I hope some of you will try when you need a potluck item for the family reunion or just when you're grilling at home with the fam.  If you do, take my advice and buy your ingredients ahead of time, because shopping alone after midnight is just not all it's cracked up to be.

Seafood Salad

-Two 16 oz bags of Small Shell Pasta  
-One jar Best Foods or Kraft Mayonnaise
-1/3 cup Kraft Creamy French Dressing (not Catalina, just regular French)
-2 bunches Green Onions, sliced
-6 to 8 stalks diced Celery (use tender inner stalks if possible)
-1 green bell pepper
-1 red bell pepper
-1 pound imitation crab meat
-1 pound of small cooked Shrimp (71-90 size)
-½ teaspoon black pepper
-1 ¼ teaspoon salt
-1 ½ teaspoon lemon juice

Only a few ingredients are needed.  This recipe makes a huge bowl, but is easy to scale down.  If you do cut it in half, you might consider adding extra shrimp and crab anyway, and it will be even better.

So let's get started.  First, wash, dry, and dice up all your vegetables.  The celery . . .

The green onions . . .

and the red and green bell peppers.

Now open your crab and flake it apart.  You can choose any brand, but I have found this particular brand, "Crab Classic," to be the highest quality.

You could use real crab too, of course, but that is always way out of my price range, and besides, I think imitation crab works well and tastes great in many recipes for which real crab is just not practical.  For those of you unfamiliar with this product, here is some information from the manufacturer:

Perhaps the best tasting surimi seafood on the market today, Crab Classic Chunk Style has the firm texture and fresh, mild flavor of real crab. Certified by the American Heart Association, Crab Classic is fat free and low in cholesterol. It's also a source of Omega-3 EPA and DHA, providing 100mg per 3 oz. serving.

Now refrigerate your prepared ingredients while you cook the pasta.  First boil a LARGE pot of water to which you have added a couple of good Tablespoons of salt.  Add the two bags of  pasta.

Stir occasionally while it's boiling to keep it from sticking to the bottom.  This takes about 10 or 12 minutes.  Start tasting it after 10 minutes so you don't overcook it.  You want it done, but certainly not overdone.

Now place a large colander in your sink and start running cold water.  Rinse the pasta WELL, returning it to the pan, adding more cold water, and draining it several times to be sure to remove all the starches from the pasta.  This will ensure a nice, non-sticky texture for your salad.

Set aside to drain well.

While the pasta is draining, mix up the dressing by combining the mayo with the French dressing . . .

. . . the salt and pepper and the lemon juice (optional).  Remember, do not substitute Catalina French dressing--this is just the regular creamy French.

Now it's time to put it all together (except the shrimp).  Dump the pasta into a big bowl and add the prepared vegetables and crab.

Gently fold in the dressing and refrigerate.

The reason I don't add the shrimp at this point is that it is the most perishable ingredient.  That means if I'm planning to serve this salad tomorrow, I want to wait until the last possible moment to thaw and add my shrimp, so that I can feel good about people eating the leftovers for a couple of days (and there will be leftovers, as this is a huge batch of salad).

Of course if you want to add the shrimp right away, you definitely can.  Here's how to do it.  Take the shrimp from the freezer and dump into a small colander.  Run cold water over it in the sink to thaw.

Leave it running for about ten minutes while you do other things.  Then, if your shrimp comes with tails still on, take them off.  These is easily accomplished in just a couple of minutes by squeezing the shrimp between your thumb and forefinger at the base and it will pop right off.  (Sorry I don't have a picture of myself doing this--it took both hands and no one else was up at 6 a.m. to take the photo for me). 

But really, it's easy and done in no time.  Next, lay out a clean dishtowel or paper towels and spread the shrimp out to drain. 

Place a couple of layers of paper towel on top and press down to absorb any liquid from the shrimp.  You want your shrimp to be very dry so they don't add water to the salad.

Stir shrimp into the salad.

Cover tightly until ready to serve.

Kept cold, it should stay good for three days.  Enjoy!

Recipe - Mom's Potato Salad

School's out, the rain has stopped, and picnic time is here!  Our son, Dylan, graduated from high school last week, so to celebrate we had a party for him at a park in Layton, which just happened to be a good half-way meeting point for family members.  To make things easy for me, I sent out emails asking everyone to fill out an order form choosing what kind of sandwich they wanted from Jimmy Johns, which we picked up on the way there.  We also had chips, fresh fruit, drinks, and my homemade potato salad. For dessert, Dylan's sister, Jessame, made him a fabulous chocolate graduation cake, which was as delicious as it was cute.

I got off easy for this picnic with buying the pre-made sub sandwiches, but the Potato Salad  is always a labor of love.  Our family recipe features cooked carrots and peas, which adds both color and flavor, along with lots of little green onions and sliced boiled eggs on top.  Generations of cooks in our family have made potato salad this exact way, but as far as I know there has never been a written recipe . . . until now!  When I made it the other day, I painstakingly took down notes of amounts and measurements so I could pass it on to you.  Potato salad is one of those things everyone has their own favorite way of making, but if you're dissatisfied with yours or just looking for something new, give it a try!  Instructions and photos below.

Mom’s Potato Salad
Note: This is a huge salad for a party—enough to serve 20 people.   So if you’re making it just for the fam, you may want to cut the recipe in half.  My dad could live on this salad, so I always make extra for him.  Keep leftovers for up to five days. 

30 small to medium potatoes

10 large, whole carrots, peeled and sliced.  More if they are skinny.

1 bag Western Family Frozen Petite Peas

2 large or 3 small bunches Green Onions

1 jar Miracle Whip Salad Dressing

½ jar Best Foods or Kraft Mayonnaise

½ cup of whipping cream

1 teaspoon lemon juice

2 teaspoons or so salt

½ teaspoons black pepper

1 teaspoon sugar

2 Tablespoons yellow mustard (or so)

6 or 8 boiled eggs

Paprika and parsley for garnish

-Wash potatoes and place in large pot, with the largest ones on the bottom.  Add a tablespoon or so of salt and add just enough cold water to cover. 

-Bring to a boil, then turn to simmer until potatoes are just tender—do not overcook them, but make sure they are done.  I like to poke the biggest one right to the center with a toothpick.  If it’s done, then they all are. 

-While the potatoes are cooking, peel and slice the carrots.  Add a teaspoon or so of salt and fill the pan about a third of the way up with water.  Simmer until done, testing them just as you did the potatoes.  Run cold water over them so they’ll stop cooking, and drain well.  Put in fridge.

-Cook the frozen peas in a small amount of salted water, as with the carrots.  As soon as they aren’t frozen anymore and the water has just started to simmer, they are done.  Do not overcook--pretty much just long enough to thaw them and simmer only a minute.  (You can even just throw them on top of the carrots when the carrots are almost cooked and save dirtying another pan).  Drain well and cool in fridge with the carrots.

-Remove the potatoes from heat and pour off hot water so they won’t keep cooking.  Let cool until you can handle them but they are still warm.  This will help them peel easier.

-When they are peeled, place in fridge for at least an hour to cool thoroughly.  To avoid issues with food poisoning, do not ever add the dressing to potatoes that are still warm.  The potatoes need to be completely cold (and do not cool them on countertop except while they’re waiting to be peeled for 20 minutes or so.   Potatoes handled improperly, not mayo, is the cause of most potato salad related food poisoning).

-While the potatoes are chilling, wash, peel, and slice the green onions.

-Boil the eggs (simmer about ten minutes, then cool fast with cold water and place in fridge).

-Dice the potatoes and place back in fridge while you make the dressing.

-Whip the cream in a glass bowl.

-Mix Miracle Whip, Mayo, mustard, lemon, salt, pepper, and sugar into the cream.  Then take a chunk of potato, dip it in the dressing and taste it.  Adjust seasonings at this point to suit your tastes.  Also, instead of part mayo and part Miracle Whip, you can use all Miracle Whip, which is what my mom always did.  If you’re not a fan of Miracle Whip and use mayo for most things, you should know that although I personally dislike Miracle Whip for most purposes, for some reason it is perfect for potato salad--more flavorful and quite a bit lower in fat than mayonnaise.  The only reason I add part mayo instead making the whole thing with MW is that I usually have more mayo on hand at any given time.  So please feel free to use straight MW if you would like.   And remember that the seasonings amounts I listed are very much open to adjustment.  I normally don’t measure anything at all for this, but I did the other day just to give you an idea of amounts.  In addition, since the size of the potatoes vary somewhat each time you make it, just add more or less dressing as needed.  You don’t want it to either be too dry or have too much dressing.

-Fold into potatoes, green onions, carrots, and peas.  I usually add the peas after everything else is in, so they don't get mushed, but in this photo it shows them all together because I forgot.  See how pretty and bright the peas and carrots are?

-Slice your boiled eggs and arrange across the top.  Sprinkle lightly with Paprika and decorate with parsley springs if desired.  I have an egg slicer that makes my slices uniform, but you can do it with a paring knife.