{"id":109635,"date":"2018-08-30T11:38:52","date_gmt":"2018-08-30T15:38:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/summerofjim.com\/?p=109635"},"modified":"2019-04-18T11:47:24","modified_gmt":"2019-04-18T15:47:24","slug":"bessies-tuna-fish-salad","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/summerofjim.com\/?p=109635","title":{"rendered":"Bessie’s Tuna Fish Salad"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

There came a day when I had a chance to sample some of Bessie\u2019s tuna fish salad. I don\u2019t know if this was a handed-down recipe from her native North Carolina. Maybe she saw the recipe in a magazine? Maybe she just made it up \u201con the fly\u201d. And maybe it was a \u201cone-off\u201d, something that she never made again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I guess that I could reach out to her for the background. But I prefer leaving the source and inspiration to the fog of mystery. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now look\u2026 there is nothing elaborate in making tuna fish salad, right? Canned tuna fish, mayonnaise and maybe some light seasoning\u2026 lemon pepper? The key is the quantity relationship between tuna fish and the mayo; and honestly that\u2019s a judgment call and left to personal taste. Then, whether to add a bit of chopped celery and that is more a matter of style\u2026 like whether to use kidney beans in your chili.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Taking the above into consideration, Bessie\u2019s iteration was to add chopped onion and chopped hard boiled eggs to the mixture. A radical innovation? No. Just, as it turns out, a wonderful enhancement to what is clearly a pedestrian dish.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Picasso had his \u201cblue period\u201d. And I am going thru a \u201ctuna period\u201d. This is a warm weather event that follows an exhaustive use of my Weber grill. And recently I have taken on the challenge of recreating Bessie\u2019s recipe\u2026 as already stated I didn\u2019t need forensic evidence to establish the ingredients. Just a matter of assembly and tinkering with the proportions! But I took this as a serious endeavor, and not surprisingly, during the prep I decided to eschew my typical consumption of a beaker or two of gin.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Further, after my first try (which was very good), I decided to add elbow macaroni to the mixture\u2026 now morphing the recipe into a cold macaroni-tuna fish salad. After three times I\u2019d say that it\u2019s pretty good (Sandy says, \u201cvery good\u201d), or in the least, this version is \u201cinteresting\u201d. I was not looking to replace Bessie\u2019s recipe\u2026 which is impossible to do. Too much of a person\u2019s love and judgment is embodied in a recipe, and that can\u2019t be replicated. I know this well. Do you really think there is a soul who could make an Extra-Dry Tanqueray Martini to surpass mine? QED<\/p>\n\n\n\n

IN THE SPIRIT OF BESSIE\u2019S TUNAFISH SALAD<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

INGREDIENTS<\/strong>
2 small cans: Tunafish packed in water, drained
Some: Mayonnaise
Some: Chopped Onion
Some: Chopped Celery
1-2: Chopped hard boiled egg
1 cup: Elbow macaroni, cooked and chilled
Some: Fresh ground pepper
Some: Paprika sprinkled on top<\/p>\n\n\n\n

DIRECTIONS<\/strong>
1. Mix everything up, and consider yourself lucky that I didn\u2019t make up an elaborate 15 step process.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

n.b.<\/strong>  The use of paprika \nis a tribute to Mommie Soph who I think put paprika on everything except her \nSpecial K breakfast cereal.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There came a day when I had a chance to sample some of Bessie\u2019s tuna fish salad. I don\u2019t know if this was a handed-down recipe from her native North Carolina. Maybe she saw the recipe in a magazine? Maybe … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-109635","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-the-small-pictures"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/summerofjim.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109635","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/summerofjim.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/summerofjim.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/summerofjim.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/summerofjim.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=109635"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/summerofjim.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109635\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":109640,"href":"http:\/\/summerofjim.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109635\/revisions\/109640"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/summerofjim.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=109635"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/summerofjim.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=109635"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/summerofjim.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=109635"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}