Homemade Macaroni Salad

There’s a funny story behind this recipe.

No one wanted me to make it.

I was sitting at work during a slow moment, thinking about what was in the cupboards and what I could do with things to make them more interesting.  I’d discovered the night before that for some reason, I had three cans of corn niblets; unusual if only because BF likes creamed corn and I don’t usually buy canned vegetables, nor do I recall buying three cans of any one vegetable at one time.  (Did I buy them for something specific and forget to use them?  I couldn’t tell you.)  Finally, I concocted this mixture, and emailed two of my coworkers asking them what they thought.

“diced – red onion, green bell pepper, scallions and plum tomatoes, corn niblets and chopped cilantro, kosher salt/fresh ground black pepper; lime juice and olive oil, all mixed together.”

Neither one was impressed with the offering, but I shrugged it off and went home to start the chopping.  I tweaked it a bit because some of the ingredients I’d thought I had were old or just not up to par for the job, and wound up with:

“Diced red onion and green bell peppers, corn niblets, kosher salt, fresh ground black pepper, lime juice, a spoonful of mayo, and 1/2 lb. of al dente elbow pasta, tossed together.”

Another friend was like, “Sounds like mayo macaroni salad, gross.”  I tried to explain at this point (as I’d already made it, tried it and liked it) that it was very little mayonnaise and that it was actually quite delicious, but she just shrugged it off and said whatever. 

I wasn’t going to give up though.  I popped the bowl into the fridge and let it chill while I made burgers (same as last time), and when BF got home, he asked me what we were eating with the burgers.  My response, “Homemade macaroni salad!” garnered a “YES!” response, but when he peeked into the bowl, he said, “Ew, why is there corn in there?!”  (Note: He likes corn.) 

Despite all of this, my darling, part of why I am always so proud of my influence on him when it comes to food- he gamely tried some with his burger and wound up loving it.  He took seconds, thirds even, and when I said “I thought I’d lost you when you said ‘Ew! corn!'” he responded, “Well you always say, try it once and if I don’t like it, I don’t have to eat it!”  I think my heart just about broke apart with pride.