In case you haven’t noticed in the dozens of post I’ve done on the matter, I get food nostalgia. I have so many memories of specific dishes, recipes, smells, that remind me of different times in my life.
This is an odd one though.
There are few foods that I remember loving as much as I love my mom’s tuna salad. Yup, you read that right, tuna salad. I can remember being a little girl and going back to the dish of tuna in the fridge 3, 4, or even 5 times to get more, even if I was totally full. My mom would make a HUGE amount, and no matter what, I’d eat it.
I always knew when I had a tuna salad sandwich for lunch at school when I’d open my bag and see a foil-wrapped package instead of my usual plastic bag, and it would make my day!
After a long hot day at camp, the last thing I wanted to do was turn on the stove or the oven, and when I really thought about it, tuna salad was what I wanted. Adam stopped at the grocery store for ingredients while I met up with our wedding photographer to pick up our album (it’s FABULOUS!), and I came home and got to chopping.
Mom’s Tuna Salad
Ingredients
3 cans white tuna in water, drained
3 ribs celery, finely chopped
1/2 sweet onion, finely chopped
1/2 tsp. freshly ground pepper
juice of 2 limes
salt to taste
~2 Tbsp. real mayonnaise
Directions
Mix the tuna with the celery, onion, lime juice, pepper and salt. Stir in mayo until the salad holds together, it might be more or less than 2 Tbsp. depending on the moisture in the salad. Refrigerate until cool and enjoy.
I did my best to remember what to do, but I’m not positive my mom used onion like I did… but it worked! It hit the spot, and I definitely consciously had to STOP eating it so I had some left over for other meals.
Camper quote of the day, said by 8 year old girl: “Mara! Look! I have nuts! (Holds up pistachios) {pause} Why does everyone laugh when I say that?”
Have a great day!
{ 7 comments… read them below or add one }
I get food nostalgia too. My moms chicken salad does that too me. So do pies that my grandma used to make!
Jessica @ How Sweet It Is´s last [type] ..The Cookie Room
Awww, mom’s tuna salad makes me nostalgic too!
Lauren´s last [type] ..Homemade Kombucha
Man, I do not like mayo, but I do love tuna salad. It definitely makes me nostalgic
Wei-Wei
Wei-Wei´s last [type] ..hello there – i want to play a game
yup, you got it exactly right, onion and all.
I may have lived off of tuna sandwiches throughout my youth. I’m sure I’ve ingested more than my fair share of mercury in my days
I love to go really simple though – just the tuna and mayo, served up with dill pickles. Yum!
Marianne´s last [type] ..Family BBQ Feast
I have never liked tuna, but my husband loves it – I need to remind myself to make him his mom’s tuna noodle casserole that he loves!
Love the camp quote!
Your tuna is just about exactly like mine. Zliten’s childhood tuna included cheetos and hawaiian sweet bread. Weird to me, but to each their own.
And that camper quote is hilarious!!!!
quix´s last [type] ..Fast Food- Snickerdoodles- and Hungries- Oh My!