Old-Fashioned Dishes for a Family Reunion

I've been craving old-time dishes lately.

Maybe it is because we have Mike has a garden and some of the produce is ripening and fresh garden veggies make me think of lots of the dishes that my grandmothers served up using their garden produce.

Maybe it is because I'm getting older and thinking more like the grandmother I am.

Maybe it is because I'm trying to stir up dishes which are more low-carb for Mike's diet and I'm finding lots of recipes just are not low-carb.  Like one I'm making today that I just love!

Who knows why but when I got out of bed this morning and strolled into the kitchen to prepare what I am taking to the family reunion, my thoughts went back and I started thinking of what I liked to eat when I was a girl and we had family gatherings more often.

One of those recipes I remember my grandmother serving when we would go to her house for Sunday Dinner - which was the meal right after church...

The noon-time meal...

Lunch as I call it today...

Wonder what happened to that tradition?  Maybe when we got older, and the family members got more numerous, and she and Granddaddy moved off to Unionville, the Sunday Dinners seemed to vanish.

Fast times and less family visiting, I guess.

She would always serve this dish at spring and summer visits and I remember it well - Macaroni Salad.  I never got her exact recipe for this dish or for how she fried the VERY BEST fried chicken in the south.

I really regret that now but I was young and times were fast and I didn't do a lot of the things I should have done way back then.

Well, today I found The Pioneer Woman's recipe for Macaroni Salad and it tastes very similar to my Muffa's.  So, I tweaked it a wee bit and it is very close.  Maybe next time I will add a bit of mustard or mustard powder or mustard seed to the dish and see if that is what it needs to be more Muffa-like.

I'm dashing off to the Family Reunion in just a wee bit.  I'll go off with my deviled eggs laid out in a flower pattern on a pretty white plate with a basketweave-patterened-edge, sprinkled with plenty of paprika and a little bit of parsley just like any well-trained southern woman.  In the other hand I'll have my Old-Fashioned Macaroni Salad in a pretty crock bowl nestled in a basket surrounded by ice like all self-respecting southern women would do.  We southern women know just how the old-fashioned dishes need to be presented even if we don't have the exact old-fashioned recipe and are concocting our very own version.

As I'm entering this post I'm thinking of one of my favorite children's picture books, We Had a Picnic This Sunday Past, by Jacqueline Woodson.  I know our reunion is probably going to be much like that story and we will be creating memories for the younger folks in our families.

Hope your Sunday is filled with warm memories of fun gatherings because I know it is probably going to be warm wherever you are if you are in the south today!