my poor grandma J... she HATED to cook.
If she's reading this, she's rolling her eyes at me and wondering why in the world i would post any of her recipes...
but thats the funny thing about Grandma J - she hated to cook but she always did a pretty good job of it... which was a good thing, because she had this theory - if she bothered to cook it, you better bother to eat it.
Also as a result of her hatred of all things cooking, she was a devout recipe-follower... she didnt want to think, didnt want to experiment - just wanted to spend as little time and thought as possible on getting food that people would eat onto the table.
I was never reminded of this so much as i was when we would spend a week at the beach with her... we'd get these little bungalows and spend our days on the beach & evenings in the arcade. Nowadays, vacations (for me) include eating as a big part of them. But back then, eating was an afterthough... but it apparently made an impression none-the-less...
You see, a few weeks ago, the meat eater and i had good fortune combine and there was an available weekend coupled with an available beachfront condo... the only thing we didnt have was an actual fortune, so we accepted the condo and figured we'd cook all weekend...
i immediately wanted tuna with celery & lettuce on toasted wheat bread for lunch.
because thats what we always ate for lunch at the beach.
My typical tuna needs are much easier - no celery chopping, no lettuce garnish - hell, half of the time there isnt even bread... but the beach calls for something much more specific.
Since we've returned from the beach, i've held onto my need to have celery in my tuna salad (something which makes the meat eater gag - good thing he wasnt around grandma - she would have made him eat it!!!) and last week, combined my version of the beach tuna salad with lettuce leaves as wraps. because good god have we gotten a lot of lettuce from the CSA and really, there are only SO MANY dinner salads a girl can have...
see what i did there?
More CSA usage, FTW!
Tuna Salad in Lettuce Wraps
Inspired by Grandma J
1 can albacore tuna in water, drained
2 tbsp light mayo
1 tsp spicy brown mustard
1 celery rib, diced
salt, pepper, garlic powder, onion powder (to taste)
6 large leaves red or green romaine lettuce
***
Combine first 4 ingredients
Taste and then season with more mayo, more mustard, salt, pepper, garlic and/or onion poweder, to taste (i generally do a shake of each one)
divide tuna between lettuce leaves and roll up
Pat yourself on the back for using CSA ingredients in non-obvious way.
2 comments:
What alovely idea for a light lunch, will give it a try as I seem to have tons of lettuce ready to go just now
That's so funny -- I think about Grandma J & tuna salad when at the beach too! Great times at Ocean Beach...great tuna too!
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