Pasta salad

Say Hello (Again) to Flag Cakes and Jell-O

I don’t know about you, but Fourth of July makes me think fondly of some of the holiday themed recipes my mom used to make. As I was thinking back to summer foods of the '80s, it occurred to me that some of my childhood faves were also incredibly frugal!
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It's amazing, how strong a hold childhood textures and flavors and smells can have on you. How sometimes the memory of something you grew up eating can be so powerful, and you develop a craving so great that it is possible that you will die without having a taste, just one tiny bite, of your mother's super-famous apple pie or oven-braised pot roast or, if you grew up in my house, something from a box. My mother has many great qualities and I adore her, but being a whiz in the kitchen is not one of them. My brother and I still loved her food, and what we loved most of all actually never came out of a box--it was the tuna noodle salad she made up, which disgusts people when we tell them about it, but which fills our hearts with happiness. Basically: elbow macaroni, a can of tuna, a tomato, a lot of mayonnaise (Hellman's only!), salt, pepper. Mix into a goopy, beautiful mess. Eat for breakfast, lunch and dinner for the next three days.
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