KILL TWO BIRDS WITH ONE STONE

A niece called and is planning a family event; when I asked how I could help, she said, "You could bring one of your signature dishes."

Signature dishes? How clever of her to use flattery to achieve her goal--adulation always works--with me! I asked, in a quasi-humble tone, "Which dishes?"

She rattled off the following:

9-layer salad
banana split cake
macaroni salad
layered pudding cake
ham rollups
Hershey's cocoa cake
chicken and noodles
red velvet cookies
hickory nut cake

When I told Les, he asked, "All that?" I said, "No, she said I could bring just ONE dish."

He said, "You know very well that you're going to take more than ONE dish!" I said, "No, this time I am not!"

He wondered aloud, "Don't I have to make macaroni salad for your friend's birthday next week?" I said that I planned to do that. He said, "Let's kill two birds with one stone--she can have her birthday salad early --and you can take YOUR signature dish!" [That's a little caustic humor as it is actually Les' signature dish--and not mine--as I have not made it for years.] The recipe comes from the old Helfrich's Market. When I was a kid, my father would get groceries on Saturdays and he would bring home cold cuts and deli items; Mother did not have to cook on Saturdays. Mother said that Helfrich's macaroni salad was better than hers and my father asked for the recipe, but they would not divulge it. A friend's mother went to work at Helfrich's and we were able to "acquire" the recipe!