amish furniture.

When I first got interested in cooking, I would peruse Allrecipes by section. Looking at one recipe would link me to another, which would lead to another, until finally I ended up making three Greek side dishes in one evening. I dabbled in many cultures this way, including Amish culture.

The Amish have a very good reputation in my book, and seemingly in the books of others. The term is often used in conjunction with furniture, though I really have no idea what Amish furniture is. Is it furniture made by Amish people, without electrical saws and electric drills and electric whatever-else-can-be-plugged-in? Or is it furniture made in the design of Amish people, but not necessarily by Amish hands? Or is there just a guy named Jim Amish who makes furniture?

Whatever Amish furniture actually means, it's a great marketing term. Like this piece of furniture was made carefully and is meant to last a good, long time. It reminds us of simpler times that we're too young to actually remember. No one actually wants to go back to those simpler times, because blogging on paper is lame, but we don't mind paying a little extra to have a bed that was made that way. It's the same thing when you're at the farmer's market, and someone's got some Amish jams or Amish peanuts or Amish candy. Again, I have no idea what's Amish about them, but it tastes better somehow. Purer and truer. Or something.

Anyway, one of the dishes that I discovered when I was making "Amish" foods was this macaroni salad. I use an electric stove to make it, but that didn't seem to affect the taste. You can also add a couple of cans of tuna "to make it a main dish." I used quotes there because that's straight from my mother, who believes that a main dish has meat. If you're going to go through all the bother of boiling pasta, hardboiling eggs, and chopping up peppers, you might as well toss in some tuna. To her, a side dish should require no more work than it takes to boil a vegetable and then add butter and salt. She also likes this dish so much that when I gave her my Tuna Casserole recipe, she ended up adding a bunch of sugar to it to make it taste like this one.

Amish Macaroni Salad. I leave out the onions because they're yucky. Also, I use real mayonnaise instead of Miracle Whip, because I have taste buds. Also, I'm pretty sure that Amish people don't use Miracle Whip. Maybe Jim Amish does, but what does he know?