Mother's Pickled Beet Salad

                                             Happy Mother's Day!

Rarely a day goes by that I don't remember my mother....either wanting to share some little tidbit of information, or just simply ask a question. So often I say aloud to her: I wish you could see how this or that has changed, or you wouldn't believe what color they painted your condo building!, what your grandchildren are doing now, or just share something that amuses me that only she would understand.
This was taken in 1956, the day I was married.

Mother (and yes, we called her "Mother" and not mom. her insistance) is certainly remembered for her skill in the kitchen...of course, we named recipes after her: Grandma's sandwiches (I must post those some time!) or Mother's Frozen Fruit Salad for the holidays, the list goes on and on. I'm sure you all do the same thing.

We did a great deal of picnicking when I was a child...mostly on our boat. In my mind's eye I can still see my dad hauling a huge wicker laundry basket (do they even make those anymore?) filled with picnic food, toted off the front porch, onto the dock and into the boat. You can be sure there would be blueberry or rhubarb pie, hamburger or hot dogs for a cookout, and always a variety of cold salads. One of my favorites was a pickled beet salad. My children always hated it and so did my sister, I recently discovered. :)  But I loved it (as did my father) and had such fun making it for this post, as I'm the only one who will eat it!

I suppose you could pickle your own beets, which I did NOT do for this post, but HERE is a link if you'd like a recipe. I wanted to keep this simple for busy lives, so I used bottled pickled beets. It brought back many memories when I lunched on it. I've made a few minor changes over the years as mother's recipe was just the beets, mayo and salt and pepper.

Mother's Pickled Beet Salad

Ingredients:
3 jars chilled pickled beet slices, drained
6 hard boiled eggs
1/4 cup mayonnaise (You may need more or less of the mayo/sour cream mixture)
1/4 cup sour cream or yogurt
1 tablespoon chopped dill
1/2 teaspoon Dijon mustard
salt and pepper

Method:

Drain beets well. Quarter the eggs and combine carefully with the beets. Mix the remaining ingredients together and toss with the egg and beet mixture. Serve on lettuce.