Tuna Melt

March just began, so summer is a few weeks away, but we had a foreshadowing of summer in Redondo Beach today.  After a sunny morning on the beach, we walked home for lunch.  Julie put a couple of cans of tuna in the refrigerator before we left, so they were cool when we returned.  That chilling is a nice touch, especially if you are going to melt cheese on it afterwards and don't want to eat hot tuna.

To make tuna salad, you add about one heaping tablespoon of Kraft Mayo with Olive Oil or some other light mayonaise for every 7 ounce can of tuna. This is the size Costco sells in packages of 8 or 12, whereas grocery stores usually sell 5 ounce cans, but you can figure out hot to adjust for that (not quite as much heaping above the unheaped tablespoon).  We use one can of Starkist White Albacore and one can of chunk lite in water, but you can decide if you're prepared to pay more for whiter tuna or trust the mayo will turn it lighter and keep it from being too strong.  It depends on how sensitive your tastebuds are, and how much you like the taste of tuna.  And, of course, you can make one can at a time, although this is a great leftover for a couple of days.   Dice one stalk of celery for each can and add that to the mixture.

If your mixture seems a little dry, add a little more mayo until it looks like right for you personally, assuming you aren't totally deranged who likes to eat mayo with a spoon right out of the jar as if it is Greek yogurt.  If it has too much mayo, you can add more tuna and celery, but it obviously adds to the size of your batch.  Maybe you'll want to start with just one can of tuna, then double it if necessary.

Do you relish the difference?  

Here is where we have a split in our household.  Julie abhors pickle relish and all that it represents: innocent cucumbers, drowned in some kind of pickling solution of vinegar, salt and sugar, chopped up into little pieces and then subjected to heat for cooking before being crammed into a jar that is put in hot water to ensure sealing.  This Frankenstein's cucumber monster mash can be stored for months or even years unopened on your shelf.  Actually, she just doesn't like the taste.

On the other hand, I like pickle relish, so I'll tell you how to include it.

Put in about one tablespoon of pickle relish for every one can of tuna.

Now, if any of this seems too complicated, just remember the ratio of 1:1:1:1.   

Once you've finished making the tuna salad, you can put it between two slices of Sara Lee Delightful Bread for something we call a royal cardplayer's snack, or something like that.

However, today I took it a step further: a tuna melt.  The ways I first saw a tuna melt made were in a frying pan or in a toaster oven.  This can be kind of messy, especially in the case of the toaster oven if the cheese drips or the tuna falls out when you burn yourself trying to get it out of the toaster oven.  Instead, I usually just make two pieces of toast, put tuna salad on each piece and crown it with a slice of American cheese, foregoing the melting.  This is a way to have two sandwiches with only half the bread.

Today, I explored brave new worlds:  I microwaved the two open faced sandwiches on a glass plate for 45 seconds.  The cheese melted, and the tuna salad didn't get hot.  Success!

While not on a par with Frankenstein's cucumber monster mash or the royal cardplayer's snack for innovation, it is an easy cleaning tuna melt.

I sat outside, watching boats going in and out of the harbor, as I enjoyed my tuna melt and Coke Zero.

For dessert, I had two bowls of fresh strawberries, slightly sweetened with Splenda. 

Welcome back, summer.