GARY'S SEAFOOD SALAD -- AGAIN

Last week, we ate King crab legs and had some left over -- enough to make Gary's salad again.

Since Gary makes his salad with crab legs, rather than blue claw crabs, we expected this to turn out better. Here's what I learned --

Gary most probably makes the salad in quantity and uses it up in one day. Therefore, the salad does not have time to "dry out." For home consumption, usually a salad is made and kept in the fridge for a couple of days. Salads have a tendency to "dry out" when held over, unless you saturate them with salad dressing. Also, Gary uses the large shell pasta, so the large pieces of crab legs can "hide" in the shells. Since I use the medium shells, the crab legs can't get inside the shells. Our preference is for blue claw crab meat and medium shells. The little pieces of blue claw crab meat can "hide" in the shells. My personal preference is for my very first recipe (not Gary's) where I marinated the salad in a lemon-olive oil dressing and tossed it in the mayo dressing before serving it. Guy enjoyed today's salad, but, in truth, it dried out in the fridge; and he prefers it made with the blue claws so the little pieces of crab can hide in the shells. If you're a crab lover, you're going to like any of the three, but you might want more dressing if you make Gary's recipe and hold it over in the fridge.

Gary's Seafood Salad -- Again

1 cup uncooked pasta (medium or large shells or penne, or your other fave)

2 Tbsp. chopped carrots

2 Tbsp. chopped onion

1/4 cup chopped celery

1/4 cup Duke's mayonnaise

2 tsp. sugar

1/2 tsp. sea salt

1/8 tsp. pepper

3 Tbsp. chopped fresh dill

2 cups chopped crab legs (Snow Crabs or King Crabs)

2 cups peeled, deveined, cooked shrimp

Cook pasta according to directions in salted water; drain; cool; set aside. In food processor or blender, combine vegetables, mayo, sugar, salt and pepper. Process till smooth. Pour dressing over cooled pasta. Add crabmeat and shrimp; toss to coat everything. Serve immediately or refrigerate.