I've just picked up a new filter for my vacuum cleaner and I'm looking forward to beating back the dust in my bedroom this evening. It's startling to realize how much dust collects in that room over the course of a week. (After all, I hadn't cleaned my bedroom in several months when I added it to my housekeeping routine!) Even in only seven days, this fine accumulation of dust settles on every surface. Including the carpet, I'm sure - though it's not visible. I feel a bit like a soldier patrolling the perimeter of my territory when I'm in there with my dustrag and vacuum cleaner. Once a week, I don my uniform (a flowered apron will do nicely, thank you), arm myself with weapons, and head out into the wilds to keep the enemy at bay...
In other household appliance news, I solved a mystery about my iron that's been nagging at me. Every week, about the time I had only one or two pieces left to iron, it would suddenly start to cool and the water inside would started leaking out. I'd turn the heat down, take the plug out of the electric outlet, plug it back in, try to reheat it - nothing. Tried a new outlet and that seemed to work once in restarting the iron. It's not an old iron. The only thing I could think of was that it might be one of those automatic shut-off irons and I was taking too long to finish the work. So it happened again last night and - just when I started cursing - I poked at this button on the handle which is usually lit up. And it worked! The iron heated right back up... I'm still not sure what happened, but I'm happy I've found a way to coax the iron to get back to work again. I guess I'm a slow ironer!
Have any of you ever come across a recipe for Chili Dressing? My vintage dinner menu for this weekend includes a Chili Dressing for the salad and the cookbook doesn't have a recipe for that particular dressing. They do have a Chili Sauce Mayonnaise dressing and both the Russian and Thousand Island dressing recipes contain chili sauce, but nothing specifically called Chili Dressing. I may substitute one of these other recipes, but I thought I'd see if any of my dear readers have any ideas. Here's the full menu:
French Fried Potatoes
Beets
Tossed Greens with Tomato
Chili Dressing
Banana Ice Cream
Molasses Cookies
This is a Friday night menu, so the non-vegetarian dish I'm omitting is a baked fish. If I can find some Banana Ice Cream at the supermarket, I'll make that my store-bought contribution. If I can't find any, I'll skip the Ice Cream and treat myself to some canned Beets. The whole Beets are so hard to clean up after!
In other household appliance news, I solved a mystery about my iron that's been nagging at me. Every week, about the time I had only one or two pieces left to iron, it would suddenly start to cool and the water inside would started leaking out. I'd turn the heat down, take the plug out of the electric outlet, plug it back in, try to reheat it - nothing. Tried a new outlet and that seemed to work once in restarting the iron. It's not an old iron. The only thing I could think of was that it might be one of those automatic shut-off irons and I was taking too long to finish the work. So it happened again last night and - just when I started cursing - I poked at this button on the handle which is usually lit up. And it worked! The iron heated right back up... I'm still not sure what happened, but I'm happy I've found a way to coax the iron to get back to work again. I guess I'm a slow ironer!
Have any of you ever come across a recipe for Chili Dressing? My vintage dinner menu for this weekend includes a Chili Dressing for the salad and the cookbook doesn't have a recipe for that particular dressing. They do have a Chili Sauce Mayonnaise dressing and both the Russian and Thousand Island dressing recipes contain chili sauce, but nothing specifically called Chili Dressing. I may substitute one of these other recipes, but I thought I'd see if any of my dear readers have any ideas. Here's the full menu:
French Fried Potatoes
Beets
Tossed Greens with Tomato
Chili Dressing
Banana Ice Cream
Molasses Cookies
This is a Friday night menu, so the non-vegetarian dish I'm omitting is a baked fish. If I can find some Banana Ice Cream at the supermarket, I'll make that my store-bought contribution. If I can't find any, I'll skip the Ice Cream and treat myself to some canned Beets. The whole Beets are so hard to clean up after!
8 comments:
The chili sauce/mayo route seems to be what it calls for, and I see that combo several times in all my meal planning books...If it were me I would go with thousand island. Or Southern french dressing from all recipes. Tomato soup instead of chili sauce but soooooo good (and reminds me of something my farmer side of the family made)!
Good luck with your meal!
I found a recipe for salad dressing that looks a lot like a Caesar salad dressing with a hefty pinch of cayenne. It isn't vegetarian, and it has raw egg in it.
I did find a recipe for a composed salad that might use up your leftovers, though:
1 boiled beet, cubed; 2 Tbs cooked green peas; 12 cooked green beans, sliced in 1 inch lengths; 1/2 c cooked asparagus, sliced; 1 cooked carrot, cubed; 1 small onion, diced; 1 celery stalk, diced. Toss together vegetables with dressing of your choice. They recommend a French dressing, since the beet would stain other dressings. This is a cold salad. I imagine it would be even better the second day.
I just wonder whether maybe it is tomato chili dressing...
Not that I have a recipe for that.
First - be careful eating raw eggs. The new caesar dressing recipes call for coddling the eggs first.
I see your dilemma about the chili dressing. I found Lorenzo dressing which is French dressing with chili sauce. The cookbook even suggests that chili sauce be available at the Salad Center (salad prep area). BUT, there isn't a recipe for the chili sauce or chili dressing! I did find the chili mayonnaise recipe.
In the 1975 printing of Joy of Cooking and the 1976 printing of Better Homes and Gardens Cookbook there are recipes for home canned chili sauce. These contain (sweet) green peppers and onions, but no chilis or chili powder or cumin. (Tex-Mex cooking hadn't made it's way to mainstream America so that is probably why.)
PS I have to share this. I'm shaking my head in frustration while realizing that one of these days we'll be there (me sooner than most of you)...
I called my elderly neighbor to see if any of her cookbooks had a chili dressing or chili sauce recipe. I couldn't get her to understand that I wanted CHIlI not CHILLY. I kept saying "chilis like peppers not cold" and even spelled it for her.
Do I laugh or cry? sigh
I wish I could help you on the chili, but not much of a cook. BUT I AM TRYING THAT'S FOR SURE! :)
Anyway, just wanted to say that I just adore your blog! I've been following it for a bit and think you are great! And, funny to boot!
I left you a surprise over at my blog on today's (03-27) post. I hope you enjoy, for I think you deserve it!
Love,
Taryn
Taryn, how exciting! Thank you so much for the lovely compliments - and for the award. You're very kind. :)
Kiesha, that chili sauce/mayo combination does come in handy for several dressing recipes. If I can't sort this out before my meal, this weekend, I may try one of those.
prairieknitter01 and Packrat, I'll definitely not be ingesting any raw eggs. No experiment is worth food poisoning! Thanks for the recipe for the veggie salad, prairieknitter. I do enjoy making a lovely Moroccan lentil salad which is a cold dish - and always better the second day. There's nothing on a summer's eye like a scoop of that on some fresh greens and a crusty roll.
pascale, it's hard to tell what the menu's referring to. The cookbook does include a recipe for Chili Sauce in its chapter on preserves and pickles, and the Chili Sauce may be the base for this Chili Dressing. I'm sure there were some store-bought chili sauces out there on the market during the '40s as well.
Packrat, thank you for trying to check with your neighbor anyway! The Lorenzo dressing certainly sounds like a possibility. Most of the dressing recipes in my cookbook are built around three basic recipes: French dressing, mayonnaise dressing, and boiled dressing.
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