Several years ago, when one of our kids moved into his own apartment, he asked for a cookbook for Christmas. Being what I thought was a good dad, I got him the same cookbook that I was given many years ago: The Joy of Cooking. Penned by Irma Rombauer and first published in 1931, this holy grail of culinarians is encyclopedic, providing detailed hows and whys of techniques for just about every cuisine, along with tips on entertaining, beverages, butchering, etc. Suffice it to say that it’s exhaustive in scope and, in my opinion, a requirement to have in any kitchen.
(An interesting side note: Rombauer Vineyards was founded in 1980 by Koerner Rombauer, the great-nephew of Irma. The vineyard is well known for outstanding wines that pair well with a variety of foods.)
At any rate, my son was gracious if somewhat disappointed with this gift. What he wanted was a cookbook of recipes that I had accumulated over the years.
I suppose I should have been flattered that he held my abilities in such esteem, but I was actually a bit overwhelmed when I considered the monumental task of collecting all the recipes and scaling them down to typical serving quantities. (I’m thinking that most people won’t want to make recipes that yield 70 to 250 servings.) Although I have software that does this automatically, I still need to review each recipe and adjust the quantities. For instance, if a recipe calls for 20 eggs for a quantity for 150, and I want to make a quantity for eight, it will call for 1.066666 eggs. Needless to say, measuring 0.066666 of an egg is difficult, so I need to adjust the quantities to usable numbers.
That being said, I have finally undertaken the task of producing the recipe collection my son asked for all those years ago, and my goal is to have it ready by Christmas 2026. Wish me luck!
The other issue that I am dealing with is that I purchased my recipe software in 1999, back when I was partying like it was 1999 — which it was. Y2K was the biggest issue that we worried about before Covid, recession, and health care crises, and we had very little national debt. Ah, those were the days! That means I’ve been playing IT guy and working with a PC that’s running Windows 7, trying to retrieve recipes that are, literally, from the last century.
Here’s one of them. It’s an excellent side dish for any occasion, straight from what will be the forthcoming Hoss’s Best Recipes cookbook.
Ingredients
- 11/2 cups mayonnaise
- 1/2 cup white
balsamic vinegar - 3/8 cup of sugar
- 11/2 Tbsp. Italian dressing mix
- 1 Tbsp. Dijon mustard
- 13/4 pints bite-size broccoli
- 13/4 pints bite-size cauliflower
- 13/4 pints grape tomatoes
- 1/2 cup diced red onion
- 1/2 cup sunflower kernels
- 1 cup batonette red pepper
- 1 cup shredded carrot
- 1 cup fine diced celery
Directions
- Whisk the vinegar, dressing mix, and sugar until sugar is dissolved.
- Whisk in mayo and mustard.
- Toss vegetables with dressing to coat.
- Chill, then enjoy.
