Salad Days: Paprika Salad Dressing

Romaine lettuce, Ghost House Farm, Hancock MI

I have to admit, I have a fascination with the women’s sections of the old farming magazines.   As a result, I have a big collection of Farm Journal cookbooks that I have picked up at garage sales over time.    And I also have a collection of vintage Taste of Home cookbooks, which is what happened when publisher Roy Reiman realized he needed to create a cooking magazine which utilized the same philosophy of reader-contributed content as his farming magazines.  I first became aware of those magazines in the mid 90s when there were several of them laying around the ladies room at Ford.    As a working mom, I spent a lot of time in the ladies room lounge area pumping breastmilk and reading Taste of Home.   At it’s height, TOH had a test kitchen and a restaurant in its HQ In Greendale, WI.   The magazine was famous for not having ads, but when it sold out to Readers Digest, it totally changed and isn’t what it once was.  

I have the annual cookbook from every year the “old style”  TOH was published.  I  still love to read the corny head notes for each recipe.  Ladies are always promising great things from the recipes they have submitted.  A recipe for paprika salad dressing from 2002 caught my eye....Sharon Nichols from Brookings, SD assures me that "fresh greens really perk up with this zesty homemade dressing".    I decided to jazz her recipe up with some apple cider vinegar and honey and smoked instead of sweet paprika.   Plus more hot sauce. It is spectacular!

Paprika Salad Dressing

1/2 c sour cream

1/4 c mayonnaise

2 T steak sauce

1/4 t kosher salt

1/2 t smoked paprika

1/4 t celery seed

1/2 t Tabasco sauce

1 T. honey

2 T. apple cider vinegar

Put all ingredients in a jar and shake until well blended.