Catalina Salad Dressing

The origin of "Catalina Salad Dressing" seems to be that it was invented by the Kraft Company; however, some feel it is connected, in some way, to Catalonia Spain.

 

Don't be intimidated by the cayenne pepper, as it is only a quarter of a teaspoon, which is not anywhere near the amount needed to make you feel as if your mouth is a furnace.

 

Ingredients:  

 

1/2 cup ketchup

1/4 cup red wine vinegar

1/4 to 1/3 cup honey (or sugar), according to your preference

2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce

1 teaspoon onion powder

1/2 teaspoon sweet paprika (not the smoked type)

1/4 teaspoon dry mustard

1/4 cayenne pepper (or other hot ground red pepper) 

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/3 cup vegetable oil (or other oil)

 

Add ingredients, except the oil, to a blender. Blend the ingredients for about 15 to 20 seconds, then, with the blender running, drizzle the oil into the dressing through the blender's opening until the oil is incorporated into the dressing. Best to refrigerate for at least an hour, and stir or shake the dressing before serving, as the oil will continue to separate.

 

 

WORD HISTORY:

Crow-(verb and noun) This word is related to "crane." "Crow" goes back to Indo European "gerh/greh," in imitation of the call of some birds; thus, "to cry out in a shrill voice, to make a screeching sound." This gave Old Germanic "kreowan(an)," with the same general meaning, and this then produced the Old Germanic noun "kreo," meaning "crow" (the bird name, and apparently only retained by the West Germanic languages, including English), and this gave Old English (Anglo-Saxon) "crawe," which then became "crowe," before the modern form. Relatives in the other West Germanic languages: German has "Krähe," Low German has "Kreih," West Frisian has "krie," Dutch has "kraai." The verb "crow" goes back to the Old Germanic verb (above) which gave Old English (Anglo-Saxon) "crawan" (long first 'a'), which then became "crowen," before the modern form. Besides its longstanding meaning of "to make a screeching or shrill sound," by the first half of the 1500s, it also meant "to cry out in a proud and triumphant way." The other West Germanic languages have: German "krähen," Low German "kreihn," Dutch "kraaien" (apparently with the verb too, Frisian doesn't use it, even the Brothers Grimm have no Frisian forms).   

Carrot & Raisin Salad, American Style

In the United States, carrot and raisin salad often is a dish more associated with the southern part of the country. I'm often an "overkill" guy on sauces, gravies and salad dressings; and what I mean is, I don't skimp on those things in recipes, but that's not for everyone, and some people just barely coat this salad with dressing.  

 

Ingredients (5 servings): 

 

2 1/2 cups shredded carrot

3/4 cup raisins (dark or golden or mixed)

1/3 cup pineapple bits 

2 tablespoons pineapple juice 

1 heaping tablespoon finely chopped green onion (mainly white part)

1/3 cup mayonnaise (reduced fat type is fine)

1/4 cup sour cream (or thick yogurt)

1 or 2 tablespoons honey

1 teaspoon lemon juice

1/3 teaspoon salt

2 1/2 teaspoons sunflower seeds (1/2 teaspoon for each serving), garnish 

In a bowl, add the mayonnaise, sour cream (or yogurt), honey, lemon juice, pineapple juice and salt; mix together very well. Add the shredded carrot, raisins, pineapple bits and green onion; keep folding to coat all of the ingredients with the dressing. Cover and refrigerate for at least one hour. Top each serving with some sunflower seeds.  

 

 

 

WORD HISTORY:

Monkey-This has become a well known word for smaller primates in the English language, but its history is not easy; therefore, I'm going to work backwards. (NOTE: "Ape" had been the common word for primates, regardless of size, and it remains the word for larger primates to this day.^) The word "monkey" came into English circa 1530 as a noun. It is "likely" a borrowing from Low German "Moneke," the name of the son of Martin the Ape in "Reynard the Fox," a story from the Middle Ages. Low German likely got its form from a French diminutive, as French had "monne" (ape), likely borrowed from either Spanish "mona" or Old Italian "monna," with the later Italian diminutive being "monnicchio;" thus, "small ape, monkey." The story character name was rendered in Old French as "Monequin" and "Monnekin" 1300s (?). The source of these words is unknown, although some have suggested transliterated Arabic "maimum" (small ape), seemingly a euphemistic, indirect form actually meaning "highly favorable, advantageous, auspicious," as many Arabic speakers thought monkeys to be a bad omen and unlucky. The mid 1600s saw the verb develop from the noun, initially with the meaning, "to imitate," from a monkey's tendency to mimic actions of others, and later, with the imitations often being comic to humans; thus also, "to mock," and "to spend time with no particularly big purpose" ("monkey around"), but also, "to tease or taunt someone" ("to monkey with someone"), "to interfere with, to tamper with," after a monkey's curiosity to inspect, touch or bother things" ("to monkey with something").  

^ The history of the word "ape" is here at the end of the article at this link: https://pontificating-randy.blogspot.com/2022/05/crab-louie.html

Crab Louie

"Crab Louie" is a salad that "seems" to be from the early 20th Century, perhaps in San Francisco, or at least first really established there, even if it came there from elsewhere. The dressing is similar to "Thousand Island Dressing,"* although not exactly the same, and this dressing has a little kick, but the hot sauce or cayenne pepper won't fry your tongue, it just adds some "zip." of course, if you like really spicy hot food, go for it, and add more hot sauce or cayenne pepper. You can certainly use Thousand Island and add a little hot sauce or cayenne pepper to it, but this actual dressing is not hard to make. 

As I've gotten older, I'm more sensitive to sour flavors, so I tend to add sweeteners to some foods now, and I do that for the dressing in this dish. I listed honey as "optional" for the dressing, but I made a big spread in the amount from 1 teaspoon to 1 tablespoon, but some folks may not prefer any honey. 

 

Ingredients (4 servings):

 

12 to 16 ounces lump crab meat or imitation chunk crab meat

4 to 8 romaine lettuce leaves (I prefer a couple of leaves, myself)

4 roma tomatoes, cut into quarter wedges

8 asparagus spears

16 olives, whole or halved

8 green onions (scallions)

4 hard boiled eggs, cut into wedges

 

For the dressing:

 

3/4 cup mayonnaise

1/4 cup sour cream

1/4 cup chili sauce

1/2 teaspoon chili powder (I use ancho chili powder)

1 teaspoon minced garlic

1/2 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce

1 teaspoon hot sauce or ground cayenne pepper (or other ground red pepper)

1 tablespoon lemon juice

1 heaping tablespoon sweet pickles (or gherkins or sweet relish), finely chopped

1/2 teaspoon ground black or white pepper

1/4 teaspoon salt  

(optional) 1 teaspoon to 1 tablespoon honey

 

In a bowl, mix all of the dressing ingredients together. Cook the asparagus in salted water for 3 to 3 1/2 minutes, drain, let cool. In a glass bowl or glass cup (I actually use one of my glass measuring cups), add all of the ingredients, except the honey, if using. Mix everything together well, then give it a little taste to see if you want to add any honey; if yes, I suggest starting with just one teaspoon, mixing it in, then tasting the dressing again to see if it needs more honey. Use the same procedure until you get to the taste level you prefer. You can arrange the component salad parts into separate segments (as I have for the photos below), or you can mix them in together. Each serving gets: 3 to 4 ounces of crab/imitation crab, 1 or 2 romaine lettuce leaves, 1 quartered Roma tomato (or chopped, if you'd prefer), 2 asparagus spears (can be cut into pieces; I left them whole for the photos below), 4 olives (can be halved, if you'd like), 2 green onion, cleaned and trimmed (can also be cut into pieces, if you'd prefer), 1 quartered hard-boiled egg; some dressing on the crab or in a separate ramekin. 

 

* Thousand Island Dressing is easy to make at home, here is the link to the recipe: https://pontificating-randy.blogspot.com/2016/04/homemade-thousand-island-dressing.html

 

 

 

WORD HISTORY:

Ape-The origin of this word is unknown, and there is naturally a good possibility that the word is from some language where monkeys and apes were common animals. What is known is, Old Germanic "apo" was used as a general word for non-human primates of any size. This gave Old English (Anglo-Saxon) "apa," with the same meaning, and it wasn't until circa 1600 that the meaning came to be used for the larger primates, as by that time English had borrowed the word "monkey," which was then used for smaller primates. The spelling "ape" had taken place a few hundred years before that time. The other Germanic languages have forms all meaning "ape, monkey": German "Affe." ^ Low German Saxon, Dutch and West Frisian  "aap," Danish "abe," Icelandic "api," Swedish "apa," Norwegian "ape" (pronounced "ah-pa").

 

^ The high dialects of German often experienced a sound shift of "p" to "f," or sometimes to "pf;" thus English has "pipe," but standard German has "Pfeife" (pronounced like "pfeye-fah"), English "ship," but German "Schiff," English "sleep" (noun), but German "Schlaf." 

British Salad Cream

British salad cream is similar to mayonnaise, but it ISN'T mayonnaise. Salad cream is commonly used as a topping for ... wait for it... SALADS, and for hard boiled eggs, boiled potatoes and it is used as a spread for sandwiches and as a dip for vegetables. It seems salad cream was a homemade type of dressing in Britain, with the first commercial brands making an appearance in the World War One era, with Heinz leading the way, with this brand is still heavily identified with salad cream to this day. Salad cream was taken by the British to a number of their colonies, where the creamy delight is still common in some of the now former British colonies. There are many variations in recipes, with some people making mayonnaise first, then adding ingredients to turn it into their version of salad cream.

Ingredients:

 

6 ounces heavy cream, very cold

2 hard boiled egg yolks

1/2 teaspoon dry mustard

1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice

2 tablespoons white wine vinegar

2 teaspoons sugar

1 heaping teaspoon powdered sugar

1/4 ground white pepper

1/4 teaspoon salt   

Put all of the ingredients into a small blender and blend until it thickens. If the salad cream is too thick, add a teaspoon of milk and stir it in by hand, repeat until the desired thickness is reached, but keeping it a little too thick is best, as the cream will begin to break down the longer you keep it. I tend to like sauces that are thick, I mean THICK (see photos below), so I blend my salad cream until it is the consistency of mayonnaise, but it's my understanding that commercial brands are more like salad dressing; that is, thick, but pourable.

 

 

WORD HISTORY:

Ceiling-This word is related to "conceal" and "color," words of Latin derivation borrowed by English from Latin-based French, and it is distantly related, through Indo European, to "hell/Hell," a word from the Germanic roots of English. "Ceiling" goes back to Indo European "kel/khel," which meant "to cover." This gave Latin the verb "celare," meaning "to cover, to cover up, to hide," which passed to Latin-based Old French as "celer," meaning "to hide, to keep secret," with a secondary meaning of "to cover walls with paneling." English borrowed this as "celen," meaning, "to put a cover over," and not long thereafter, "to cover the walls with paneling" (seemingly then specifically "oak paneling"), circa 1200? A noun, "celynge" developed in the mid 1300s, meaning "the action or process of covering walls with paneling" (the ending "ynge" was an old form of modern "ing"). The 1530s saw the word, now spelled "ceiling," used for "the interior overhead part of a room," with likely influence in meaning from the similar Latin word "caelum," which meant "sky," but used in religious contexts for "heaven," which was usually seen as "in the sky/skies." (Note: Latin "caelum" is thought to be from a totally different source, which makes it unrelated to "ceiling.") The meaning "cover with oak wood paneling" died out over time, but lasted regionally until the second half of the 1800s. The word is used figuratively to indicate an upper limit on something, for example: "The city puts a ceiling on rents," or "The building has a ceiling on the number of occupants because of fire safety regulations."  

Kale Salad With an Asian Touch

Within the last couple of months, I've seen some Asian salads and I decided to do a recipe for one, although it isn't entirely "Asian," but close. To be totally up front, if you do not like teriyaki sauce, you very likely will not like this salad. Teriyaki sauce has a salty, somewhat sweet kind of taste. *   

Ingredients:

10 to 15 fresh kale leaves, stems and large veins removed, then roughly chopped
6 green onions, including much of the green, chopped
2 tablespoons teriyaki sauce 
3 tablespoons peanut oil
1 teaspoon sesame oil 
1 tablespoon toasted sesame seeds 
1 tablespoon freshly ground black pepper 
(optional, if you like "heat") 1 to 2 teaspoons red chili flakes 
2 to 3 slices bread, cut into cubes for croutons
 
In a cup mix together the teriyaki sauce, the peanut oil, the sesame oil, the chili flakes (if using). Put the chopped kale and chopped green onion into a bowl. Mix in the teriyaki dressing, then sprinkle on the black pepper. Add some nicely browned croutons to each serving.

* For a recipe to make your own teriyaki sauce, here is the link: http://pontificating-randy.blogspot.com/2016/07/homemade-teriyaki-sauce.html

WORD HISTORY:
Toast-This word, very distantly related to "thirst(y)," a word from the Germanic roots of English, and to "torrid," a Latin derived word borrowed by English, goes back to Indo European "ters," which meant, "dry." This gave Latin the verb "torrere," which meant, "to char, to parch, to scorch, to roast." The participle form, used adjectivally, was "tostus" ("roasted, parched, charred"), which then produced the Latin/Italian verb "tostare," meaning, "to roast, to toast." which gave French "toster," meaning, "to roast, to grill, to toast." This was borrowed by English in the second half of the 1300s, initially as "tosten," before the modern form. By the first half of the 1400s, the verb had produced a noun "toast," meaning, "roasted or grilled bread with spices added to it, then added to wines and ales for flavoring," which by the 1700s came to be applied to a "call to drink such a beverage to the honor of someone." Also by about this time, the "roasted or grilled bread" meaning came to be used for such bread eaten as a serving on its own, without the spices, wine or ale. The latter two meanings were borrowed from English by German, and at least the "drink toast" meaning was borrowed by a number of languages, including Italian and French. 

Special Sauce, Dip or Dressing

This is simple to make and you can use it on sandwiches, or use it as a dip for veggies, or use it on salads, including as the dressing for potato salad or egg salad ... it's EXCELLENT! With asparagus  common this time of year, it's also good served with roasted asparagus.

1 1/4 cup mayonnaise (reduced fat is fine)
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 teaspoon white wine vinegar
1 1/2 teaspoons adobo seasoning (a Latino seasoned salt)*
1/2 teaspoon paprika
1/4 teaspoon turmeric  
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
1 teaspoon dill
1 teaspoon chives

Put all ingredients in a bowl and mix well. Chill the sauce for at least an hour, preferably longer, before serving.

* Adobo seasoning is a type of Puerto Rican/Latino seasoned salt, easily available in supermarkets, although perhaps in the "Hispanic/Latino Foods" section. Recipes vary somewhat, but generally it includes, at a minimum, salt, onion powder, garlic powder, black pepper, dried oregano.  

So I had it at this time with some veggies: carrots, celery and green pepper.

WORD HISTORY:
Chive-The origin of this word for a plant from the same family as onions, garlic and leeks, is unknown, but English borrowed the word from the northern dialect of Old French "cive" (chive) in the late 1300s. Old French, a Latin-based language, had its form from Latin "cepa," which meant "onion," but where Latin got the word is unknown, although the transliterated Ancient Greek word "kápia" (onion, but no longer used in Greek) is a likely source, but where Greek got the word seems to be a dead end. German too borrowed from Latin "cepa" in the 11th Century, although from a diminutive form "cepola," which became German "Zwiebel," meaning "onion."

Homemade Honey French Dressing

When you see this in the bottled version, depending upon brand, it is usually a red or orange color, but whether they use some type of coloring agent, I don't know.   

Ingredients:

3/4 cup mayonnaise (reduced calorie is fine) 
3/4 cup honey
3 tablespoons white vinegar 
2 tablespoons canola or vegetable oil 
1 tablespoon brown mustard
1/2 cup ketchup
2 tablespoons onion powder
1 tablespoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon paprika
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon white pepper

Mix all ingredients together well; you can use a blender or a stick blender, if you'd like, but I mixed mine by hand. So if you want to give me complexes, go ahead and use a blender or a stick blender. The dressing should be covered and chilled before use.

Don't go pointing out that you can see minuscule specks of mayo, because I didn't use a blender or a stick blender, or I'll really have complexes. 

WORD HISTORY:
Powder-This word, distantly related to "pollen," and more closely related to pulverize," goes back to Indo European "pel," which had the notion of "dust, finely ground matter." This gave Latin "pulvis," meaning, "dust," then also, "powder." This then gave Old French, a Latin-based language, "pouldre," which then was altered to "poudre," also meaning, "dust, powder, ashes." English borrowed the word from French in the 1200s as "poudre," before the modern version. As gunpowder became more common, the term was often applied to it simply as "powder."^

^ The expression "keep your powder dry" originally REALLY meant just that, as (gun)powder wouldn't work properly if damp or wet. The expression later became more figurative for, "don't commit any asset or assets to a situation until needed."  

Homemade Blue Cheese Dressing

This dressing has grown ever more popular over the years, not only for use on salads, but also to go along with spicy chicken wings, especially "Buffalo Wings," and as a topping for various sandwiches, including hamburgers.

Ingredients:

3 ounces blue cheese (Gorgonzola or Roquefort are excellent)
1/2 cup mayonnaise
1/4 cup sour cream
1/4 cup buttermilk (if the mixture is too thick, add a little more buttermilk)
1 tablespoon white wine vinegar
1/2 teaspoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1/4 teaspoon ground pepper

Mix the mayonnaise, sour cream, buttermilk, garlic powder and pepper in a bowl (or you could use a blender). In a small dish, dissolve the sugar in the vinegar and then add to the other ingredients. Mash the blue cheese in a dish, then add it in bits and pieces to the dressing, stirring so it won't clump together. Chill the dressing before serving.

I put a few pieces of blue cheese on top for the photo

WORD HISTORY:
Blue-This is a word, distantly related to "bleach," with an original English version, later influenced in pronunciation by a foreign borrowing, which itself was a roundabout borrowing from the same original Germanic source as the English word. If I haven't confused as yet, just give me time. The word goes back to Indo European "blehg," which had the notion of "shine, pale, bright." This produced Indo European "bleh," which meant, "shiny light color, yellow, blue." This gave its Old Germanic offspring "blewaz," meaning "blue," then this gave Old English (Anglo-Saxon) "blæwen," meaning "light blue, bluish in color." Meanwhile, Old French had borrowed "blew" from the Germanic dialect Frankish, which supplemented its word "blef," also meaning "blue," but which had come to Old French from Latin "blavus," itself a borrowing from the Old Germanic form, "blewaz." The French form "blew" was carried to England by the Normans, and began to blend with the related native English word, and became "blewe, before the modern form. Modern French has "bleu." The other Germanic languages have: German, Low German and West Frisian have "blau," Dutch has "blauw," Danish, Swedish and Norwegian have "blå" and Icelandic has "blár." ‎

Homemade Russian Dressing

This dressing is an American invention from over a hundred years ago, although whether it was based upon some Russian recipe originally, I do not know. In those times, however, many immigrants came to the United States from the old Russian Empire. It is similar to Thousand Island dressing, but the chili sauce and horseradish give this dressing some kick. Like other dressings, it can be used on sandwiches too, and it is commonly used on Reubens. Like many dressings, there are variations in recipes for Russian dressing, but the "very red" bottled version "seems" to be more of a commercial style, and it is far sweeter in taste than most Russian dressing recipes. 

INGREDIENTS:

3/4 cup mayonnaise
1/4 cup sour cream
1/2 cup tomato-based chili sauce (I use Heinz, just to give you an example)
2 tablespoons onion, very finely minced
1 clove of garlic, minced
1 teaspoon paprika
2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
2 to 3 tablespoons white horseradish; that is, not mixed with beets *
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper

Add all ingredients to a bowl and mix well. Chill before serving.

* If you tend to have horseradish on hand in your refrigerator, you might want to take a small taste before using it in the dressing, as horseradish often loses some of its "zip," once it has been opened and allowed to sit in the refrigerator for awhile. When I first bought the jar I used, it was one of the hottest jar's of horseradish I had ever tasted, and that takes some doing, because when I was growing up, horseradish was something we always had at home, and also at my maternal grandparents' house, where my grandfather and grandmother would render a verdict on each new jar of horseradish they bought. If it didn't make your eyes water and your nose run, they would say, "Not a good batch."  

WORD HISTORY:
Condiment-This compound, meaning, "sauce or seasoning added to dish," goes back to Indo European "doeh," which meant "to give." This gave its Italic offspring, and the derived Latin, "do," with the same basic meaning. This then gave Latin "dare," a verb meaning "to give." This then became the basis for the Latin verb "condere," which meant "to put ("give up") into storage," and then the altered form "condire," meaning "to preserve food with seasonings (salt and spices)." This then gave Latin "condimentum," with the meaning, "seasoning, sauce, seasoning sauce." Old French, a Latin-based language, had its form of the word as "condiment," and English then borrowed the word from French in the early part of the 1400s. The "con" part of the word goes back to Indo European "kom/ghem," which had the idea of "beside, near, together." This gave Latin "com," which also had the variant form "con;" thus, "condiment" is really pretty much literally, "seasoning sauce that goes together with something."

Homemade Creamy Country French Dressing

French dressing has been popular in the U.S. as long as I can remember, but it really seems to have been an American creation; at least the orange, or reddish orange type. This is my own version, and I think you'll like it. "Oui, oui!" 

INGREDIENTS:

1 cup mayonnaise (reduced calorie is fine)
1/2 cup sour cream ("light" is fine)
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup white wine vinegar
1/4 cup canola, vegetable or other generally neutral oil; that is, not highly flavored
3 tablespoons brown mustard
3 tablespoons ketchup
3 tablespoons onion powder
1 tablespoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon sweet paprika
1/2 teaspoon salt and 1/2 teaspoon pepper (white or black*)

In a large bowl mix the mayonnaise and sour cream together. In another bowl, or in a blender, mix the sugar and white wine vinegar, until the sugar is dissolved. Add the oil, brown mustard, ketchup, onion powder, garlic powder, paprika, salt and white or black pepper. Mix very well, or better yet, blend it. Add the mayo/sour cream mixture and blend or stir very well again. Chill the dressing before serving.

* I use white pepper, but you can go ahead and use black pepper, see if I care! Just wait until I put a curse on you and you can't sleep until you change your recipe to use white pepper. 

WORD HISTORY:
Cup-This word, related to "cooper" ("a barrel maker"), goes back to Indo European "keup/kaup," which meant "a hollow (object)." This gave its Latin offspring "cupa," meaning "basin, tub, barrel," which then spawned Latin "cuppa" (cup). This was borrowed into Old Germanic, or directly into Old English, as "cuppe," also meaning "cup,"  and it was several centuries before it took on the spelling used today, "cup." Forms are present in many of the other Germanic languages: German has "Kopf," meaning "head," ^ Low German Saxon "Kopp" and "Köppken" (cup),^^ Dutch, West Frisian, East Frisian and Danish "kop" (cup), Swedish and Norwegian "kopp" (cup). I did not find a form in modern Icelandic, but "apparently" it once had "koppr," a form "apparently" borrowed from Low German.  

^ While rare, it can also mean "bowl." In many German dialects, including in Berlin, it is "Kopp." Further, the same source also gave German "Kuppe," meaning "knoll;" that is, "small rounded hill;" so interestingly, "an inverted cup shape," but the word "cupola," generally meaning "the dome of a building," is also from the idea of "an inverted cup."

^^ There is no standard form of Low German, only a number of related dialects, which are not always mutually intelligible. 

Homemade Ranch Dressing

This highly popular salad dressing, also used as a dip, was developed in the 1950s by Steve Henson, founder of the Hidden Valley Ranch brand of dressings. This recipe is purely my own and I make no claim to it being the equivalent to the highly successful commercial brand, or any other brand, for that matter.

Ingredients

1/2 cup buttermilk (low fat is fine)
1 cup mayonnaise (reduced fat is fine)
1/4 cup sour cream (reduced fat is fine)
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1/4 teaspoon sweet paprika
1 teaspoon dried chives
1/2 teaspoon dried dill
1 teaspoon onion powder
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon parsley
1/2 teaspoon ground mustard

Simply mix all the ingredients together very well. If it is still too thick, add a little more buttermilk to get it to the consistency you want. Chill well before serving.

I just mixed and chilled everything right in a measuring cup (then covered it with plastic wrap), which shows that everything together made about 2 1/4 cups of dressing.

WORD HISTORY:
Heap-This word goes back to Indo European "k(h)oup," which had the notion of "raised surface;" thus, "hill." This gave its Old Germanic offspring "houpaz/haupaz," which "seems" to have reduced the meaning from "hill" to the lesser, "pile or stack of something." ^ This gave Old English "heap," but with the likely pronunciation of "hee-ap," and with the same general meaning, but with the figurative sense of "many," including people. This then became "heep/hepe," before the modern version, which "likely" mimicked the old spelling by coincidence. There was also a verb form, "heapian," dating to Old English (and in other Germanic languages, too) meaning, "to pile things together, to collect into a stack/pile." Going back to Old English, there was a further underlying notion in some uses as, "something bad, something spoiled," and this notion has carried through with the word since those times, as "heap" has been used for places of human waste, "dung heap," and also places for trash, garbage, "trash heap," and who hasn't owned a beaten up, old car at some point, "a heap." The other Germanic languages have: German "Haufen," Low German Saxon "Huup," Dutch "hoop," Danish "hob" (meaning "crowd, mob"), Icelandic "hópur" ("crowd, group").

^ The Old Germanic form may well have retained the original meaning, but then its West Germanic offshoot reduced the meaning from "hill" to "pile, stack." The "main" West Germanic languages in modern times are: English, German, Low German, Dutch and Frisian. Further, and this bolsters the idea that "apparently" the lessening of the meaning to "pile/stack" was made in West Germanic, Old Norse borrowed the word from Low German or Frisian as "hópr;" thus, the modern Danish and Icelandic forms came from that borrowing, as Old Norse is their North Germanic ancestor.

Homemade Thousand Island Dressing

Besides its use for salads, this common salad dressing, which is easy to make, is also good on hamburgers and other sandwiches.

Ingredients (for about 1 cup):

3/4 cup mayonnaise (reduced fat type is fine)
2 tablespoons chopped sweet gherkins (pickles)
3 tablespoons chili sauce (not hot)
1 teaspoon white vinegar
1 teaspoon sugar
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon finely chopped onion
1/4 teaspoon black pepper

Put all ingredients into a bowl, mix well, cover and refrigerate for a couple of ours. Refrigerate and cover unused portion, but best used within a couple of days.

My homemade thousand island dressing with sliced tomatoes and hardboiled egg.

WORD HISTORY:
Coach-This word, used both as a noun and as a verb, goes back to the town of "Kocs," ^ located in northern Hungary. The town made coaches/carriages a few hundred years ago, which the Hungarians called "kocsi szekér," meaning "carriage of Kocs," and these vehicles became widely known in Europe. German borrowed the term, which eventually became the shortened modern German form, "Kutsche," but there were various spellings originally, some beginning with the letter "c," coupled with the word "Wagen," which means "cart, wagon" (of course, English has "wagon"). French borrowed the word from German as "coche," and English borrowed it from French in the mid 1500s. The word came to be used for modern vehicles, like buses and trains, and the use of the word for an instructor, especially, but certainly not exclusively, for sports teams, comes from the notion, "transporting a person or people to some goal by leadership and teaching."

^ Pronounced like "kutsh" (the "u" like in "put").