Another Grandma Enters the Blog - with Salad Dressing

Union Station, built 1911

My maternal grandparents owned a small town hardware store, and visited Tacoma, WA weekly to pick up orders from the wholesale house.  Every Thursday when they 'went to town,' while Grandpa picked up the store supplies, Grandma crossed the street to Union Station, from where she could telephone my mom for a dime, instead of long distance from home.  After their morning tasks were complete, they went to their favorite restaurant, Harbor Lights.


The staff at Harbor Lights came to know and love my grandparents over the decades of their patronage, and vice-versa.  Grandma particularly favored their shrimp dishes, but mostly, she loved their Thousand Island salad dressing.  At some point, the chef honored her with his special recipe, and its been a family favorite ever since.

We never have a seafood salad of any type (crab, shrimp, or salmon) with any other dressing than this.  Since the salads and the dressing use many of the same ingredients, I just keep the blender pitcher beside me while I prep, and throw in the appropriate ingredients as I cut them for the salad.

Thousand Island Dressing

1 cup mayonnaise
1/4 cup ketchup
2 sweet pickles + 1 teaspoon jarred pimento, or 3 Tablespoons sweet pickle relish
1 hard boiled egg
1 thick slice sweet onion
1/4 green bell pepper
1 stalk celery
3 sprigs parsley (I don't always have this and it's still good without)


Place all in blender and pulse until well combined and fairly smooth.  (If you prefer chunkier dressing, you could leave out the relish and stir it in after blending.)

I store any extra in these
 from Bargeen-Ellingson (our
closest restaurant supply)
for easy serving