I’ve noticed a trend on my facebook page lately where people are posting photos of items from the past with a request to ‘like’ the photo if you recognize what it is. The intention is to route out all the boomers on facebook and create a camaraderie of sorts — I guess. OK, I admit it, I’m old enough to be your mother; I recognized the ice cube tray with the handle. Woohoo. In spite of the fact I never click “like” on any of the photos, I now have a little “guess what this is” game of my own. Does anyone know what my post title refers to? Yes? No?

There used to be an early, manual food processor advertised extensively on television, and the sideshow-like presentation both annoyed and amazed me. Also, I think I secretly wished I had one of the devices, being a young kitchen-device-hoarder in the making. (Now, of course, I’m a reformed kitchen-device-hoarder.) The hand-cranked machine in question  made “mounds of carrot salad.” For some reason, the phrase stuck in my head. It took a while, but after much Internet sleuthing, and a lot of infomercials for Ronco Veg-O-Matics and other salad-making devices, I finally unearthed the source of the mounds of carrot salad — the Popeil Kitchen Magician. I don’t know why the massive carrot piles struck me as so funny when I used to see the commercial on TV, but I found the idea of mounds of shredded carrots bizarre and hilarious. Why would anyone want to create mounds of shredded carrots? Hahahahaha. Little did I know that one day I might be creating mounds of carrot salad myself. Ahem. Who knew? Especially in the warmer months, when I bring out the spiralizer, it’s not unusual to find mounds of carrot salad in my kitchen.

(BTW, I also discovered a fascinating history about Ron Popeil, the inventor and multimillionaire salesman behind the Ronco products that appeared (and still appear) in TV infomercials. The Kitchen Magician isn’t mentioned in any of the Ronco or Popeil articles, but I think it was one of their products. Anyway, Ron had a very traumatic childhood, but in early adulthood he discovered his ability to invent unique products and sell them, eventually amassing a huge personal fortune. If you’re interested in a quirky rags-to-riches story, click here.)

If you’re just interested in carrot salad and great dressing, read on. I’ve been making carrot and cabbage salads with orange dressing for a long time but have never shared it because I never used a recipe — just threw things in a measuring cup, put a salad together and voila. I’ve made it twice recently for company, and both times I was asked for the recipe, so I finally measured, and am posting the results. The salad ingredients change depending on what’s in the fridge, but usually contain some crisp things like green and/or red cabbage, celery, carrots, maybe radishes, romaine or baby greens. The dressing stays the same. Yesterday it was “mounds of carrots” with cabbage, along with a few sliced radishes. You could add apple sticks or satsuma segments to heighten the sweetness of this very refreshing salad. The salad benefits from marinating in the dressing a bit, so it can be made a couple of hours ahead and kept in the fridge. It’s also great freshly made.