Aunt Marilyn's Vegetable Dip

When Josh and I were in Boston last week, my mother gave us a late entry into the Recipe Book* -- a long-lost and recently unearthed recipe for Vegetable Dip that she attributes to my fantastic Aunt Marilyn. Quite fortuitously, we were asked not a week later to bring a veggie plate to a work dinner for Josh's department, and Josh immediately volunteered the dip.

Originally, there had been discussion of making the dip in Boston, so my mother had gone to the grocery store and stocked up for it. When that didn't happen, she sent us home with the spices she'd bought for it (I was looking very forward to being stopped at airport security and having to explain to the TSA agent that I always travel with snipped chives, but alas the body cavity search was not to be). She even went to an extra store to get fancy tarragon vinegar, but that had to stay behind due to that whole airplane liquids thing. Even more sadly, the tarragon vinegar I got here was far less fancy, although in the end it did do the trick.

When dip-making time came about, it occurred to me that I had several of the required herbs in my garden. And yea, thou I carted the dried herbs back across the nation, I could not let this opportunity go unreaped. So, the dog, Josh and I paraded out to the back yard to make our first cuttings from the thyme and chive plants. Josh came because I was aware I had not cut herbs before and left to my own devices would find a way to not only screw it up, but somehow destroy the plants. Big came just because he is a good boy. The cat, true to himself, couldn't give a shit. With their help I successfully now know how to cut both thyme and chives without wreaking complete havoc. I was more than a little delighted.

I'm not ashamed to admit it:

I love our raised bed hay lasagna herb garden.

Do these scissors make my hands look fat?

The trouble with having a husband who loves you:
He takes one picture of you looking like shit,
and he doesn't realize that you look like shit and says,
'Got the picture!' and you believe him.

O beauteous herbs that I have nurtured and grown

The dip, it turns out, was quite easy to make and tremendously compelling. I know this because everyone at the work soiree lost their minds for it, most notably the ridiculously cute grandfatherly husband of one of Josh's coworkers, whose eyes lit up at the first taste and who promptly stationed himself in front of the veggie plate, with me periodically coming by and scolding him that he needed to leave room for his dinner.

There was a weensy bit left over, so I served the remainder to Sean & Bekah when they came over last night and they were big fans, too. I know this because I turned my back for 14 seconds and when I turned back the entire veggie platter was empty and they were all but licking the bowl.

As for myself, luckily I'm predisposed to like dip. This one is a little unique, that's for sure, and not just a little bit addictive. The curry powder gives it almost a too-strong flavor, but just when I think to myself, 'Hmm, too much curry,' suddenly my rat brain kicks in and goes 'NEED MORE DIP NOW.' So, here's my thanks to everyone for liking this and eating some of it, because without you I'd have become the new superhero Diarrhea Girl from all the dip I wouldn't have been able to stop myself from inhaling.

Be prepared for greatness

*Belated recipes from any original Recipe Book qualifier are still allowed.

Aunt Marilyn's Seriously Addictive and Curry-tastic Veggie Dip

1 cup mayo
2 tbsp grated onion (dried minced onion=fine)
2 tsp tarragon vinegar
2 tsp chili sauce (oh, how all old recipes love chili sauce)
2 tsp snipped chives (from my garden - yeah)
1/2 tsp salt (kosher!)
1/2 tsp curry powder (you COULD reduce this if you feel the curry taste is too strong, but I think it might have to do with the addictive powers, so I'm not so sure)
1/2 tsp thyme leaves (garden x2 - score!)
dash pepper

raw cauliflower
celery sticks
carrot sticks
any other raw vegetables you would like

Anytime up to 30 minutes before serving**: In a small bowl, mix first 9 ingredients. Refrigerate.

At serving time, spoon mayonnaise mixture (A.K.A. 'dip', which I find a much nicer way to think of it) into small bowl. Set in center of plate surrounded by vegetables. Eat. Try to share, no matter how much you want to steal the bowl and hide in a closet and roll around in it.

**This direction is undoubtedly because my mother has an unusual relationship with mayonnaise. She equal parts adores and is terrified by it, and is utterly convinced it is the most unstable of earth's offerings. To her thinking, it takes nothing more than a stiff wind to make mayo go off and poison everyone. Try to persuade her that you can leave anything with mayonnaise in it out of the refrigerator for more than 10 minutes and she will turn chalk white at the thought. I even suspect she might eat things with mayo in them faster to make sure they get into her body before the magical mayo timer goes off.

I made this dip (and cut the veg) Sunday morning; the dinner party was Sun night. Then I put everything in tupperware in the refrigerator and then put it together at serving time. Then when there were leftovers, I tupperwared them back up and brought them home and re-refrigerated them and then popped them back out the next day for finishing. No one died. But, somewhere on the North Shore of Massachusetts, part of my mother's soul may have just ripped.