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I hit the fruit market today for my weekly fruit and vegetable shopping trip. As I was filling my cart with goodies (Rhubarb! Tiny purple tinged asparagus! Ruby colored radishes!) a nearby shopper nodded toward my cart and inquired “Throwin’ a party?” I smiled and said “Nope, just shopping for my family.” He wandered over and visually inspected my cart a little closer. “Wow, you must have a lot of kids.”
It was at that point it dawned on me how much produce my family eats. No wonder I anxiously await the opening of the city farmer’s market, my neighbor’s produce stands (they’re like lemonaide stands except with berries and pumpkins and zucchinni and corn and ohhhh, I can’t wait!), and the goods that our friends give us from their own gardens (I’ve mentioned I can’t garden, right?). I store my extra produce for the week in a big banana box in my basement – where it’s nice and cool – because it doesn’t all fit in my two refrigerators.
And, when I checked out, I paid attention to what I spent. The bill for my produce was equal to 1/2 of my total grocery bill for the week. If I bought strictly organics (which I cannot afford and the selection here is limited anyhow) it would be more than 1/2 of my grocery bill. And then came the realization – I really need to think about working on my green thumb a little (o.k., fine, a lot).
So, I’m asking you; my readers. What should I try to grow? What has the highest likelihood of survival with my limited gardening skills? What tips would you give me? I will continue to give you recipes, and perhaps you will give me – the cook that cannot garden – gardening tips. Now, if I could just get you guys over here to help me do some weeding. Probably not, huh? Well, bummer. Anyhow, onto today’s recipe.
This cucumber salad goes together fast and easy, but doesn’t come up short on flavor. It’s great for nights when you want to cookout, or if you want to make something to take to a “dish-to-pass” type event, or when you’re just in the mood for something sweetly tangy and highly crunchy.
I haven’t had good luck with these holding up in the fridge for more than 24 hours. You’ll want to make them and eat them within a few hours and leftovers aren’t great past the second day. With that in mind, you might want to consider cutting the recipe in half, although my family of 4 1/2 plowed through most of these in a single sitting. Remember, Lilly? My middle child who eats nothing? I count her as the half.
Also, Hubby and I are trying to trim a little from our waistlines for swimsuit season, so I used a generic version of Splenda to sweeten these and they turned out great! I made a half batch with sugar to check the difference and they were highly tasty both ways.
I was able to put these on the table in a total of 8 minutes. And I’m really, really, really slow.
Sassy Cuke Salad
Adapted from The Taste of Home
7 cups of cucumbers, peeled and thinly sliced
2 cups of sugar, or about 1 3/4 cups of Splenda (you can add more)
1 large white or purple onion, chopped
1 medium green pepper, chopped
1 cup (apple) cider vinegar
1 tablespoon salt
1 tablespoon celery seed
Start by peeling and slicing your cucumbers.
Add the green pepper and onion. I used a white onion, since I had one on hand, but a purple onion would be absoultely knock-your-socks-off good with this!
Add the sugar (or sweetner), salt (yes, I said 1 tablespoon, that is not a typo), and celery seed. Celery seed is interesting. It tastes just like a crisp fresh piece of celery, and it actually smells so good I could sprinkle it in my pillow case at night. But, it’s not stringy like celery, which is a bonus. Oh, and you can keep it in your spice rack – so when you’re out of celery? Voila! Celery seed. Yeah, so don’t skip the celery seed, it’s the champion of this dish.
Pour the vinegar over everything and give it a good mix.
If you use real sugar, you’ll need to let this sit covered in the fridge, for about an hour, giving it another good stir every 15 minutes. This will help the sugar dissolve. If you use sweetner, you can skip this step.
Serve with a slotted spoon.
{ 5 comments… read them below or add one }
that looks awesome. oh yea, i alone purchase so much a week every time at different grocery stores it’s so bad. also, i got rhubarb today too!
diva@theSugarBars last blog post..Green Tea Rice with Almonds
EVERYBODY spends tons on the grocery bill. And it’s always the fresh stuff that’s costly. Makes no sense, I know, but there ya go. I guess the gov’t would rather we all eat boxed mac&cheese rather than good healthy fresh food! Gardening does not take any great amount of skill, truly truly truly. And all you die hard gardeners out there are not to come after me with your garden tools. Find a sunny spot to plant, a place that won’t get flooded, and dig in. Rhubarb is good. There’s not much you can do to kill it except transplant it when it’s not fall. I’ll save a clump for you and this fall we’ll find a place to plant it. It should come back year after year. Potatoes are easy. Do you have eyes growing out of the current bag sitting at your house? Slice off a chunk of tatie with the eye still there, and pop it into the ground. Dig’em up anytime in the summer for tender, tiny taties (yummy with lots’o'butter and salt) or let’em grow bigger for fall digging. Tomatoes we buy and plant, they’re too hard to start from seed. Make sure you have tomato ‘cages’ or strong stakes for when they are tall and heavy with tomatoes. Early Girl brand is good if you don’t want to wait until August for the fresh taste of home-grown tomatoes. Cherry tomatoes are fabulous. Green beans are easy–spinach is easy–cilantro–chives–green onions I can give you some onions if you want them. My green onions keep coming back too, so I don’t have to plant new every year. Pumpkins need lots and lots of space to sprawl, they’re very viney. Follow the directions on the seed packets/info. card for each plant/seed. Spacing is important so each plant gets enough sunlight to grow and produce. We fertilize now and then if we think of it (miracle gro) but otherwise it’s not a concern. Keep deer & rabbits out by fencing the garden in. Weed and water regularly. Ask neighbors in your area how long the growing season is. Up north where we used to live, we didn’t often plant until 1 -2 week into June. Further south now, memorial day is a good time to start with plants/seeds that grow above the ground. You can put turnips, carrots, potatoes, etc. in ahead of time, before memorial day–spinach, as well. Never tried asparagus. When you’re ready, call me and I’ll bring my shovel
Kathys last blog post..1
I don’t have any gardening tips, as I have a brown thumb. But, this recipe is bookmarked because it reminds me of the cucumber salad my mom used to make when I was growing up. I can’t wait to give it a try for some of our summer get togethers.
patsyks last blog post..Decadent Outrageous Oreo Brownies
I’m a horrible container gardener (everything always dies), but a halfway decent in-the-ground gardener. I’d suggest that – it’s more forgiving, especially if you tend to forget to water. If you have a local lawn and garden store (not a big box chain, but a little store), go there and talk with the salespeople – they’re usually really good and will know what generally grows well in your area, what typical problems are (have rabbits that you need to keep out of your garden? or bugs that attack your tomatoes? they’ll be able to warn you about this), etc.
I’d suggest peppers and carrots, as well as beans and maybe cucumbers. They’re all pretty hardy. Squash are fun, but they require a lot of ground space and you have to have enough to cross-pollinate, so you might want to avoid that first time ’round. Strawberries are nice but most varieties don’t give fruit the first year, so they’re actually pretty disappointing for a beginner gardener. Lettuce is easy too, though hard to find seedlings for. If you need a confidence-booster, I hear that growing alfalfa sprouts right in your kitchen is super easy (and doesn’t require dirt). I’m pretty good at killing herbs and flowers, and haven’t had any problems with the above-mentioned veggies.
I suggest buying seedlings, not seed packets, especially since most everywhere in the northern hemisphere it’s considered pretty late in the growing season. I live in Minnesota and we can finally plant as of this weekend, but everywhere else has been fairly safe for a while.
If you’re really worried about your brown thumb, you could try planting more than you think you need, in case they die, but this will more likely result in a surplus of veggies (though perhaps not with your family). All in all, I’d just give it a shot – what do you have to lose, except for the initial investment and a few hours of time?
Great recipe, thanks for sharing it! Would love to feature you on Wellsphere.com, a site that helps people to live healthier. Can’t find a contact form so thought I’d comment; look forward to hearing from you. Thanks, Larisa