7.31.2006
I'll see about putting pictures up on Flickr later, but our garden is overflowing with cucumbers and squash. I've had to rapidly expand my recipe repertoire for those two veggies and we're still having trouble keeping up. Fortunately Chris's coworkers snatch it right up when he takes in our extras.
Cuke Recipes
Crisp Cucumber Freezer Pickles - I have the second batch of these in the fridge right now, and they'll be done tomorrow morning, freeing up the only bowl we have that's big enough - which means I'll probably do another batch tomorrow night. These are really good. I cut the sugar to 1 cup and that seems fine to me. Also, I don't think the red and green bell pepper add much taste, but they add some color. Those could certainly be left out if you wanted.
Spicy Refrigerator Dill Pickles - I made a double batch of these this weekend, but since you can't eat them for 10 days, I obviously haven't tasted them yet. They seem promising; the garlic and crushed red pepper flakes caught my attention. I did make one adjustment - I missed the 1 and 1/2 cups of fresh dill weed, so I substituted dried at a 3 to 1 ratio (so 1/2 cup of dried dill weed). I don't know how that will work taste-wise. I do know that we'll probably need to rinse or wipe our pickles before we eat them. The dill spurred a new name for this recipe: Swamp Pickles.
Thai Cucumber Salad - this is a tasty salad recipe from one of my online running mama friends. I have been known to subsitute ground coriander when I didn't have any fresh cilantro on hand. Don't know for sure if that's "right", but it tasted fine to me.
1/3 cup white vinegar
1/3 cup sugar
½ teaspoon red pepper flakes
½ teaspoon salt
2 pounds cucumbers, seeded and sliced into quarters
½ cup red onion, finely chopped
2 tablespoons fresh cilantro, chopped
2 Tablespoons fresh mint, chopped
¼ cup roasted peanuts, chopped
In a bowl, mix vinegar, sugar, pepper flakes and salt. Stir until sugar is dissolved. Add cucumber, onion, cilantro, and mint. Toss until well covered. Refrigerate covered for 1 hour. Before serving, add the peanuts.
Tzatziki - I like this with hot whole wheat pita bread. I'll give you the "written" recipe first and then tell you what I really do. :)
8 oz. plain yogurt (whole milk yogurt works best)
1 small cucumber, peeled, seeded and chopped
2 cloves garlic, peeled and pressed
1 tbsp. fresh lemon juice
1 tsp. olive oil
1 tsp. fresh mint or dill, chopped
Salt and fresh ground pepper, to taste
Squeeze the moisture out of the cucumber in a towel, add to the rest of the ingredients, mix well and serve.
OK... in my desperation to use up cukes, I think I probably do more than the "1 small cucumber." We have the pickling type, but I will put about 4 of those in. I like the sauce chunky. Another option, as I noticed at the Indian restaurant we lunched at today, would be shredding or grating the cucumber. All depends on what you like. Anyway, if the garlic cloves are large, 1 might be enough. This isn't good (to me) if it gets too garlicky. Last time I made it I omitted the lemon juice and olive oil completely and used fresh mint. Finally, instead of fresh ground pepper, I used white pepper and it gave it a really nice kick. Chris especially liked that aspect of it, which is good, because if he will eat this it is good in the fight against the cucumbers. We have made this with dill too, and it's good, but the most recent version with the mint and white pepper is our favorite.
Oh yeah, I just clipped this recipe for Raw Avocado and Cucumber Soup, but I haven't tried it yet. I hope to very soon as it sounds yummy to me!
Yellow/Summer Squash Recipes
Sylvia's Squash Casserole - this was made by a friend of the family when Mom had just come home from the hospital. We all really enjoyed it.
Olive oil
~6 med-large yellow squash, sliced
1 onion or however much you like, chopped or sliced
14 oz. can of diced tomatoes, drained well
Dried oregano
Bread crumbs (Italian seasoned ones are good, any type would be fine)
Cheddar cheese, grated/shredded
Preheat oven to 350F. In a large frying/saute pan, heat a little olive oil (about 1 TBS) over medium heat. Add the onions and saute for a couple of minutes to give them a head start. Add the squash, stirring well to coat. Add oregano to taste. When the squash are just starting to get tender, add the diced tomatoes, and continue to cook. You want to balance the tenderness of the squash (don't let it get too mushy) and the liquidness of the whole dish - you want it to be as dry as possible. Whenever you are happy with it, put everything into a loaf pan or casserole dish. Top with bread crumbs and then cheese (both to taste). Bake uncovered for about 20 minutes or until it looks done to you.
After making this several times using a variety of methods, I have settled on this one as the way to have the least liquid in the dish. I have frozen a small amount of this and will try to remember to report back as to how it tastes out of the freezer. It sure is delicious freshly made!
Squash Bread - pick your favorite zucchini bread recipe and substitute yellow squash. It doesn't taste squashy at all and is quite good, assuming you like zucchini bread. I actually used my breadmaker's recipe for zucchini bread, and it turned out fine. I plan to make several loaves of this and freeze.
Cuke Recipes
Crisp Cucumber Freezer Pickles - I have the second batch of these in the fridge right now, and they'll be done tomorrow morning, freeing up the only bowl we have that's big enough - which means I'll probably do another batch tomorrow night. These are really good. I cut the sugar to 1 cup and that seems fine to me. Also, I don't think the red and green bell pepper add much taste, but they add some color. Those could certainly be left out if you wanted.
Spicy Refrigerator Dill Pickles - I made a double batch of these this weekend, but since you can't eat them for 10 days, I obviously haven't tasted them yet. They seem promising; the garlic and crushed red pepper flakes caught my attention. I did make one adjustment - I missed the 1 and 1/2 cups of fresh dill weed, so I substituted dried at a 3 to 1 ratio (so 1/2 cup of dried dill weed). I don't know how that will work taste-wise. I do know that we'll probably need to rinse or wipe our pickles before we eat them. The dill spurred a new name for this recipe: Swamp Pickles.
Thai Cucumber Salad - this is a tasty salad recipe from one of my online running mama friends. I have been known to subsitute ground coriander when I didn't have any fresh cilantro on hand. Don't know for sure if that's "right", but it tasted fine to me.
1/3 cup white vinegar
1/3 cup sugar
½ teaspoon red pepper flakes
½ teaspoon salt
2 pounds cucumbers, seeded and sliced into quarters
½ cup red onion, finely chopped
2 tablespoons fresh cilantro, chopped
2 Tablespoons fresh mint, chopped
¼ cup roasted peanuts, chopped
In a bowl, mix vinegar, sugar, pepper flakes and salt. Stir until sugar is dissolved. Add cucumber, onion, cilantro, and mint. Toss until well covered. Refrigerate covered for 1 hour. Before serving, add the peanuts.
Tzatziki - I like this with hot whole wheat pita bread. I'll give you the "written" recipe first and then tell you what I really do. :)
8 oz. plain yogurt (whole milk yogurt works best)
1 small cucumber, peeled, seeded and chopped
2 cloves garlic, peeled and pressed
1 tbsp. fresh lemon juice
1 tsp. olive oil
1 tsp. fresh mint or dill, chopped
Salt and fresh ground pepper, to taste
Squeeze the moisture out of the cucumber in a towel, add to the rest of the ingredients, mix well and serve.
OK... in my desperation to use up cukes, I think I probably do more than the "1 small cucumber." We have the pickling type, but I will put about 4 of those in. I like the sauce chunky. Another option, as I noticed at the Indian restaurant we lunched at today, would be shredding or grating the cucumber. All depends on what you like. Anyway, if the garlic cloves are large, 1 might be enough. This isn't good (to me) if it gets too garlicky. Last time I made it I omitted the lemon juice and olive oil completely and used fresh mint. Finally, instead of fresh ground pepper, I used white pepper and it gave it a really nice kick. Chris especially liked that aspect of it, which is good, because if he will eat this it is good in the fight against the cucumbers. We have made this with dill too, and it's good, but the most recent version with the mint and white pepper is our favorite.
Oh yeah, I just clipped this recipe for Raw Avocado and Cucumber Soup, but I haven't tried it yet. I hope to very soon as it sounds yummy to me!
Yellow/Summer Squash Recipes
Sylvia's Squash Casserole - this was made by a friend of the family when Mom had just come home from the hospital. We all really enjoyed it.
Olive oil
~6 med-large yellow squash, sliced
1 onion or however much you like, chopped or sliced
14 oz. can of diced tomatoes, drained well
Dried oregano
Bread crumbs (Italian seasoned ones are good, any type would be fine)
Cheddar cheese, grated/shredded
Preheat oven to 350F. In a large frying/saute pan, heat a little olive oil (about 1 TBS) over medium heat. Add the onions and saute for a couple of minutes to give them a head start. Add the squash, stirring well to coat. Add oregano to taste. When the squash are just starting to get tender, add the diced tomatoes, and continue to cook. You want to balance the tenderness of the squash (don't let it get too mushy) and the liquidness of the whole dish - you want it to be as dry as possible. Whenever you are happy with it, put everything into a loaf pan or casserole dish. Top with bread crumbs and then cheese (both to taste). Bake uncovered for about 20 minutes or until it looks done to you.
After making this several times using a variety of methods, I have settled on this one as the way to have the least liquid in the dish. I have frozen a small amount of this and will try to remember to report back as to how it tastes out of the freezer. It sure is delicious freshly made!
Squash Bread - pick your favorite zucchini bread recipe and substitute yellow squash. It doesn't taste squashy at all and is quite good, assuming you like zucchini bread. I actually used my breadmaker's recipe for zucchini bread, and it turned out fine. I plan to make several loaves of this and freeze.
7.17.2006
We are in a library in Crawfordsville, Indiana. Photos of the weekend are on Flickr...
We're having a good time. We have a little story to share about our night last night which involves motorcycles and raccoons, but no time to tell it right now. We've got to hit the road...
We're having a good time. We have a little story to share about our night last night which involves motorcycles and raccoons, but no time to tell it right now. We've got to hit the road...
7.05.2006
I have a little bit to say about a lot of things, so here goes...
First, a little more detail on Mom... we got more information in her first visit to the doctor post-surgery. The cancer had invaded over 60% of the way through the muscular wall of the uterus, but fortunately had not gotten out. That degree of spread would normally mean further treatment (chemo and radiation), but the doctor said that since her cancer was a grade 1, he was not recommending that. She will be watched closely for the next several years, and they are considering her 95% cured. She is recovering well, though maybe more slowly than she'd like.
In what seems like a cruel twist of fate, we recently found out that Aunt Rexie (Mom's sister) has non-Hodgkins lymphoma. It is in her shoulder and neck area but they don't believe it has spread to any organs. She is getting ready to begin chemo and will have 6 treatments, 3 weeks apart.
We had a nice 4th of July celebration last night. Mom and Dad came over and we had a very yummy meal... hamburgers, hot dogs, baked beans, layered salad, corn on the cob, fruit salad with poppyseed dressing, hot pineapple casserole, and personal-sized Uncle Sam cakes for dessert. Then Chris, Emma Kate, and I went to one of the Carilion parking garages to watch the fireworks. Unfortunately for us, the roof was closed off to a private party (?) but we still had a pretty good vantage point. I had fun taking pictures (you can see more on Flickr) but poor Emma Kate did not enjoy herself. She was scared and didn't like how loud they were. I was afraid we had scarred her for life, but she was back to her old self within a couple minutes of the fireworks ending. We saw some more fireworks way off in the distance, and she proclaimed that she did like the "small fireworks."
Our garden is doing well. Emma Kate picked our first cucumber last night. We have had a few squash already, and we have been getting tomatoes off of our lone Roma that is in a pot. We've got 22 bean plants and some of them are ready to be staked. I am having fun and learning a lot. EK seems to be taking a lot of pride in it, too. I think she claimed ownership of the cucumber last night.
We are prepping for a trip/vacation... we leave next Thursday. We are driving to a state park near Chicago to camp and meet some of my online running mama friends (and their families). We are going to camp on the way there and back as well. The drive will definitely be long, but I am looking forward to heading out to parts unseen... we will be going through cities like Lexington and Louisville, KY, Indianapolis, and Cincinnati. All places I've never been. We haven't tried an adventure like this in some years, so I am excited and I am interested to see how it will go. I really hope EK has fun. As much as she loves the outdoors, I expect her to have a blast.
First, a little more detail on Mom... we got more information in her first visit to the doctor post-surgery. The cancer had invaded over 60% of the way through the muscular wall of the uterus, but fortunately had not gotten out. That degree of spread would normally mean further treatment (chemo and radiation), but the doctor said that since her cancer was a grade 1, he was not recommending that. She will be watched closely for the next several years, and they are considering her 95% cured. She is recovering well, though maybe more slowly than she'd like.
In what seems like a cruel twist of fate, we recently found out that Aunt Rexie (Mom's sister) has non-Hodgkins lymphoma. It is in her shoulder and neck area but they don't believe it has spread to any organs. She is getting ready to begin chemo and will have 6 treatments, 3 weeks apart.
We had a nice 4th of July celebration last night. Mom and Dad came over and we had a very yummy meal... hamburgers, hot dogs, baked beans, layered salad, corn on the cob, fruit salad with poppyseed dressing, hot pineapple casserole, and personal-sized Uncle Sam cakes for dessert. Then Chris, Emma Kate, and I went to one of the Carilion parking garages to watch the fireworks. Unfortunately for us, the roof was closed off to a private party (?) but we still had a pretty good vantage point. I had fun taking pictures (you can see more on Flickr) but poor Emma Kate did not enjoy herself. She was scared and didn't like how loud they were. I was afraid we had scarred her for life, but she was back to her old self within a couple minutes of the fireworks ending. We saw some more fireworks way off in the distance, and she proclaimed that she did like the "small fireworks."
Our garden is doing well. Emma Kate picked our first cucumber last night. We have had a few squash already, and we have been getting tomatoes off of our lone Roma that is in a pot. We've got 22 bean plants and some of them are ready to be staked. I am having fun and learning a lot. EK seems to be taking a lot of pride in it, too. I think she claimed ownership of the cucumber last night.
We are prepping for a trip/vacation... we leave next Thursday. We are driving to a state park near Chicago to camp and meet some of my online running mama friends (and their families). We are going to camp on the way there and back as well. The drive will definitely be long, but I am looking forward to heading out to parts unseen... we will be going through cities like Lexington and Louisville, KY, Indianapolis, and Cincinnati. All places I've never been. We haven't tried an adventure like this in some years, so I am excited and I am interested to see how it will go. I really hope EK has fun. As much as she loves the outdoors, I expect her to have a blast.
