sprig to twig

I wish the veggies would pace themselves better.

This was this morning’s harvest. Every day is the same. I must say, though, having a lot of something brings out the cook’s creativity. So far, my favorite use for the cucumbers is a creamy salad using plain yogurt, a splash of vinegar (I like rice, champagne or sherry) and a chopped herb. The tarragon is as rampant as the cukes, so that is usually my herb of choice, but for the sake of variety cilantro or parsley have worked well. The skins on the green cukes are not at all bitter, so it can be fun to score them lengthwise all around the circumference, then slice them thinly crosswise. They look almost like flowers this way. Add some sweet onion (Walla Walla or Vidalia) cut into good sized chunks, toss the whole thing together and you are good to go. Easy. Refreshing. Downright sublime. You didn’t really think I was complaining about too many cucumbers, did you?

I’m crazy about the lemon cucumbers. In years past, they have followed the first rule of show business, always leaving us wanting more. Ha! Let me tell you about the cucumber martini. Muddle a bit of cucumber and mint with a splash of simple syrup, add gin and crushed ice and garnish with cucumber slices and mint sprigs. On a really hot day, the addition of seltzer ups the refreshment factor, and you can sip away without getting totally loopy right away.

Thin slices of Cucumber and lemon in a pitcher of plain old tap water is a staple in our fridg these days. After a morning of digging, it gives me the will to go on.

About that idea of wanting more…I do hope they hang around long enough to overlap with the tomato crop. Gazpacho, anyone?

This entry was posted on Tuesday, August 25th, 2009 at 11:07 pm and is filed under eating & drinking, gardening. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.