I recognize that I took a slight break from blogging but I am back and ready to party. We have officially moved and I am living the small town Pennsylvania dream. That may sound like I am joking, but in all reality I am finding that small town life is actually quite dreamy. Of course I miss St. Louis like crazy and it will always be my home, but it's nice to learn about a new place.
Speaking of small town- when we first moved here I decided to try my hand at gardening. That's what people in small towns do right? ;) We went to the Danville farmers market the first weekend we got here and I bought some starter plants- cucumbers, basil, and tomatoes. I have never been good at keeping anything alive. Even bamboo and cactuses, but this time I was determined to succeed! My determination paid off and now I have so many cucumbers that I don't know what to do with them. And they continue to grow- I am picking up to 8 per day. It's insane! My tomatoes are just now starting to get red and ready- so hopefully we have a similar problem with tomatoes. Here's the thing with cucumbers though- they aren't as versatile as other veggies or fruits because you can kind of only eat them cold. Or turn them into pickles. So I've been trying to get creative with our cucumber consumption. Here are a few things I have come up with that I thought I would share with you.
First, here is a picture of my very first cucumber harvest. I was in such awe and shock that I had kept plants alive long enough to not only grow, but grow enough to produce edible food! Amazing.
Recipe #1 is very simple and very delicious. In the summer I absolutely love eating tomato mozzarella salads. So I thought- why not add cucumbers? The result was so fresh and tasty. And no real recipe is needed. Just chop up as many tomatoes and cucumbers as you want, add in fresh mozzarella and basil (also from my garden!) and then dress with olive oil and balsamic vinegar. Oh and don't forget to salt and pepper! To taste. I basically did equal amount of cucumbers and tomatoes and then used a log of fresh mozzarella. This salad served 6 adults generously.
Speaking of small town- when we first moved here I decided to try my hand at gardening. That's what people in small towns do right? ;) We went to the Danville farmers market the first weekend we got here and I bought some starter plants- cucumbers, basil, and tomatoes. I have never been good at keeping anything alive. Even bamboo and cactuses, but this time I was determined to succeed! My determination paid off and now I have so many cucumbers that I don't know what to do with them. And they continue to grow- I am picking up to 8 per day. It's insane! My tomatoes are just now starting to get red and ready- so hopefully we have a similar problem with tomatoes. Here's the thing with cucumbers though- they aren't as versatile as other veggies or fruits because you can kind of only eat them cold. Or turn them into pickles. So I've been trying to get creative with our cucumber consumption. Here are a few things I have come up with that I thought I would share with you.
First, here is a picture of my very first cucumber harvest. I was in such awe and shock that I had kept plants alive long enough to not only grow, but grow enough to produce edible food! Amazing.
Recipe number 2: Grilled Teriyaki chicken lettuce wraps. My inspiration behind this dinner is actually an appetizer you can get at the Cheesecake factory- the thai lettuce wraps. For the cucumbers- cut up as many as you want- for me and my husband I cut up 3. My cucumbers are not very big though. Then place them in a bowl and soak them in rice vinegar with a spoonful of sugar and salt and pepper. Let them soak for a few minutes before eating, but it really doesn't take long to get the flavor in. This is basically just quick pickling the cucumbers before eating. And it is absolutely delicious. For these lettuce wraps, I recommend using boston or bibb lettuce. It seems to work the best. For the chicken, I just used the teriyaki marinade I used in a recipe I had eaten before. you can find the recipe here. Then the noodles are just cooked vermicelli rice noodles stirred with a homemade thai peanut sauce. I am going to talk about this thai peanut sauce in a later blog post, but if you are really dying to know- I'll give you the quick ingredients: 2 big spoonfuls of peanut butter, tablespoon of red curry paste, tablespoon of brown sugar, a can of coconut milk, a dash of soy sauce and some hot sauce if desired all cooked on a stove top and stored in the fridge after the fact). I already had some made up in my fridge so I just used my stash. Now for the sauce and OMG is it good. I got the inspiration from the green dipping sauce from Cheesecake factory and from several blogs who did mock ups of it. What I ended up doing was 1 cup of cilantro, 1/4 cup of cashews, 1/4 cup of honey, 2 cloves of garlic, 1 tsp balsamic vinegar, salt and pepper, 2 tsp of white vinegar and 1 tsp of cumin all blended up in a food processor. And it was incredible. And easy! God bless the food processor. I think that every time I use mine. And that concludes the ingredients in these lettuce wraps- I trust you can figure out how to assemble them :)
Recipe #3: Wheat crackers topped with herbed goat cheese and cucumbers. Yep- it's as easy as that. I bough pre- herbed goat cheese, but I'm sure you could make your own. Always remember to salt and pepper the cucumbers!
Recipe #4: And last of today. Grilled chicken and cucumber spring rolls! I tried out using spring roll paper for the first time and it was a huge success! And so easy! We used a pie dish filled with water. You soak a paper for a few seconds (yes only a few seconds!) and pull it out then fill it with whatever you want! I added grilled chicken (seasoned with creole seasoning), pickled cucumbers (like in the lettuce wraps) and plain vermicelli noodles. Then drizzled my thai peanut sauce in there. Oh and I added cilantro! So good. So fresh. And healthy! My husband kept saying these were definitely a make again!
So yes, we have been eating a lot of cucumbers, but I wouldn't change it. Nothing beats eating veggies that you grew yourself. So so good. I'm going to take on more veggies next year! I'm happy to be back in the blogging world. Let me know your thoughts!
