Photos, photos, photos. When are you going to get back to the yummy and crafty stuff? Ok, I get ya. I actually have quite a lineup of tasty posts coming, but I was so excited about the photography of the weekend and last week that the photos took over a bit. But I still have to feed the fam and I'm cutting squares for my zig zag quilt, so MakeHappy will be back to its old self for a while.
Can we chat about cucumbers? I thought it would be fun to try two types of cukes this year—my favorite, Armenian, and a new-to-me kind, Suyo. Unfortunately, I didn't really consider what to do with all those cucumbers. The Suyos are going crazy and they're huge! I read that they are ready when they lose their spines and bumps, so I waited, and waited, and finally picked them when they were 18 inches long—yet still with spines and bumps. Oh well.
I've made cucumber onion salad, cucumber tomato mozzarella salad, green salad with cucumbers (and tomatoes, which are also going crazy). But we still had tons of cucumbers left.
So I began using them as a base for smoothies. The Armenians (the light green one), with their thin skin, are perfect for smoothies. Add some berries and you can't taste the cucumber. I have to be a little more creative with the Suyos (the dark green ones), or at least a little less picky. It's harder to cover up the taste of the Suyos. When I'm using them in smoothies for the kids, I'll peel them, because the skin is what holds most of the non-smoothie-friendly flavor. But I'm less picky, and I want the fiber and antioxidants in the skin, so I leave it on for mine.
The concentrated flavor of berries really helps make these more palatable. I also made a peanut butter banana smoothie with milk and a peeled cucumber, and that worked well. I just made a cucumber (skin on) peach smoothie that I thought would be great—because we have really flavorful peaches from Riggleman's right now—but the cucumber totally took over and I had to add berries.
I do love that I get several servings of fruit in each smoothie, though. I'm going to miss my cucumber smoothies when the cucumbers are done producing.
We've also got a green seedless grape vine in the back. I realized last week that they were ready, so I've been bringing them in and placing a bowl full on the coffee table for snacking. Little Mister kept asking if he could have more grapes, and I'd tell him he could have as many as he wanted; he didn't have to ask. It took him a while to get used to that. He looked like he'd won a prize. :)
