Simple Cucumber Dill Salad

We've been eating lots of salads lately for a few reasons:

• My kitchen is a work in progress. 
• We have baseball practice or games almost every night. 
• Our days are jam packed, too.

I know you fellow moms can relate. Here's my morning yesterday:

8 a.m. – Take dog for grooming appointment.
8:30 a.m. – Take Sam to baseball clinic, go to bank.
10 a.m. – Pick up Sam and drop off Max at baseball clinic. Go to post office and dry cleaners.
11 a.m. – Take Sam to saxophone lesson.
12 p.m. – Pick up Max from baseball clinic.
12:15 p.m. – Pick up dog from groomer.

Summer salads are easy, refreshing and can often be made ahead. One of my faves is Chick Pea Salad. If you make that and have some leftover dill, you can use it in this cucumber recipe.

Do you have a favorite summer salad? Let us know what it is!

Mangia! Mangia!
Andrea

Simple Cucumber Dill Salad

2 English cucumbers, halved lengthwise and thinly sliced
1 bunch green onions, (about 5 or 6) sliced
2 tablespoons fresh dill, chopped
2 to 3 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
Fresh ground pepper to taste

Combine all ingredients in a medium bowl and gently stir to combine. Let refrigerate for at least 1 hour to help the flavors blend.

Salt individual servings to taste.

Refrigerate any leftovers.

Fettuccine with Asparagus and Goat Cheese

Hello from this long lost blogger! Guys, I'm sorry I fell off the face of the earth for a while there. Life got away from me. The husband and I run a small business, and we recently moved to a new office. It was way more work than I anticipated. Like WAY more. Needless to say, blogging to a back seat to...survival.

Although my house was a giant disaster area (please don't open my closet door), I did manage to feed my family. Admittedly some nights we ate crackers and cheese for dinner, but when I was feeling slightly more ambitious, I relied on HDHH classics.

Now that it's Spring, and asparagus is on sale practically every week, I figured it was time to make Fettuccine with Asparagus and Goat Cheese.

This is totally a 20 minute meal. And it's easy clean up. Cook the pasta and asparagus in the same pot, then stir in tangy goat cheese, grainy mustard, and fresh dill for a creamy, Spring-y sauce. So easy and delicious, even I could manage it!

Dinner? You've got this!

Let's get cooking!
Erin

Fettuccine with Asparagus and Goat Cheese
Originally posted in April 2013
Serves: 6

1/3 cup pine nuts
1 pound fettuccine
2 bunches asparagus, trimmed and cut crosswise into thirds
5 ounces goat cheese
2 tablespoons grainy mustard
3 tablespoons chopped fresh dill
Salt and pepper

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Place pine nuts on a rimmed baking dish and bake for about 5 minutes, until they are golden brown and smell toasty. (Alternatively, you can toast pine nuts in a dry skillet over medium heat, but I always burn nuts when I toast them on the stove. Feel free to live dangerously, though.)

Cook the fettuccine to al dente according to package directions in a large pot of salted boiling water. Add the asparagus during the last 5 minutes of cooking. Reserve 1 cup of the pasta cooking water before draining.

Drain the pasta and return pasta and asparagus to the pot. Stir in goat cheese, mustard, dill, and toasted pine nuts. Add pasta cooking water and stir until the cheese is melted and the pasta is evenly coated with sauce. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

Light and Creamy Cucumber Salad with Dill

Have I told you that I'm a terrible gardener? Well I'm terrible. Just awful. I'm too lazy to pull weeds. I lose interest in my plants by the time August arrives and stop watering. I don't read the little care tags so I plant "sun" flowers in full shade. It's bad.

One of the only things I can keep alive in my yard are herbs. I think there are two reasons my herbs survive, and neither gives any credit to me: 1.) My herbs live in two plastic, yellow planters on my back steps. I use plastic containers because the terra cotta ones suck up more water and require more diligent watering. I learned this the hard way. 2.) My herbs are in the shade. I'm not sure if herbs are supposed to be in the shade, but mine are. And they grow like gang busters! Again...I think the shade gives me a little wiggle room in the watering department. Notice a common theme here? I can't be trusted with a watering can.

This week I planted my little buckets of dill, thyme, basil, rosemary, sage, and one other one I can't remember (See? No green thumb.), and I'm pumped to start using them in recipes. Let's hope I didn't jinx myself by bragging about my verdant herb garden.

--Erin

Light and Creamy Cucumber Salad with Dill
Adapted from Jo & Sue

1 large English cucumber, halved and thinly sliced
1 teaspoon coarse salt
1 tablespoon light sour cream
1 tablespoon chopped fresh dill
1 teaspoon sugar
1 teaspoon vinegar

Place cucumber in a colander. Sprinkle with salt and toss to make sure it's evenly coated. Set colander in the sink or over a bowl to catch any liquid. Allow cucumber to drain for an hour or two.

Meanwhile, make the dressing. Stir together sour cream, dill, sugar, and vinegar. Refrigerate dressing until you're ready to mix it with the cucumbers.

Once the cucumbers have drained, rinse them off to get rid of the salt and pat dry with paper towels. Gently toss the cucumber with the dressing and serve.