Hungarian Sour Cream Cucumber Salad

We grew cucumbers! It only took two and a half months from seeds to cukes, but we did it!

Just before we harvested our first cukes from our Tower Garden, I asked friends on Facebook for their favorite recipes. My friend Brian suggested a sour cream cucumber salad and several friends backed that up. Apparently, this is a quintessential Southern summertime dish. While I have lived in Charlotte for the past 12 years and have also lived in Birmingham, Alabama, and Lexington, Kentucky, I had no idea! Definitely making this again!

XOXO,
Amy

PS: I added Hungarian to the name, because I saw other versions of this salad use that in the recipe phrase AND the hubby and I just visited -- and loved -- Budapest!

Hungarian Sour Cream Cucumber Salad
Inspired by Tasteofhome.com

1/2 cup sour cream (I use light)
3 tablespoons white vinegar
1 tablespoon white sugar
Ground pepper to taste
3-4 cucumbers, peeled (if desired) and thinly sliced
1 small sweet onion or 1/2 Vidalia onion, thinly sliced
Dill to taste

In a large bowl, whisk together the sour cream, vinegar, sugar and pepper. Add the cucumbers and onion, tossing to coat. Cover and refrigerate for at least four hours. Top with dill and serve.

Note: When preparing this for a dinner party Chez George, I forgot to read the recipe sufficiently in advance, so I didn't know about the fridge time. The salad was able to sit in the fridge for only about an hour. It still tasted good, but it was definitely better the next day. Sometimes things just have to marinate.

Here is my younger daughter Penny, who harvested our first cucumbers from our Tower Garden.

Bulgur Salad with Tomatoes and Cucumbers

Have you ever had bulgur wheat before? It's cracked, dried wheat, and it's really quite delicious. Bulgur wasn't something we grew up eating in my Swedish mother's kitchen. But when I married my hunky hubby (he would absolutely die if he knew I referred to him as that, by the way), I acquired a fabulous mother-in-law who's half Lebanese. She introduced me to the tantalizing flavors of Middle Eastern cuisine.

One of her (many!) specialties is Tabouleh, which features bulgur, parsley, and lemon. It's refreshing, healthy, and ridiculously delicious. I didn't have the inclination to chop up a bunch of parsley, so I decided to create another tasty side dish featuring this too-often-overlooked grain.

Bulgur is simple to prepare; it just needs a soak in some boiling water. So it can do its thing on the stove while you take care of the laundry situation lurking upstairs. (Or maybe it's just me who needs to deal with said situation.) And if it steams longer than 20 minutes? Eh. That's fine. I'm a fan of food that doesn't require constant babysitting. I've got a kid for that.

Speaking of kids...if yours are a bit weary of this new grain on the dinner table, you can tell them it tastes like couscous. I may or may not have convinced my toddler to eat a bowl by telling him it was couscous. (They're both made of wheat, so it didn't feel like an egregious lie, but I'm still having guilt about it, thank-you-very-much. Also, please note that my boy absolutely did NOT eat this salad...he prefers his bulgur—and everything—plain. Sigh.)

On that note...

Let's get cooking!

Bulgar Salad with Tomatoes and Cucumbers
Serves: 6-8 (as a side dish)
Inspired by Tabouleh and Amy's Tomato Avocado Quinoa Salad

1 cup water
1 cup chicken or vegetable broth (or substitute water)
1 cup bulgur
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 cup thin cucumber slices, quartered
1 cup quartered grape (or cherry) tomatoes
Salt and pepper

In a saucepan, bring water and broth to a boil. Stir in bulgur. Cover and allow bulgur to steam for about 20 minutes. Pretty much all of the liquid should be absorbed, but if there's a lot left, drain it off. Fluff bulgur with a fork. Set aside to cool to room temperature.

Once bulgur has cooled, stir in lemon juice, olive oil, cucumbers, and tomatoes. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Serve at room temperature or cool.

Double Blueberry Pie

Ever since I started sharing recipes with you, dear readers, friends and family are giving me cookbooks. Old ones, new ones — it doesn't matter. I love them all.

This blueberry pie combines recipes from two different Farm Journal cookbooks. One is borrowed from my neighbor Julie, who knew I would enjoy trying some simple down-home cooking. The other came from my mother-in-law and is filled with sweet and savory pie ideas.

These cookbooks are from 1977 and 1965, which makes them educational and fun to read. Like this comment on the pie: "We love the good berry taste." And it is so good.

This dessert comes together fast, especially if you cheat like I did and use a pre-made crust. I really just wanted to enjoy the berry filling as soon as possible.

Mangia! Mangia!
Andrea

Double Blueberry Pie
Inspired by Farm Journal

1/2 cup sugar (use 3/4 cup if you like a sweeter pie)
3 tablespoons cornstarch
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup water
4 cups blueberries
1 tablespoon butter
Juice and zest from 1 lemon
1 baked 9-inch pie crust (use freshly made or refrigerated dough or a frozen pie shell like Wholly Wholesome's Organic Whole Wheat frozen pie crust)

Combine sugar, cornstarch and salt in a small pan. Add water and 2 cups blueberries. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly until mixture comes to a boil. Continue cooking until blueberry mixture becomes thick.

Remove from heat and stir in butter, lemon juice and lemon zest. Set aside to cool.

Place remaining 2 cups blueberries in baked pie shell. Top with cooled blueberry mixture.

Chill in refrigerator at least 1 hour. Slice and serve with whipped cream.

Above, Farm Journal's Complete Pie Cookbook and Farm Journals's Best-Ever Recipes. You can access many original and new Farm Journal recipes at Anna's Country Kitchen.

Pomegranate Wine Spritz

Friday ended a loooooong week at work (but aren't they all?) and marked the end of summer as the kids head back to school today. To honor these events, on Friday evening, I made happy-hour-in-the-'hood drinks for me and my neighbor Judith. I guess you could say I was inspired by Andrea's Watermelon Raspberry Rum Punch.

Cheers, y'all!

XOXO,
Amy

Pomegranate Wine Spritz

POM Wonderful juice
Vodka
Sparkling white wine, chilled

Add one ounce of POM to each Champagne flute, followed by one ounce of vodka that you pulled from your freezer. (Tell me you DO store the vodka in the freezer.) Fill flutes the rest of the way with sparkling white wine. Stir gently; I used a chopstick.

If desired, pour some POM (just POM) in a shot glass for your 6YO so she can enjoy an end-of-summer "cocktail," too.

Summer Salad with Berry Vinaigrette

Here in the great Northwest, school doesn't start until September. It was the same when I was growing up in Buffalo. So I've been flabbergasted by all the back-to-school pictures plastered on my Facebook feed this week.

In my crazy brain it goes something like this, "These kids look so cute with their fresh haircuts and backpacks! Wait...backpacks. What? How are these children going back to school already?! It's mid-August! I'm not ready for school supplies! Or leaves falling! Or cold weather! It's practically Christmas. Oh, geez. And where's my snow brush. I should put that in the car..."

See the slippery slope to snow? Yeah. Not cool.

So I'm here to remind all of us that it's still summer. Hear that? IT'S STILL SUMMER! Eat the corn! And the ice cream cones! And the berries! Allllll the berries. We'll start with this glorious Summer Salad with Berry Vinaigrette. And we'd better make it quickly, before the snow gets here.

Let's get cooking!
Erin

Summer Salad with Berry Vinaigrette
Dressing adapted from Sally's Baking Addiction

For the Dressing*:
1 cup raspberries
1 cup sliced strawberries
1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
2 tablespoons Dijon mustard
2 tablespoons honey
1 teaspoon poppy seeds
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper

For the Salad:
8 ounces mixed greens
1/2 cup raspberries
1/2 cup sliced strawberries
1 cup blueberries
1/2 cup toasted pecans
3 ounces crumbled goat cheese

Using your food processor or blender, blend together all the dressing ingredients except for the poppy seeds. Once the dressing is smooth, stir in poppy seeds. Refrigerate until you're ready to serve.

Place greens in a large bowl and top with berries, pecans, and goat cheese. Drizzle with some of the dressing just before serving. You can serve extra dressing on the side.

*This recipe makes about 2 cups of dressing, which is probably more than you need for this amount of salad. But the dressing is so delicious you'll want to drizzle it on everything for the next few days! Just use what you need and keep the leftovers in the fridge.

Watermelon Raspberry Rum Punch

When you are a mom of school-age kids, the end of summer is bittersweet. The start of school means an end to constant sibling arguing (yay!) and a return to hectic days ruled by schedules, homework, sports practices and lunch making (boo.)

All of this is worth celebrating.

Enter the Watermelon Raspberry Rum Punch. This fruity and frothy cocktail goes down easy.

It's the perfect drink to sip by the pool with a few other mom friends as you savor those last few days of summer break — or to celebrate the first few days of school and (at least for me) a chance to reclaim the house.

Mangia! Mangia!
Andrea

Watermelon Raspberry Rum Punch 

6 cups seedless watermelon, cubed
1 pint ripe raspberries
Juice of 1 lemon (or about 2 tablespoons lemon juice)
1 cup light rum or lemon or citrus-flavored rum
1 to 2 tablespoons sugar or splenda (optional)

Place all ingredients in blender. Blend or pulse until smooth.

Pour through strainer. Serve over ice with a garnish of small watermelon slices or a few raspberries. Drink and enjoy with friends.

Blue Cheese Corn on the Cob

One summer, years ago, Jeff and I attended a party at a reporter friend's lake house. Our friend Dan could cook and grill as well as he could write. Now he owns his own barbecue catering company and he's written a cookbook or two. Dan, you are living the dream!

Anyhow, Dan made this blue cheese corn on the cob that I have literally (and I don't use that word lightly) been thinking about every summer since. He pulled back and tied the husk to form a handle and then he dipped each ear into a vat of melted butter and blue cheese and he grilled it until the kernels turned a nice caramel color. I believe he brushed more butter and cheese over the ears in the grilling process.

This past weekend, I came up with a less messy, indoor version of Dan's corn on the cob. It's also a little kinder on the arteries, but, man, was Dan's corn the best.

XOXO,
Amy

Blue Cheese Corn on the Cob

Corn on the cob, cleaned  and husked
Soft or melted butter
Salt
Pepper
Blue cheese crumbles, about 1 ounce per ear of corn

Preheat oven to 425 degrees.

Place ears of corn on cookie sheet.

Brush each ear with butter. (BTW, I just invested in a French-style butter crock that allows me to keep soft butter on the counter top instead of the fridge. Should have done this years ago. Love it.)

Salt and pepper each ear.

Bake for 20 minutes, turning halfway through.

After 20 minutes or when a few kernels have started to turn a nice caramel color, remove corn from oven and top with blue cheese. Return corn to oven and cook for 2-4 minutes or until cheese is melted and bubbly.

Note that some of the yummy cheese will have slid off the ears and onto the cookie sheet. It would be a sin to let that stuff go to waste. Roll the ears of corn over that goodness or take a knife and spread it onto the corn.

Eat immediately.