My Hang Up Means Simple Summer Ideas, What's Yours?

We all have our strange food hang ups. Crazy as they may seem to others, we take them seriously. One of mine is seeds in large veggies, especially cucumbers and summer squash. As I like to say, I don't care for the large seeds or the yucky that surrounds them. Thankfully our farm animals aren't as fussy. There is always someone who appreciates the daily toss over the deck. In fact, on any given day someone is always hanging out there hoping for a treat.

Because of this hang up, my main way to still use these overly large vegetables is to hollow them out and stuff them with something. Today, it was a couple large pickling cucumbers. To me, when they present themselves, my favorite way is to stuff with some sort of salad. Shrimp is today's choice, but don't count out tuna, lobster, chicken, or any favorite salad you prefer. (I do not care for egg salad in them, however)

My tip for stuffing these is to hollow them out ahead of time and refrigerate until ready to stuff. When you are ready, wipe them dry really well then stuff. These are best eaten right off or within several hours. If not eating right away refrigerate uncovered until you are.

I like to serve these with some type of cracker. No particular reason, I just do. Another idiosyncrasy? possibly.

My shrimp salad recipe today is as follows:

Combine in amounts of choice chopped

Shrimp (fresh cooked with lots of curry, lemon, celery, fresh Italian parsley and a bay leaf)

Sundried tomatoes (packed in oil)

Celery plus leaves

Shallots

Fresh herbs, basil, Italian parsley, Rosemary

Mayo or dressing of choice

As my previous post suggested, there is nothing like fresh herbs in the summer to jazz up and add color to your dishes. There is a general rule of thumb, however, and that is to use one TBSP of fresh herbs to one TEASPOON of dried.

Hoping you are all having a terrific summer.

Happy cooking and be safe!!