Cucumber Slices Like My Mom Used to Make Them

We grew up on a small farm in western Iowa. Each year we planted plenty of tomatoes, beans, peas, sweet corn, cabbage, cucumbers, carrots. The potatoes were in a larger area in the nearby field. By fall the cellar would be full of canned vegetables while a large wood bin held the potato crop.

One of my favorite garden foods (along with fresh sliced tomatoes with sugar sprinkled on top) was cucumber slices in vinegar. Oh, Yum!

Today I picked a handful of cukes and sliced them for this delicious treat. If you'd like to try them, here's a simple dish. You will want 2 to 3 medium cucumbers. (I used about five smaller ones.)

First, wash the cukes. Then peel with a parer that peels paper-thin. (If your cucumbers are too mature, they will be seedy. Small immature seeds are okay. The older ones are hard and you will want to remove the seedy core and just slice the leftover flesh. But if the seeds are still tiny and chewable, leave them.)

Slice the cukes thinly and sprinkle with salt. No water. Just sprinkle with salt. About 2 tablespoons or more. Mix the salt in so the salt is dispersed throughout the slices. Let sit for an hour or so while the salt causes the slices to wilt down a bit. They will become juicy.

After an hour, rinse thoroughly to remove as much salt as possible. They will still retain a bit of salty flavor but you do want to rinse them to remove the excess salt.

At this point add a small amount of thinly sliced onions.

Then add the following mixture:

1/4 cup vinegar (I used cider vinegar)
1/4 cup water
1 tablespoon of sugar
1/2 teaspoon dried dill weed
1/4 teaspoon pepper.

Mix together. This does not seem like enough liquid for the cucumbers but they will juice up a bit overnight. Put them in the fridge overnight to let the flavors blend. (If you really do need more liquid, just increase the amounts a bit.)

By the way, I love these old pyrex bowls with glass lids. They are perfect for storage in the fridge and I much prefer them to plastic ware.

Today's scripture for your reflection is James 1:17 where James writes this... "Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows."