Clean Up on Aisle Three

Once again I find that I have several items that seem to bear little resemblance to one another, and yet they each begged to be blogged. Well, who am I to disagree?

First up, a Pennsylvania Dutch favorite: marinated cucumber and onion salad.

The ingredients are

cucumbers

red onion

white vinegar

sugar

pinch salt

pinch black pepper

I peeled and thinly sliced the baby cucumbers for the salad.






Before slicing some red onion.



Then the vinegar, sugar, salt and black pepper were added until the desired taste profile was achieved. This is easy if you consider this to be a fresh pickle solution.




Next up are BBQ Bacon Krab Bites.



For those of you who have been following this blog, you may recall that I am allergic to chicken. This is not the only food allergy that I must deal with as my niece is allergic to peanuts and tree nuts and my daughter's best friend is allergic to turkey.

Now I must also deal with the Foodie Daughter's boyfriend's shrimp allergy. It is so severe that we have banned him from feeding the fish as the fish food has shrimp meal in it and he has reacted from handling fish food in the past. The odd thing is that one of his brothers is allergic to crab while another is allergic to lobster. I have told him that I will not feed him any shell fish, just to be on the safe side.



However, krab, or surimi should be safe for the Foodie Daughter's boyfriend.

Be sure to check the ingredient list as different brands often do add crab, shrimp and/or lobster to the mix.


I had an idea for an appetizer using a safe surimi, based on something I had found at a Chinese restaurant. However, I decided to serve the surimi cold rather than warm.

The initial ingredients are

surimi
fully cooked bacon
barbecue sauce
sweet and sour sauce




First I sliced the surimi chunks into one-inch sections.


Then I sliced the fully cooked bacon in half length-wise.



I then carefully wrapped each surimi section with a piece of bacon and secured with a toothpick.



After some mixing and tasting, I expanded the ingredient list for the barbecue sauce for the krab bites. I added some honey as well as some orange juice to the mix. This all of course, was done to taste. Is there any other way?


And what can I say? This was an immediate hit and there were no leftovers to be found.




Minx, Minx, Minx. You really are a little rascal, aren't you?



Minx, I'm pretty sure that the fish don't want to play with you.















Why is there a coaster on my glass of ice tea?





Perhaps this might answer the question?

Minx! Kitties don't drink ice tea!





Minx, you're not old enough to drink wine, you silly kitty.

Salad and a Sandwich

Perhaps this is just proof that I am more than a bit weird, but one of my favorite dishes when I was growing up was Marinated Cucumber and Onion Salad. Well, come along and see...

Here we have the remaining cucumber from the Gypsy Bacon from the other day and some red onion. My childhood rendition of this recipe calls for white distilled vinegar, but I chose to use reduced sodium rice vinegar for today's version. Also needed are sugar, salt and black pepper.

The classic recipe for the marinade calls for a one-to-one ratio of sugar and vinegar, with a pinch of salt and black pepper.

I peeled the waxy skin from the cucumber before slicing and then sliced about half as much red onion which I then separated in to rings.

Then it's a simple matter of mixing and tossing before refrigerating for at least two hours before serving.

It really is too bad that I am the only one in my family who likes this dish. Really, it is.

A twist on an American favorite. Guess I was feeling a bit international today...

Today I was struck with the odd desire to make my own Croque Monsieur. As I really wasn't feeling like making or eating a cream sauce, I chose a simpler recipe. But alas, my inability to follow a recipe came into play, so I ended up blending two different recipes. First, I started with Chef Jill Davie's recipe, but then I veered off the beaten path and added a bit of Paula (I love butter) Deen's recipe for Croque Madame (minus the egg). And just in case you didn't catch the distinction, a Croque madame is just a Croque monsieur with an egg added to the sandwich.

Unfortunately, I do not currently have any Gruyere cheese on hand, so I made do with my baby Swiss cheese. I did pull out some creamy horseradish that I added to the mayonnaise.

First, butter (or margarine?) one side each of two slices of bread. Lay the buttered side down in a preheated skillet. Spread mayonnaise and horseradish on the other side. Lay out a bit of the Swiss cheese.

Layer with thinly sliced deli ham and top with more Swiss cheese.

Spread mayonnaise on the other side of the other slice of bread and place, buttered side up on top of the sandwich. Cook until the bottom is nicely browned and flip.

Once both sides have browned and the cheese is melted, take off the heat and slice, if desired.

And yes, I do realize that this is just a fancy grilled cheese sandwich, but what else do you expect from those wild and crazy French people? Just in case you were wondering, it was good. Next time I might even decide to make a nice creamy sauce to go with this.