Summer Surplus Cooking

There comes a few times every summer when I have far more of something than I know what to do with.  Last year it was zucchini and we had some kind of zucchini as a side dish for every meal until I wanted to cry at the very sight of a zucchini growing on the plant.  This year strangely enough my zucchini has done nothing.  My squash plants are being very considerate and giving me the perfect about at decent intervals.  My cucumbers, however, did not get the memo.  Add in the fact that I'm really the only person in my house that likes cucumbers and every one else I know has more than enough of my own and I have far more than I know what to do with!

So I pulled out my copy of Favorite Recipes with Herbs which is a book I really should use more than I do.  This is a great book to have on hand if you have a garden and/or herb garden.

This time this recipe for Sweet and Sour Cucumbers saved the day:

3 medium cucumbers
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup cider vinegar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon coarsely ground black pepper
1 tablespoon minced parsley
1.  Peel cucumbers, and then score them lengthwise with a fork.  Slice very thin.  Put on paper towels and blot dry.
Mix together sugar, vinegar, water, salt, pepper, and parsley.  Add cucumbers and toss lightly.
Chill for several hours before serving.

I basically followed the recipe.  I cut it into thin disks and didn't worry too much about scoring it and I put the cucumber slices into a mason jar, mixed up everything else, poured it over the cucumbers.  Then I put the lid on and gave it a gentle shake and put it in the refrigerator.  It's been a great side dish with just the right amount of tang.  Plus it's pretty!

If you have a ton of cucumbers this is definitely worth trying!  It's super easy to make, easily doubled and tastes great with a full meal or a quick lunch.

Then came the peach orchard incident.  I'm very lucky that I live about 15 minutes away from two fantastic orchards.  And last week I visited both.  I had this dream of making peach preserves but it didn't quite happen which left with a pile of peaches that were heading past ripe faster than we could eat them.
So of course I headed over to Pinterest to see what peach deliciousness I could find.  First up was this recipe for Peach Drop Cookies from Bake or Break.  I was a little surprised that you diced in the peaches and added them into the dough but these turned out SO good!  They're light with a really nice cake-y texture and just the right amount of juicy peachness.  I ended up using 1/2 peach preserves and 1/2 apricot preserves because I ran out of peach and it worked really well.

I'm linking up with Weekend Cooking hosted by Beth Fish Reads