Throwing a Little Something Together...

     I've got friends who have an obsessive desire to follow recipes exactly.  I used to be this person.  It's what you do when you're first learning how to cook.  But I think it makes you afraid a little.  Afraid you might mess something up.  You know what?  You almost never do and a lot of times what you come up with is better than what the Internet says, especially one of those recipes from TV, blerg.  AND most of the time the recipe has got one or twelve things you don't have sitting in your fridge at the moment.  So let's talk about what is in your fridge.  At any moment I have every ingredient necessary for a good soup, Italian anything, stir-fry, and hummus.  Always have the ingredients for hummus.  All you need for hummus is any bean variety, oil, garlic, and salt.  All you need for soup is a can or two of tomatoes and a variety of vegetables, and sometimes you can pull it off without the tomatoes!  Italian needs tomatoes, basil and garlic.  Mushrooms are good, other herbs, or onions, but really all you need are tomatoes, basil, and garlic.  Let's get to that stir-fry now.

I started on this because I had some peanut sauce from the Farmer's Market calling my name all week.  I also had purple cauliflower, red cabbage, carrots, a squash from my garden, oyster mushrooms, a white bell pepper, half an onion, and some garlic.  Sounds like stir-fry to me.  Does it matter what color your vegetables are?  Nope.  Do you need all those vegetables to make a stir-fry?  Nope, though it does help to feed a larger group to have a variety if you only have small quantities of each like I had.  Do you have to have fancy soba noodles like I did?  Not even.  I wasn't even thinking of noodles when I realized I had the makings for stir-fry.  I was going to do rice first, but realized I hadn't left enough time to pull it off, so noodles it was!  What I'm trying to say here is relax.  Take a deep breath.  It's just one dinner.  You can do it.  If all else fails, there's always peanut butter or grilled cheese, or whatever sandwich combination your family is allowed to eat in this day of allergens and intolerances.

The biggest thing to remember when doing a stir-fry for a family is not to cook everything in the same pan unless you have a huge pan.  I like my stir-fry veggies warmed and nearly raw, cooking everything in the same pan tends to steam everything and take forever so you're left with a long cook time and mushy veg.

Refrigerator Clean-Out Stir Fry
Serves 4

3 large carrots, sliced
1/2 large onion, sliced
2 large garlic cloves, thinly sliced
1/2 medium cabbage, sliced
1 large or 2 small yellow squash, sliced
1/2 lb oyster mushrooms, chopped
1/2 cup cauliflower florets
1 bell pepper, sliced
2 green onions, sliced
1 Tbs sesame seeds
1 bunch of soba noodles, boiled and drained
1 tsp high heat oil
1 Tbs peanut sauce, soy sauce, or tamari sauce

On medium/high heat, cook onions first in a small amount of oil until they have softened slightly, then set them aside, then carrots cooked until slightly soft and set aside, continue cooking vegetables one at a time until all are cooked, excluding the green onions and sesame seeds, mushrooms and garlic can go in together.  Mix all the veggies together.  Plate noodles and top with cooked veggies, finish with the sauce of your choice.

Now, go to your fridge and start experimenting!!  Here's a few more ideas to get you started:
Chicken, pork, or tofu, eggplant, peas, bok choi, broccoli, any color of bell pepper, zucchini, green beans, water chestnuts, baby corn, bamboo shoots.

Breakfast, The Most Important Meal of the Day...

I found garlic scapes at my farmer's market again this weekend.  Happiness ensued.  Last night we had them steamed with asparagus and the boys had broiled salmon with blueberry mango chutney because hello.  As I was feasting on the garlic scapes, it occurred to me how good they would be with eggs.  Fortunately, I had enough left over this morning to test my theory and oh, how correct I was.

 This breakfast was crazy fast to make, one of my biggest requirements for breakfast.  Ok, maybe the only requirement.  Sometimes I eat a handful of walnuts and an apple for breakfast because that level of speed is necessary.  Sometimes it's a banana and a piping hot lung full of exhaust from the vehicle in front of me.

The other day I was late for the dentist because I was photographing ducks on my carport.

That was a banana and exhaust morning.

Fortunately, I had a few minutes today...

Soft Boiled Egg
1-4 eggs
4-8 C water

Cover eggs with water in a medium sauce pan.  Bring water to a boil, and turn the water off.  Cover the pot with a tight fitting lid and set your timer for 3 minutes (if you want a runnier yolk) 5 minutes (if you want a more cooked yolk, like this one).

Steamed Garlic Scapes
3 Garlic Scape Spears per person
3 C water

Place your steamer insert into a large pot.  Add water until it is just below the surface of the steamer bottom (no water should touch the vegetables).  Break the stems of the scapes as you would asparagus to get rid of any woody parts.  Rise, and place in steamer.  Bring water to a boil and turn down.  Let scapes steam for 5-10 minutes depending on how soft you like your scapes.  These were steamed about 7 minutes.  The more you cook scapes, the less garlic flavor is left.  These had a nice, light garlic flavor without being overpowering and complemented the egg really well.

Review:
This was a perfect light breakfast.  I am basking in the woodnymphian glow of garlic scape season as the garlic-scented cloud that seeps from my pores will attest.  I regret nothing.

Spring Pizza and Some Other Stuff...

This recipe is coming.  Be patient....

     Usually when I come back from a trip I sigh, clasp my hands under my chin, and bat my eyes about what a wondrous culinary adventure I had and regale you with tales of my perfect family's perfect vacation.  Lemme tell ya.  This ain't gunna be one of those posts.  My son is going through an unusual developmental thing right now that, in an effort to afford him some privacy when he is old enough to read this blog I won't go into detail on, but I will say it made mealtimes challenging.  Couple that with a limited resort menu and a limited restaurant selection and I ended up having one good meal on the island.  

     This was it.  I was so desperate for something edible I didn't even stop to take a picture beforehand.  It was the gnocchi at a place in Koloa called Pizzetta.  Get it.  And get the tiramisu.  Holy crud.

     Got back home, discovered a week's worth of mail had been stolen, and on top of that someone had been writing (and cleared) a couple checks.  So we've been in a whirlwind of account closures, police reports, and general feelings of violation for the past week.

     Top that with my husband's surgery on Tuesday that both of us were expecting to be more on the "not-terribly-extreme" end, and ended up being on the "much-more-than-we-bargained-for" end and I'm completely drained.

     This isn't a "poor me I can't do my blog" post.  It's a "WT actual F?!" post.

But to be fair we did have a really great time, even if it wasn't culinarily mind blowing.

Did I find a recipe to make again (better) at home?

 Yes.

Eat totally worth it $12 chocolate made on Kauai?

 Yeah, man!

Sample a weird fruit we weren't sure how to eat?

Yes. (It's a cream apple.  Next time we won't try to eat it w/o utensils....)

Did I get to eat my first manapua?

Yes.  This is purple sweet potato.  It was a really good dessert.

Visit a Taro Chip factory?

 Yes.  This is it.  The factory.  It's awesome.

Yes.  Four different varieties of chips, taro, purple sweet potato, and potato and purple sweet potato with li hing mui powder.

Yes.

And Oooooooh yes.  We loved all the flavors, but finally decided on two.  We paid the weathered little man, and as he was bagging them up, he stuck the other two varieties in the bag and said, "For you!"  If you are ever in Hanapepe (the town that Disney used as a model for the town in Lilo and Stitch) you have got to go by the chip factory.

Did we find what my husband called the best textured shave ice he's ever eaten?

Yes. (From Wishing Well Shave Ice in Hanalae).

Did we rent a convertible?

Hail to the yes.  And we got it stuck in the sand because we're not used to driving two wheel drive cars...  Oops.  Fortunately a couple of locals took pity on us and helped us shove it out of the hole we dug ourselves into.

Did we see this?

Yes.

Did we see a bunch of touristy stuff?

Yes. (Wimea Canyon)

 Yes. (Spouting Horn)

 Yes. (Kilauea Lighthouse)

And yes. (Hanapepe Swinging Bridge)

Did we see a bunch of not so touristy stuff?

 Yes. (Talk Story Bookstore mural in Hanapepe)

Yes. (Gorgeous smelling barbecue on Poipu beach.  Dude came up a little later and chopped actual logs to feed the fire in this little thing.  No sissy lighter fluid filled briquets for kama'aina!)

 Yes.  (The Menehune Ditch, built to bring water from the mountains down to the fields at the base of the mountain.  Legend says the Menehune built it.  They are mythical men who helped the ancient Hawaiians build lots of things.  They seemed to have been especially active on Kauai.)

Double yes.

Would I do it all again?  Oh heck yes.

Would I skip all the returning home drama?

Yes.

When we got home it was Easter and we spent the day with some friends.  This was my lunch contribution:

What says Spring more than eggs, asparagus, and ramps?
  This is asparagus pesto on a pizza crust baked with ramps and topped with a fried egg, thyme and a mild chevre.

We also made these.  Avocado, asparagus pesto, cumin, dill, goat cheese deviled eggs.
  I'm unclear as to whether we had started drinking yet at this phase.  They were... interesting...  Make the pizza.  Maybe skip the deviled eggs.

These are ramps by the way.  I extolled the virtues of ramps last year.  They are a wild leek native to the Eastern states.  I may or may not have tried to transplant a few into my back yard.  (Shhhh...)

I just realized that this is basically the same recipe I wrote last year.  Doesn't matter.  This time there's pizza crust and pesto.  I used the asparagus pesto recipe from Food and Wine.

Asparagus Pesto Pizza with Ramps and Eggs

1 batch of pizza dough

1/4-1/2 C Asparagus Pesto

4-5 ramps

1-4 eggs

1 Tbs goat cheese (for sprinkling)

1 tsp fresh thyme leaves

butter

Depending on the size of your pizza, you will need differing quantities of the ingredients.  The smallest amount is for a personal size, the largest amount works for a large, four adult size pizza.  Bake your pizza dough according to recipe directions.  I like to do mine at 500 on a pizza stone.  Bake until slightly browned, but not completely finished.  Your crust might puff up in the center like a balloon, that's perfectly fine, just push it down flat when you take it out of the oven.  Remove from oven, and top with pesto and ramps.  Cook a few more minutes until ramps have wilted.  In the mean time, fry your eggs in the butter until they have reached your perfect consistency.  I like sunny side up for this, but hard boiled would probably be great, too.  When ramps have wilted, remove pizza from oven, top with eggs and sprinkle with goat cheese and thyme.  

Notes:

When I made this at my friend's house, I baked the eggs on top of the pizza.  That worked OK but it was hard for me to tell the eggs doneness so they ended up being over-baked.  It's just as fast and a little easier to run quality control if you fry the egg separately.

If you can't find ramps, or want to try this when their short season is over, you can sub green onions, garlic, or thin slices of leek.

Review:
The adults loved it and the kids were happy with their regular old pepperoni.

PS, On a quasi food-related Hawai'i note, we don't have cable so the only time my kids get to see it is when we're on vacation.  My 6-year old's new favorite tv show?  Diner's Drive-Ins and Dives.  "I like that guy.  He's funny.  He looks like he's about to cry all the time."  He also said, "I can feel in my mind what the food would feel like."  So there you go, Guy Fieri's target audience: 6 year old boys on vacation.

Mexicanesque Corn

     I know it's not completely seasonal, but if you've got a bit of corn in your freezer right now this is just the thing to do with it.  Especially if you like a nice burrito every now and then!  My kids like a nice burrito three times a week at least.  This corn makes a nice side or filler.  I'm not sure if much of the food we eat in the states really qualifies as authentic Mexican but this goes with burritos, so I'm calling it "Mexicanesque."  This is so quick to put together, if you're a quick chopper, you could have this on your plate in 15 minutes. 

Mexicanesque Corn
1 tsp olive oil
1 C chopped mushrooms
3/4 C chopped onion
2 Tbs diced jalapeño
1 Tbs minced garlic
1 lb frozen or fresh corn
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
1/4 C fresh cilantro, minced

Heat oil in a large skillet and add mushrooms and onion.  Cook until onion has begun to brown and mushrooms are soft.  Add jalapeño and garlic and cook about 20 seconds until garlic has released its fragrance.  Add corn.  Cook until corn has warmed up.  If a few kernels begin to brown, all the better!  Season with salt and pepper and remove from heat.  Stir in cilantro just before serving.

Review:

This one was a hit with everyone for once!  Add a little more jalapeño or cilantro as you see fit!

Love Muffins...

     I never buy strawberries this time of year.  They're gross, flavorless, and grown in another country.  However, the other day I was at a store and saw a beautiful display of berries.  They smelled so good.  They called to me in their foreign accents.  They promised sweet kisses and healthy indulgence.  When I got them home and washed them off what they actually delivered was a tender mixture of almost bad and not quite ripe.  I'm not sure how that's even possible.  One of my kids said they tasted like oranges the other said they tasted like nothing, but the overall impression was that they had lied to me the way most off-season produce does: Enormous, Cosmic Promises, itty-bitty return on investment.

     Fortunately, I know what to do with lying fruit: give it a little sugar.  These muffins are a great addition to breakfast for your sugar on Valentine's day, too!

Strawberry Orange Muffins

3-4 C cubed strawberries
1/2 C sugar
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1 C white flour
1/2 C wheat flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 C sugar
1 egg
1/4 C oil
zest of one orange

Coat the cubed strawberries with the sugar and cinnamon and let sit for 1-8 hours.  Preheat oven to 350° and line about 16 cupcake tins with paper liners.  Combine flours, baking powder and sugar.  Add egg, oil, strawberry mixture (including any liquid that has released) and zest.  Stir till well combined.  Portion out into cups and bake for about 18 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.

Review:

These are so simple to make, you can whip them up for your Valentine in no time.  The orange really accents the strawberry well.  I like them warm or cold and so does my family!

Single Serving...

     I have gotten several e-mails over the years from readers who are in the same boat I am: the only vegetarian in the raft.  A lot of times we end up either making an entire vegetarian meal or falling back on store-bought entrees so we're not making two entire meals at the same time.  It can be daunting.

     A few of years ago, when I started getting concerned about GMO's, I also read an article condemning the extraction process in most soy products as a cancer-causing air pollutant (The Cornucopia Institute).  And when I started participating in October Unprocessed I cut nearly all pre-processed soy products completely.  Sometimes I'll have a Boca at a restaurant if I can't get anything else, but I haven't bought a box of soy burgers in years.  Soy lecithin is harder to avoid, that stuff's in everything, but I do what I can.  What that translates to in the kitchen is lots of beans.  Beans!  Beans for everyone!  Whee!  At this moment, I've got at least three different kinds of lentils in my pantry, and I don't even want to hazard a guess as to how many other bean varieties I've got hanging around in there.  Even with a pressure cooker, beans take time and honestly, every now and then I'd like a good burger with everybody else.

     This lead me on my quest to find a good homemade veggie burger recipe.  There are lots of recipes out there.  The problem is they usually make, like, 47 burgers, they're bland and mooshy, and between all the shredding and boiling and resting they take forever.  I wanted something that I could make quickly, didn't require pre-cooking, and didn't taste like a soggy pile of oatmeal and beans.

     So, I came up with my own recipe one night because I was desperate.  And you know what?  It's pretty darn good!  The best part is I can make one large patty or two medium ones and cook it in the time it takes for my family's burgers to fry in a pan.  This makes more of a "batter" than a "patty" so it's not one to make on the grill, but I bet it bakes up pretty well if you're in the mood for that.  The one caveat for this recipe is that I've got a small food chopper style food processor.  I'm not sure how well this would work with a larger processor.

Single-Serving Mushroom Burger

8 button mushrooms, quartered (about 4 ounces)
1/4 C onion (1 oz)
2 small garlic cloves
1 handful organic low salt blue corn chips (1 oz)
1 tsp oil
1 egg
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper

Opt:
fresh herbs like thyme or finely chopped rosemary
sub the button mushrooms for the same amount of crimini mushrooms

In a small food processor, chop the corn chips until a fine meal forms.  (Or, leave bigger chunks if you like a little crunch in your burger.  I like it both ways.)  Pour chip crumbs out and reserve.  Put mushrooms, onion, and garlic in the processor and grind until finely chopped.  Add egg, oil, salt and pepper and herbs if desired.  Process until well combined and veggies are pureed well.  Pour chip crumbs in and process until combined.  Pour as much of the mixture as you need into a frying pan and fry in a pan with a little bit of oil for 5-10 minutes.

Notes:

Make this vegan by substituting 2 Tbs chia seed ground and mixed with 1/4 C water.  It makes more of a patty, but it does change the flavor.  I suggest adding a teaspoon of fresh thyme, or 1/2 tsp finely chopped fresh rosemary.

If you are one of the lucky families out there who raises their own chickens or has access to various size eggs, a smaller egg is better in this than a larger one.  If all you can get are the XL eggs in the grocery, they will definitely work, it will just make a larger portion.

If you have extra, I've got a recipe coming for that very soon.

Review:

This little patty is so good, my kids actually begged me to have the one I made for these pictures for dinner!  I don't love the vegan version as much, but it's definitely edible and still much better than most.

A Very Vegetarian Thanksgiving...

     So you guys know I totally love me some Thanksgiving sides, but I realized I haven't posted any main dishes for vegetarians, so I thought I'd do one up.  And then I decided to do a couple more sides.  Because whatevah, I do what I want.  For those of you with ovens full of turkey, this vegan bean dish is perfect for the slow cooker!

Slow Cooker Herbed White Beans

1.25 lbs bag of Emergo (aka white runner) beans, pre-soaked, other options are cannellini, navy beans*
6 C water
1 tsp butter
1/2 C chopped scallion
2 cloves garlic, pressed
1 3-inch sprig rosemary
3 2-inch sprigs thyme
6 leaves fresh sage
2 tsp.salt
pepper

Quick-soak the beans in salted water by bringing them to a boil, turning the heat off, and letting them sit for an hour.  Drain.  Melt butter in a pan and cook scallion till soft.  Press in garlic and cook till fragrant.  Pour beans into crock pot, add water and salt, stir, then add the rest of the ingredients.  Cook for 8 hours.  (Cooking time/water ratio may vary with different beans)

*If you decide to sub another kind of bean, be cautious using kidney beans in a crock pot, they can make you very sick if they are under cooked.  Using a modified quick-soak method on red kidney beans is the ideal way to make sure you have removed the poison, making sure you boil them for 10 minutes before leaving them to soak.

Roast Green Beans with Balsamic Thyme Reduction
Yield: 6-8 small servings

2 lbs fresh green beans, stems and strings removed
1 Tbs sea salt
1/2 C balsamic vinegar
2 sprigs thyme
1/2 tsp honey (optional)
1/2 C raw pecans

Preheat oven to 350°.  Rinse greenbeans and drain slightly spread them in a single layer on a baking sheet.  Sprinkle with salt.  Bake greenbeans for 10-15 minutes until beans are tender, but not too browned.  Timing may vary depending on how wet they are when they go in.   On a smaller separate tray, spread a layer of pecans and bake for 2-3 minutes until roasted.  They will burn easily so keep an eye out!   In a small pan, add vinegar and thyme and heat balsamic until it boils.  Stirring constantly, to keep from burning, boil vinegar until it thickens and becomes syrupy.  It doesn't take long.  Sweeten with honey if you'd like.  Pour reduction over beans and stir to combine.  Sprinkle with pecans.

     Most people know how to make mashed potatoes and there are tons of recipes and discussions on the best potato type out there so I won't bother.  Instead I will give you a good ratio for making as many mashed potatoes as you need no matter how large your guest list.  Incidentally, this ratio applies for mashed cauliflower, turnips, rutabagas, or even sweet potatoes.  Mix it up a little this Thanksgiving!

Ratio Mashed Potatoes:
1/2 lb potatoes per guest
3 Tbs milk per 1/2 lb*
1 tsp butter per 1/2 lb
2 tsp sour cream per 1/2 lb (or plain yogurt)
1/4 tsp salt per 1/2 lb
1/8 tsp pepper per 1/2 lb
chives, parsley, thyme, or rosemary as garnish
*liquid ratio may vary depending on potato type

Peel, cube, and boil potatoes until tender.  The smaller the cubes, the faster this will happen.  Drain.  Mash with a potato masher or use a ricer.  Stir in milk, butter, sour cream, salt, and pepper.  Taste for any adjustment.  Top with garnish when serving.

I hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving!  I'll keep you posted on my heritage bird adventure!

20-Minute Dinner...

     Spring seedlings are issuing forth their delicious and copious bounties.  The end of Summer is fast approaching but while the mid-afternoon heat still swells, I find it necessary to invent recipes that take very little time cooking.

     For dinner a few nights ago, I broiled golden tomatoes, eggplant, garlic, mushrooms and various herbs to make an interesting topping for potatoes, rice, pasta, or quinoa.  Not quite a sauce, I'm sure there's some sort of fancy chef word for what this is.  I think I will probably just call it Broiled Veggies with Boiled Potatoes.

Broiled Veggies with Boiled Potatoes
Yield: 4 servings
1/2 pound ozette or similar, small potato
8oz Eggplant, sliced paper thin with a mandoline
1/4 C Flour
1/4 tsp Black pepper
1/2 tsp Salt
12 oz Tomatoes, sliced 1/4 inch thick
2 oz fresh Oyster Mushrooms, sliced thinly with a knife
2 oz Onion (1 med), sliced paper thin with a mandoline
4 cloves Garlic, pressed
1 tsp fresh Thyme leaves
1 drizzle Extra virgin olive oil
Salt and Pepper to taste
1 Tbs chopped fresh Basil 

Cut potatoes into bite size pieces and set to boiling in a pot on the stove.  In a ziplock bag or medium size bowl, add flour, pepper, and salt and stir to combine.  Add eggplant and toss until coated.  Line a baking sheet with parchment or foil and turn the broiler on.  Spread the eggplant out in a single layer and broil for 5 minutes.  Add onion to the baking sheet in a thin layer over the eggplant.  Broil for 3 minutes.  Then add a layer of mushrooms, crush garlic cloves on top, and broil for 2 minutes.  Next add tomato and thyme and broil for a final 5 minutes.  When the veggies are done broiling, the eggplant that wasn't covered with tomatoes will be a little crispy, the mushrooms will be soft, and the tomatoes will be slightly browned.  Remove from oven.  Check the potatoes for doneness.  When they are done, drizzle veggies lightly with olive oil and season.  Serve potatoes covered with veggies, sprinkle fresh basil immediately before serving.

Review:
We've had this twice now and even the boys love it!  You could add some lentils for a little protein and maybe a little feta cheese if you want.

Fire Revisited...

When last we met, I had just discovered the joys of outdoor cooking in foil and had made the determination to try cooking on a grate.  That's right.  My new favorite way to cook is the oldest method on the planet.  The fires my husband builds tend to burn fast and hot so I decided fish might be the best option for a first try.  I found a beautiful packet of halibut at the farmer's market.

I brushed it liberally with olive oil, dusted with a little salt and pepper, and put it just off to the side of the highest part of the flames.  It took about 15 minutes or so for the fish to cook to opaque.

 While we waited, we relaxed a little

and had a little water.

 And soon it was ready!  Even the boys liked it!

I made a super quick Caprese salad to go with it.  

Caprese Salad

2 beautiful in-season tomatoes

1 6-8 oz block of fresh mozzarella

3 Tbs olive oil

1 Tbs balsamic vinegar

1/2 lemon, juiced

1 Tbs diced fresh basil

Salt and pepper to taste

Ordinarily, I make this salad all pretty with slices of tomato alternating with slices of cheese, but since we were eating outside on paper plates, I decided to make it a little easier and just cut everything into bite size pieces.   So, either slice tomatoes and cheese and arrange on a platter in an alternating circle or cut into bite size pieces and chuck 'em into a bowl.  Whisk together oil, vinegar, lemon, and salt and pepper and pour it over the tomatoes and cheese.  Top with basil.  Revel in the deliciousness.  

Review:

I ate my salad with a frozen veggie patty slathered in pickled figs.  Sounds weird.  Wasn't.  :)  Apparently the salad was great with the fish, too!

What to Eat When it's Too Hot to Think...

     Summer came right on schedule here to the Pacific Northwest which really never happens.  It's blasting its way through the entire West coast actually, with record high temps everywhere.  Summer in my house means reviving the ritual fan dance twice a day.  In the morning, the moment the house is one degree cooler than the outside, we turn the fans in all the windows to face out, and in the evening, as soon as it's cooler outside, we flip em' around.  And we turn on our thoroughly ineffective wall-unit air conditioner in the vain hope that throwing money and electricity at the situation will improve it somewhat. The end result is that by dinnertime there's no way in Jose's Purple Jumpsuit that I am going to prepare anything involving heat inside my house.  And that is where this salad comes in...

     Cold cucumbers and wet, juicy watermelon are just the ticket during the hottest days of Summer.  I top them with an herbed yogurt dressing for a lovely side dish or a nice, cool lunch.

Watermelon Cucumber Salad with Herbed Yogurt Dressing
1/2 small seedless watermelon (about the size of a cantaloupe)
1 cucumber
2 Tbs plain yogurt
1 tsp ea. chopped Mint, Thai basil flours, and Dill
Salt, optional

Peel the cucumber and slice it with a mandolin.  Slice the watermelon as thinly as you can and cut off the peel.  Cut into wedges.  Combine the yogurt, herbs, and optional salt and toss into the cucumbers and melons.  Serve immediately.

Note:

I listed the salt as optional since a little goes a long way in this.  Some people don't like salt on watermelon, so it's up to you!

Review: 

The mint, yogurt, cucumber, and dill are cooling, while the slight licorice flavor of the Thai basil adds a soothing note.  The kids thought it was all weird and wanted the cucumber and melon plain (and separate), but the adults loved it and I suspect I will be making this many more times this year.