Cucumber Salad Recipe

I've never pretended to understand grocery store prices, especially prices in the produce department. Take yesterday.  I was shopping for salad ingredients and came across cucumbers for 38 cents each.  In January.  In winter!  Now, one might think that local cucumbers would be cheap during the growing season (in my part of the country that means summer) but I can't remember paying less than 78 cents apiece for cucumbers last summer, and that would have been a sale price.  I blamed it on our extremely hot weather, but who knows.  Never dreamed I'd be buying cucumbers in January for just 38 cents each.

These are U.S. cucumbers, so if you're a cucumber farmer in whatever state grows cucumbers in December and January, I congratulate you on (apparently) having a great crop.  Now I can treat my husband to one of his favorite summer recipes, Cucumber Salad, in January. 

Chris's Cucumber Salad with Sour Cream and Dill

2 to 3 cucumbers, thinly sliced

1 small onion (red or yellow) thinly sliced and divided into rings

1/2 cup sour cream

2 tbsp white vinegar

1/2 tsp sugar

freshly ground pepper to taste

pinch of salt

1/2 tsp dried dill weed (or 1 tsp fresh dill, snipped)

Scrub the cucumbers; peel if you prefer or leave the peel on.  Slice very thin.  Slice onion very thin and divide into rings.  Whisk together sour cream, vinegar, sugar, pepper, salt, and dill.  Gently stir into cucumbers and onions in a bowl.  Serve well chilled. 

Need New Recipes for the New Year?

Meal planning can be a challenge and it's certainly easy to fall into a rut. That's why this year I'm going back to E-Mealz. In fact, I bought a gift subscription to E-Mealz for my daughter-in-law for Christmas and she's very excited about being able to easily plan her meals, quickly prepare her meals (she works long hours), and to save money with the grocery list provided with her menus and recipes for the week.

I've mentioned E-Mealz before as I used the service for several months last year. Due to "life" circumstances, I stopped my subscription for awhile, but I'm very happy to have it back. Since it's a paid service (you'll save the price of the service multiple times over on groceries, though) I can't share specific recipes with you, but I'll just tell you that for dinner today I'm having something different that is a true comfort food recipe and sounds delicious. I don't expect that we'll be disappointed, either. In fact, we loved almost every e-Mealz meal we had last year. We lost weight, too, as I was using the low carb meals for two plan. I was happy to see that there's now a new whole foods menu plan now, too.

You can see sample menus and check out all the plans on the E-Mealz website. The link is an affiliate link, but you will benefit far more than I do if you sign up.

Have you tried E-Mealz? I'd love to know which plan you use and how you like it!

Wordless Wednesday: Green Beans and Red Potatoes Recipe on a Greeting Card

Wordless Wednesday: Loco Moco Recipe on a Mug

Chilly Weather Cheeseburger Chowder

Found this recipe on my favorite email list, Recipe du Jour, submitted by a reader named Willie.  There are lots of variations of Cheeseburger Chowder online, none of which I've tried before, but the timing was perfect the day I saw this version.

Cheeseburger Chowder, or any soup as far as I'm concerned, is perfect on a chilly day, and on the day I made this the colorful fall leaves were flying and it was definitely chilly, bordering on downright cold! 

Willie's Chilly Weather Cheeseburger Chowder

2 lbs Ground Beef

1/2 cup celery chopped

1 green pepper chopped

1 onion chopped

4 cups potatoes, diced

3 beef bouillon cubes

3 cups Water

6 tablespoons flour

4 cups milk

2 cups shredded cheddar cheese

Brown beef in a large soup pot. Drain off grease and add potatoes,

green peppers, onions, celery, bouillon cubes and water. Bring to a

boil then reduce heat and allow to simmer for 15 to 20 minutes. Whisk

flour into milk and then slowly mix into meat and veggies. Stir until

slightly thickened. Mix in cheese and stir until melted.  Makes a nice, big pot of soup. 

We added a bit of salt and pepper to taaste.  Serve your Chilly Weather Cheeseburger Chowder with something soothing and cool, like our family's 5-Cup Salad.  Yum!

P.S.  Willie, I tried to email you to ask permission to use your recipe, but the email bounced!


Photo copyright Susan Deppner and Recipes for Real People, all rights reserved

Sausage Potato Soup: This Time With Cabbage

Some time back I posted my Sausage Potato Soup recipe.  It's a simple but tasty main dish soup, very quick and easy to prepare, perfect for the fall weather we've been having.

When I first posted the recipe I commented that next time I'd try adding some cabbage if I had any on hand.  Well, a few days ago I made a pot of this yummy soup and I happened to have some coleslaw mix on hand, the green and red cabbage with carrot mixture in a package that's already shredded for you, and I remembered to add a couple of handfuls.  As I suspected, the soup turned out even better with that extra cabbage flavor.  It looked pretty, too, with a touch of purple cabbage and the shredded carrots adding a bit of color and leaving behind a touch of their sweet tastes as well.

Here's a picture that I remembered to take before the soup was gone.  Makes me hungry all over again just looking at it!

I hope you'll try the Sausage Potato Soup recipe both ways and let me know which way you prefer it, with or without the cabbage.  Enjoy it, whichever way you choose! 

Susan's Chicken Sesame Salad

Our family recently suffered a house fire in which we lost everything except our pets, our cars, and our lives.  Yes, it's sad to lose family pictures and keepsakes, but we are thankful for the circumstances - we were home and able to get the pets out - and the blessings we've experienced as a result.

But I lost all my cookbooks!  Thankfully (another blessing) many of our family recipes are here on this blog and easy to retrieve.  And my mother pointed out that a few of my recipes were printed in our local Friends of the Library cookbook several years ago, a copy of which I had sent to her.  Guess what.  She just sent that copy back to me, so now I have one to start my new cookbook collection!

In the back of the book Mom had jotted down several of the recipe names that she liked.  One of her notations said, "Susan's Salad."  When I turned to the page number she had noted, indeed there was a recipe with my name on it, but it was one I hadn't made in years and barely recognized.  I remember it, though, and know it was a good one.  I'm going to make it again soon.  Here's a copy of the recipe for you.

Susan's Chicken Sesame Salad

2 cups cooked chicken, cut into 1-inch pieces and chilled

1/8 tsp. ground ginger

1 medium head lettuce, torn in pieces

3 green onions, cut in 1 1/2-inch strips

2 medium tomatoes, cut in thin wedges

2 Tablespoons toaasted sesame seed

Oil and vinegar dressing (below)

Sprinkle chicken with ginger.  Toss gently with remaining ingredients.  Serve. 

Dressing: 

1 Tablespoon sugar

2 Tablespoons vinegar

1 Tablespoon vegetable oil

1 1/2 tsp. salt

1/2 tsp. pepper

Shake all ingredients in a tightly covered container.

I don't remember where this recipe came from the first time, but I won't forget where and how I got it back this time.  If you make it, I hope you'll leave a comment and let me know how you like it!

Easy Soup Recipe: Sausage Potato Soup

Looking for easy soup recipes?  This has to be one of the easiest ever.  I found it in a community cookbook and fixed it for the first time last week on one of those rainy, perfect-for-soup days.  Here's my version of the recipe with (believe it or not) a little more detail than there was in the original.

Easy Sausage Potato Soup Recipe

potatoes - as many as you want (I used three or four) 
onions - as many as you want (I used one)
a 1-pound roll of your favorite ground sausage
salt and pepper to taste

Scrub and roughly dice the potatoes (leave the peel on) and dice the onion.  Place in a dutch oven.  Add water to cover plus an inch or two more.  Bring to a soft boil.  Add pinches of the sausage to the soup.  Let simmer until potatoes are done.  Add salt and pepper to taste.  Serve.

That's all there is to it.  I simmered mine for about an hour.  Make more or less depending on your family size; the two of us ate this for two meals and it was quite delicious for being such a simple recipe.  Next time I'll add some cabbage if I have some. 

Really, it would be hard to find a soup recipe easier than this one.  If you have one, include it in a comment below!