Cucumber Salad

This is the way my mother and her mother always made cucumber salad. Very simple to make and keeps for days.

1/2 cup water
1/2 cup white wine vinegar
1/2 cup sugar
1 tsp. salt
2 cucumbers

Mix together water, vinegar sugar and salt in a saucepan over medium heat. Stir until all of the sugar is dissolved.

Peel and seed the cucumbers. Slice thinly on a mandolin and add to vinegar/sugar mixture. Chill for at least 3 hours before serving.

Cesar Salad

What I Made: Tonight we had a classic Cesar salad for dinner. My husband, Richard, is the one who makes it according to a recipe he found, in a weekly sale flyer from the supermarket, years before I met him. To me it is the quintessential Cesar salad. Of course, it is almost the only Cesar salad I've ever eaten. Thanks to Richard, I've been spoiled for any other. And we don't add chicken or shrimp or steak either. Just the following:

1 tsp. minced garlic
1/4 to 1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1 egg yolk
1 tbsp. Grey Poupon Dijon mustard
2 tsp. Worchestershire sauce
1 can anchovy fillets packed in oil, partially drained and finely chopped
1/2 cup grated Parmigiano-Reggiano
1 or 2 hearts of romaine, sliced into bite-sized pieces
1 cup croutons

Mash the garlic around the sides of a large wooden salad bowl. Add the olive oil and lemon juice and whisk together until golden yellow. Whisk in the egg yolk then mustard, Worchestershire, anchovies and grated cheese. The dressing should be fairly thick, but still liquid. About the consistancy of blue cheese dressing. Add more olive oil if needed. Toss in the lettuce and croutons.Serves 2.

Review: Yes, it is a salad for dinner. No, it's not good for you. That's why I can never make it. If I did, I would ease up on the oil and the cheese and it wouldn't taste as good as it does when Richard makes it. My job is to wash and chop the lettuce and to mash the anchovies (Don't be afraid of the anchovies! Use the whole tin!) and to hold the egg seperater over the sink. Sooo tasty!