More Cucumbers

Since July 5, I’ve picked 17 cucumbers (or thereabouts – I may have lost count) from my one volunteer cucumber vine.  Five I’ve given away, and the rest I’ve eaten all by myself.  I adore cucumbers, but this is getting to be a bit much. 

Just some of the haul

Most I’ve just sliced into cuke sticks and eaten plain.  The few times I’ve actually had some tomatoes I’ve made greek salad (cucumbers, tomatoes, feta, and greek dressing).

Look, tomatoes!  From large to small: black from tula, maremmano, black cherry, sungold

Dinner

 Last week I decided I had time to make tzatziki.  I love this sauce, and it’s easy to make, but it does take some time (mostly waiting).  Strain the yogurt for an hour or two.  Peel, seed, and chop the cuke, and squeeze out the juice.  Mince garlic and mint.  Mix together.  Voila! (How do you say ‘there you have it!’ in Greek?)

When I stopped at the store to but the plain yogurt and pita chips, I was inspired to go the whole way and make gyros.  So I bought lamb and beef and flatbread, and came home to google gyro recipes.  I found this one from Alton Brown.  (I used half lamb and half beef instead of all lamb, because all lamb is a bit too much for me.)  I didn’t take a picture of the finished gyros, but here’s a leftover plate I made when I’d run out of pitas.

pita-less gyro

I definitely plan to make this again.