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A family friend gave me some vegetables from his garden. Yellow squash, zucchini, okra, and several cucumbers. I'm on vacation this week and have been staying at Qiao's house, so planned to cook them here.
Qiao bought a bunch of kitchen stuff after moving in, including pots and pans, plates and glasses, and sundries. He hardly ever cooks though, so it doesn't get much use. He mostly goes out to eat, or brings home take-out. I've used his stove only once or twice so far, for boiling noodles. It's a gas stove, which still makes me nervous (gas stoves spit out flames! fire hazard! gas hazard!). But mainly because it's easier to cook at my house (where I have all my supplies) and to bring food over, or to heat food up in his microwave or his toaster oven.
Yesterday I realized I needed a cutting board. The two smallish ones that Qiao has are wood, and were sitting behind the sink for a long time and got black mildew marks on the bottom from it being wet back there. At home I have a glass cutting board, which seems more sanitary. Yesterday I bought him a glass one like mine. I also brought over my garlic crusher, mandolin, and oil and vinegar.
At the grocery store, I bought fresh chives and dill for making a cucumber salad. Generally I slice the cucumbers, and add salt and vinegar, and sometimes dried dill and pepper or a bit of sugar. It never tastes as good as when my mom makes it, nor as good as the wonderful cucumber salad I remember from German restaurants (which tasted different from my mom's). So I hoped that adding fresh herbs would help. I figure that chives are sort of similar to onions in flavor; I don't care to cut up onions for a salad, but I can do chives.
When I look up German cucumber salad recipes, they almost always include sour cream. The ones I remember were not cream-based. They were zesty, light, and refreshing. I could eat a whole plateful if only they'd serve that much. My mom sometimes scrapes onion juice into hers; I think that is part of what makes hers special; she also sometimes adds garlic. But I tried before, and mine still didn't get that special flavor I'm looking for.
I just realized, that Qiao doesn't have a cucumber peeler. Shucks. I could leave the skins on, or I could delay making the salad to some other day.
..
Oven mitt! That's another thing that's missing over here.
A duller paring knife would be good too. It's hard to peel garlic with a sharp knife.
..
Note to self: Do not put raw garlic in cucumber salad (or anything else) again. It causes way too much gas.
Qiao bought a bunch of kitchen stuff after moving in, including pots and pans, plates and glasses, and sundries. He hardly ever cooks though, so it doesn't get much use. He mostly goes out to eat, or brings home take-out. I've used his stove only once or twice so far, for boiling noodles. It's a gas stove, which still makes me nervous (gas stoves spit out flames! fire hazard! gas hazard!). But mainly because it's easier to cook at my house (where I have all my supplies) and to bring food over, or to heat food up in his microwave or his toaster oven.
Yesterday I realized I needed a cutting board. The two smallish ones that Qiao has are wood, and were sitting behind the sink for a long time and got black mildew marks on the bottom from it being wet back there. At home I have a glass cutting board, which seems more sanitary. Yesterday I bought him a glass one like mine. I also brought over my garlic crusher, mandolin, and oil and vinegar.
At the grocery store, I bought fresh chives and dill for making a cucumber salad. Generally I slice the cucumbers, and add salt and vinegar, and sometimes dried dill and pepper or a bit of sugar. It never tastes as good as when my mom makes it, nor as good as the wonderful cucumber salad I remember from German restaurants (which tasted different from my mom's). So I hoped that adding fresh herbs would help. I figure that chives are sort of similar to onions in flavor; I don't care to cut up onions for a salad, but I can do chives.
When I look up German cucumber salad recipes, they almost always include sour cream. The ones I remember were not cream-based. They were zesty, light, and refreshing. I could eat a whole plateful if only they'd serve that much. My mom sometimes scrapes onion juice into hers; I think that is part of what makes hers special; she also sometimes adds garlic. But I tried before, and mine still didn't get that special flavor I'm looking for.
I just realized, that Qiao doesn't have a cucumber peeler. Shucks. I could leave the skins on, or I could delay making the salad to some other day.
..
Oven mitt! That's another thing that's missing over here.
A duller paring knife would be good too. It's hard to peel garlic with a sharp knife.
..
Note to self: Do not put raw garlic in cucumber salad (or anything else) again. It causes way too much gas.