What Can I Do with All These Cucumbers?!?

My cucumbers are thriving in my garden this year! I think I've said this before, but I attribute that to giving them plenty of space and having a nice trellis for them to climb (and already overtake!).

Exhibit 1: Discovered this cucumber, hidden and overgrown,
the other day. Here it is next to a couple of perfectly sized zucchinis!

But I'm harvesting a couple cucumbers a day, and I'm not seeing an end to that. So what in the world will I do with them, aside from sharing with my co-workers? Zucchini is easier - lots of options to mix zucchini in with any number of dishes. (Here are a few of my favorite zucchini recipes ...)

One of the great benefits of gardening is that you suddenly have a bunch of produce, and you have to come up with creative ways to use it! It's great motivation because you certainly don't want to throw it out and while I don't mind sharing produce, I would like to use as much of it as possible at my own house (until we get sick of it!).

So I'm on a mission to find some new cucumber recipes to try. I'm going to link to them here, and then try them out over the next week or two. Then I'll let you know how they went!

Here are three cucumber recipes that go beyond just throwing them in a salad (which I will also do). These are all from allrecipes.com, one of my favorite places to find good recipes, mostly because the review system is excellent! I often learn more from the reviewers than from the people submitting the recipes.


1. Tangy Cucumber and Avocado Salad - This looks so simple, but I love avocado so it really appeals to me. It also looks like a fast and easy side dish to whip up.

2. Caribbean Sweet Potato Salad - This one looks like a nice fresh and unique take on potato salad. I absolutely love sweet potatoes, so I'm eager to try this out. It includes white potatoes, sweet potatoes, corn, onion, lime juice, peanuts and, of course, cucumber! Sounds like the perfect complement to a barbecue, doesn't it?

3. Homemade Refrigerator Pickles - I can't not try to make pickles. I've never done it before, but I have a lot of cucumbers, which means I have a lot of room for error. I may try to use a Rachael Ray recipe I have from a cookbook I got for Christmas from my mother-in-law. I am the only one in my house that likes pickles, so I think I'll just have fun and try a few recipes!

My husband also like cucumber water, so I'll probably start having that available in a pitcher this summer. Just ice water with cucumber slices. Sounds refreshing!