I love simple things. If you have looked at my home page you will see that I describe my products as “Simple and Fun”, and if you read the ingredients you will understand. Most of the products have very few ingredients. I have made soap with as few as three ingredients but never more than 10. I have made balm with as few as 2 ingredients but never more than 7. The fun is adding ingredients that I have on hand, especially those that I have grown.

This also applies to the  recipes we eat. So let’s share some simple recipes. Here are some of my favorite recipes.

Garlic Dill Dip – 1 pint of sour cream (you can use low fat or whatever you prefer) add several cloves of fresh, minced garlic, 1 or 2 tbsp. of dill either fresh of dried, and about a tsp of sea salt. Mix all ingredients well. It can be eaten immediately, but the flavor improves if it sits for at least 15 minutes before eating. I love this for potato chips, Fritos, or as a veggie dip.

Cucumber and Vinegar is An Old Family Favorite  – I’m not really sure what this is called but during the summer my grandma and my mom would always have a bowl of these around. I couldn’t tell you their exact recipe. Like me, they probably didn’t have an exact recipe. Anyway this is what I do. Slice as many cucumbers as you want to use, (you can peel them if you prefer), slice as may onions as you want to use, (I would highly recommend peeling the onions first).  Place cucumber and onion slices in a bowl, cover halfway with vinegar, (I used white vinegar), add enough water to cover cucumber and onion slices, add salt and pepper to taste, I also added some dill. Let the veggies bathe in this mixture. They are probably ready after an hour or so but the flavor gets better the longer it sits. I’m honestly not sure if grandma or mom ever put this in the fridge, it seems like it was always sitting on the counter, but I refrigerate it just to be safe.

Rhubarb Sauce – This is something I made the other day. I picked some rhubarb and didn’t feel like freezing it or baking a rhubarb crisp so I cleaned it and cut it up. It probably came to between 2 and 3 cups. I put it in a pan with about 1/2 cup of water and turned it on to let it cook. When it was getting mushy I added 1/2 cup of sugar (how much sugar you add should depend on how sweet you like it). Then I threw in a handful of frozen strawberries. Unfortunately they were not homegrown, and they certainly were not a necessary part of the recipe, but it was good.  I just let this cook on low until it was the desired thickness. It can be eaten plain like applesauce, but we have been using it as an ice cream topping. Yumm!

Okay, now it’s your turn. Do you have a simple recipe you would like to share?