me & broccoli

Yellow Squash! and a bulghur salad recipe

We've been getting squash out of the garden for about two weeks now (with the help of much watering during our drought, -13" last I heard), and I'm still at the point where I think I'll never get sick of it. It takes a lot of squash to make me tired of it...I can eat it fried, grilled a million different ways, baked on pizza with lots of basil, and even made into chocolate cake. Oh, and then....pickles!! Squash pickles are so much better than cucumber in my hands, which is good, because I even have trouble growing cucumbers. I know, I shouldn't, but they just seem to die after giving me about 4 mis-shapen little things. Maybe this year will be different--my plants aren't dead yet, so there is still hope. I did get to make a great cracked wheat salad with my first cucumber and some corn (not from my garden, from the freezer). I've been experimenting with more grains since I started working at the local co-op, and I love it!
Here's the rough recipe:
1 C. cracked wheat or bulghur
1 C. boiling water
*combine and let sit until water is absorbed, about an hour
2 tsp. cumin
1 tsp. ground coriander (if you grow cilantro, let it flower, seed, and you will never have a shortage again...and mowing the lawn smells wonderful because it self-seeds like crazy!)
2-3 cups frozen corn
4 Tbsp. lime juice
1 Tbsp. cider vinegar (I put some hot peppers from the garden into a bottle with cider vinegar and use this for anything you want to add spice to)
1 tsp. salt
1/4 C. veg. oil of your choice, plus a little more if you feel like it
2 green cayenne peppers (I'm pretty sure that's what I planted, but I do have several varieties...feel free to substitute)
small onion, diced
stalk celery diced
medium cucumber, diced
1/2 C. parsley, cilantro, or other green stuff you have on hand
1 C. toasted walnuts, chopped
Mix this all up and let the flavors mingle for a little while, stirring from time to time and taking bites until it is lunch or dinner time!
This salad was so sweet/nutty delicious and refreshing for dinner on the back patio in 80-degree weather. We ate it and didn't take a picture. Sorry.

First post

I want this to be a place where I can talk about all the new things that I'm learning, whether it concerns my crafting, cooking, gardening, or even school (gasp!). Maybe other people will learn from me, along with me, or if ahead of me, prod me along. That pretty much sums up my mission statement.