Cucumbers

Yesterday I went to an all you can eat buffet with a girlfriend. There were lots of raw fish, sushi, seaweeds, Asian type foods, lots of hot steamy meaty entres, exotic appetizers.
The first thing I put on my plate was a pile of thickly sliced cucumbers and a dollop of ranch dressing for dipping. Alongside that, I placed a big spoonful of the biggest roasted Virginia Peanuts (out of the shell) I have ever seen. I thoroughly enjoyed this first course. Today, while at the grocery store for last minute holiday purchases I will look for good cucumbers. Sometimes you get one that is bitter tasting...a twice bitter disappointment since the prices of these are 79-99 cents each now, or more.

I remember once while teaching at Lewis Elementary we had a potluck and I was to bring a salad. Well, I picked up a bagged salad and a cucumber. I peeled and sliced the cucumber down the middle and then in thin crosswise slices so they would really get dispersed well in the salad. Everyone raved that the cucumber addition raised this salad to a higher level of enjoyment. Lucky for me it was a good sweet, juicy, crispy one.

This Thanksgiving Season I am grateful for the incredible variety of foods that we have available to us. Today I celebrate the cucumber.

When the Israelites were
in the desert they would say
..."We remember the fish,
which we did eat in Egypt freely,
the cucumbers, the melons..."
Numbers 11:5