Rosie Makes A Few Side Dishes.

I'm off on a tangent here. Just preparing a couple of things tonight that you might like to try. Just because they're good, and a little different. First, a nut dish, only because I have a lot of nuts left over in my freezer from Christmas and I need to clean them out.

My ingredients: Sunflower seeds. Walnuts. Whole almonds. Caraway seeds. Mustard seeds. Cumin seeds. Buttah.

I heated the seeds (caraway, mustard, and cumin) over medium heat, toasting, until they started to pop, about 2 minutes.

I added the butter and swirled to melt.

Then I added the sunflower seeds and the nuts, tossing to heat and toast. And there you have a nice crunchy, nutty, seedy, spicy dish, to eat by itself or add onto steamed veggies. Next, some quick pickles.

I had a cuke and a half left over in the fridge and I was scared they were going to waste unless I did something right away. And I just hate for any food to be wasted. Doesn't happen very often around here. My ingredients: 1 1/2 cucumbers 1/2 cup white vinegar 3 teaspoons sugar 1 teaspoon mustard seed 1 teaspoon salt 1 clove crushed garlic 3 tablespoons fresh dill 1 bay leaf red onion scallion

Oops. I forgot to put the garlic in the mise above. So, here it is. Ready to go into the pan of vinegar, sugar, mustard seed, and salt.

I peeled and sliced the cucumbers on the diagonal.

Then I tossed the cuke slices in a bowl with the fresh dill, bay leaf, and some chopped red and green onions.

I heated up the pan of vinegar, sugar, mustard seed, salt, and garlic to a simmer until the sugar dissolved. Then I poured the mixture over top of the cucumbers.

Refrigerate.

And you have a tasty cucumber/pickle dish which is very nice. You could use it as a side dish for a number of things. With fried foods or anything you'd use a cole slaw with, or just when you want a cool, light dish to accompany your meal. It's bright, crisp, tart, and flavorful. Then, I decided to tweak it.

I was reading Judy's Kitchen blog and she has a post about a Pomegranate Contest. And, while I was at Harris Teeter this afternoon, I had that contest niggling in the back of my mind, so I says, "What the Hey!" So's I buy a 32-ounce bottle of pomegranate juice for $4.99. OUCH!

I added a bit of pomegranate juice along with fresh parsley to my cucumber mixture, and it was good. No skyrockets or anything, though. Just pleasingly different. Hang on, Judy. Be patient with me. I'll come up with something.