For freezing cherries, I wash, then pit the cherries with a crank cherry pitter. It crushes the fruit, but then your pies or cobblers or sauces are entirely cherry rather than a few whole cherries with lots of filler around them and you can go through a gallon of cherries in just a few minutes. Hand pitting individually is way too time consuming. The pitted cherries are placed in a quart plastic container or a bag, then frozen. I don't add any sugar when freezing, though you can. Just don't know how they will be used, so don't add sugar until cooking later. A quart of frozen cherries is about right for making a pie. When cooking the cherries later, I usually reduce the sugar by 1/4 to 1/2, depending on just how tart the cherries are--I don't like syrupy sweet cherry pie and prefer a sweetened pie that still has some of the tartness of the cherry--much more flavor, and you don't get a stomach ache from all the sugar so you can eat more! Also, Minute Tapioca is a great way to thicken the cherry juice. There is a recipe on the box, just reduce the sugar. A quick version is 4 cups frozen, pitted cherries in their own juice, 3/4 cups sugar, 2 tablespoons tapioca, a tablespoon of butter, and 3 or 4 drops of almond extract. Another great way to thicken the cherry juice when making toppings is to add a tablespoon or two of corn starch with your sugar and cook. When the corn starch thickens, the juice will turn clear. As long as you warn everyone, for a topping you can freeze the cherries whole, then make sauce, and people can just spit out the pits.

Have not been here two days and am overwhelmed with posts! Spent the last two days in the hell hole of a hospital again. dealing with idiots, ignorance, and just plain rabid dog bed side manner from DOCTORS no less! CT scans, Gamama scans, more Xrays and many more lab and blood tests. Now allergic to paper adhesive tape. Both arms all bruised up from it and many needls. Right hand swelled and bruised, as well as two failed 'blood gas' tests that require 'scraping' a bone in your wrist where they take pulses from. Will be charged a second day stay as they delayed my checkout, AGAIN! Will now be writing many complaints to them, along with not paying bills I didn't want and have to deal with. More medications added to the big list (going into two pages now). Weak, short of breath, chest pains, under physical mental stress, even having tears and tirades were no help. More tranquiizers too.. This time its Ativan the 'loopy' drug. Don't need this, just get that hole dug soon. Soory for the sob story, but with things the way they are now, I may not last much longer. 35+ lb weight loss in 36 days?

I've been following this thread as I too, have been meaning to make a cucumber salad. I have so many cukes coming out of my garden and need to find some ways to use them up. I can't even give to neighbors as one of my neighbors has several cuke plants and has already picked about 50 cukes! I only have one plant and mine has produced at least 12. Today I made a cuke, tomato, feta salad - I had so many tomatoes I needed to use them up too. That's our side dish with dinner tonight. Tomorrow I'm going to make a cucumber salad using one of the several recipes listed above. Now to figure out which one!

My Aunt Lil was famous for her elegant cooking. She died of cancer when I was a little girl. Here, in her memory, is one of our favorites of her recipes, very 1950s but still delicious. My mom gave me the recipe card in Aunt Lil's handwriting. She had written "EXCELLENT" at the top, and we agree. Good luck with your cookbook! Susan in Columbus (Ohio) Aunt LilÂs Chicken Cantonese 1 fryer-broiler chicken  disjointed, slightly salted 1/3 cup cornstarch 1 ½ teaspoon salt 2 teaspoons paprika ¼ cup cooking oil 1 #2 can [20 oz.] pineapple chunks (drained - reserve sirup) 1 cup sliced diagonally celery 1 medium-size green pepper (cleaned & white membrane removed) cut into thin strips 2 Tablespoons brown sugar 2 ½ Tablespoons soy sauce 3 cups hot cooked rice 1. Coat chicken pieces with a mixture of the cornstarch, salt & paprika. Reserve 1 Tablespoon of the cornstarch mixture. 2. Heat the cooking oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Place chicken, skin side down, in skillet. Turn pieces as necessary. When lightly browned remove & place in roaster. Bake, uncovered, at 325° until almost fork Âtender. [40-45 min.] 3. Add pineapple, celery, and green pepper, slipping them under the chicken. Cover and put back in oven for 15 minutes. 4. Mix together the reserved 1 Tablespoon of cornstarch mixture, ¼ cup reserved pineapple sirup, the brown sugar, and soy sauce. Pour over chicken & cover; continue baking another 20 minutes. 5. *Lightly toss the hot cooked rice with 1/3 cup dark seedless raisins & ½ cup coarsely chopped walnuts. Serve with rice on bottom of platter, then chicken. *Raisins and nuts optional