Take Me Back Tuesday: Memaw's Summer Cucumber Salad Recipe

Our little garden is yielding some great cucumbers right now, and the other evening, I wanted to make a salad with them. I decided to make a cucumber salad that I had many a Sunday afternoons growing up at my grandma's house. It is simply delicious, especially from the standpoint of taste, but also from the memories it evokes. I'd love to share this simple recipe with you. I have never come across this dish any where other than my grandma's kitchen. I hope you will try this and enjoy it as much as I do.

Peel cucumbers and using the slicer of a cheese grater, slice cucumbers in paper thin slices. (pay no attention to my vintage slightly rusted grater....I love this grater and prefer it over my shiny newer ones.) I used about three cucumbers this day.

Once you have sliced desired number of cucumbers, add about a tablespoon and a half of salt. Stir well and mix the salt well with the cucumbers.

Cover the bowl and let sit on the counter for about 30-40 minutes. The salt will draw out the excess water in the cucumber slices.

when this has set, it should look like this.....drain the excess salted water off of the cucumbers. Add enough real mayonnaise (Not the Miracle whip junk) and about a cap full of vinegar to mix well. If you are making a large batch, adjust accordingly. Salt, lightly and black pepper to taste. For this batch, I added a very large spoon full of mayonnaise and a little over a cap of vinegar. Stir well and refrigerate until very chilled.



Spoon into a bowl or plate and enjoy. This is great left over the next day too, very easy and very tasty. I remember those Sunday dinners so well at my memaw's house. Funny, how I can almost taste the fried chicken, mashed potatoes and "honky" gravy, corn and a green salad with homemade 1000 island dressing and of course this cucumber salad. Those are meals I have never forgotten....my grandma was the very best cook I have ever known.

So many wonderful memories from this very kitchen that belonged to my grandma. That is my Auntie in this photo, we took this picture after both my grandparents passed away, I wanted to remember things just the way they were. Like I could have ever forgotten. I spent so many mornings in this very kitchen as my grandma made homemade flour tortillas and hot sauce to go with fried eggs in the morning. I can remember as a little girl when we would come to visit, there would be cakes or pies cooling on that very counter.....always wonderful food came from this kitchen from a women who loved with all her heart. She always let me "watch" or help in some small way, she was ever patient with her grandchildren, her kitchen was truly the heart of her home. I love how certain foods can take you back to the best of times in your life that mean so much.