Qs and Os

Ahh, summer. Today we had company and I wanted simple and summer. We included my Mum's famous Q and O salad which I have always loved: cucumbers, onions, white vinegar and water, a little bit of sugar and some dill weed and then let it all marinate. Yum. 

The fun story on this is that when my brother was very young, he told Mum not to worry, he had already planted the garden. She asked what he planted. He couldn't remember the name, but it started with a Q. Naturally Mum went through all the Q things she could think of before asking him where he had gotten the seeds, anyhow, and when he said, "from our salad," she realized he had planted cucumber seeds. Pretty sure they didn't grow. 

My Parents and Tomato Sandwiches

Looks like today will be the last day of summery weather for us. I celebrated by making a tomato sandwich for lunch the way my Dad liked them -- American cheese, thick slice of fresh tomato, mayonnaise, and some garlic salt -- and even having a buttermilk with it like he did, only I skipped adding pepper to the buttermilk. 

That has got to be one of the best sandwiches ever and quite possibly the only good use for American cheese. All the flavors get nice and gooey together without even heating it up. I remember a couple years when we had lots of tomatoes coming and my Dad would buy those huge blocks of sliced American and we would have cheese and tomato sandwiches many happy lunches in a row.

And my Mum and tomato sandwiches?

Well, she taught us to love silly little line drawings called Droodles. They always have an unexpected caption on them and it's great fun to make them up and try to guess the caption, or see if you can improve on the artist's label. My Mum taught me this one, which has been a favorite of mine since grade school:

Got it? "Tomato sandwich as made by an amateur tomato sandwich maker."

But my Dad was no amateur. :)