Oma's Cucumber Salad

This is an easy recipe and I have made it even easier throughout the years. This came from my mother who never measured anything. She just used her hand to measure and then made it to taste. Made to taste is hard to explain, I guess. Make it taste the way you like it. I used to ask, how much, and she always said holding her hand out "This much".

Since she never had recipe measurements for anything I had to be creative in guessing how much of everything goes into it. My cucumber salad does taste exactly like hers every time. Start it first thing in the morning it needs to marinade for several hours.

Ingredients:

• 3 -4 good size cucumbers - I stripe peel them
• 1 large onion
• sugar to taste
• oil, any kind
• white vinegar
• salt - I use sea salt
• pepper

Directions:

My mother cut the cucumbers by hand very thin. I use the thin slice of a mandolin. I slice each cucumber and put it into a bowl and sprinkle salt over each one. This starts the cucumber slices to sweat. Cut up a large onion (or more if you like onion). Stir well adding a big pinch of pepper. I used to mix up my own oil and vinegar (ratio is two oil to one vinegar) but find that the bottled Italian dressing works just perfect.

I pour out at least a 1/2 cup to a cup into a small bowl and add sugar to taste. For me that means to take the tartness out. Pour it over the cucumbers and stir. Put in fridge to marinade with the spoon in it. It looks like a lot but the cucumbers will sweat and compress and you will get more liquid.

Every time you go into the fridge for the next several hours you take the spoon and stir it. I taste it after 2 hours. to see if it needs more salt, sugar, or pepper and add whatever it needs and stir again.

When the cucumbers slices are firm but not hard it is done. If you leave it stand overnight, the slices get soggy but well marinated and it tastes ok still. Some people like it this way too, but I like the slices to be firm.

Serve in a small bowl beside each plate. It serves 4-6 depending on the size of cucumbers and portion sizes.

By xintexas from San Antonio, TX