Dual Purpose For Measuring Spoons
I read somewhere that everyone should have two sets of measuring spoons. At first I thought to myself, what a waste of space, but after I really started to think about it I could see the advantages of having two sets while working in the kitchen. I even went so far as to purchase two differently shaped measuring spoon sets. The reason behind that was to keep one for dry items and one for liquid items. To be honest I have not really followed the rule of dry versus liquid too closely. But, I do have a tendency though to grab one shape over another when I am going to be measuring out my spices. My narrow measuring spoons slide right into the spice jar and then right back out for easy measuring. And my rounded measuring spoons, have performed dual purposes in the kitchen. I have used my rounded measuring spoons to scoop out perfectly rounded balls of cookie dough, made melon balls for fruit salad and occasionally I do use them to measure out ingredients for my recipes. This weekend I used my rounded 1/2 teaspoon for seeding cucumber, tomatoes and jalapeno peppers for the Cucumber Salsa Recipe.
When seeding raw tomatoes, halve the tomato horizontally. Squeeze the tomato gently, and then take your measuring spoon and scoop the seeds and gelatinous material out.
When seeding a cucumber, cut in half lengthwise. Place the rounded measuring spoon at the start of the seed channel. Press the measuring spoon down gently into the seed channel and pull toward you to scoop out the seeds. Repeat as necessary to remove all of the seeds.
And when you are seeding a jalapeno pepper, cut the pepper in half lengthwise. Place the rounded measuring spoon at the stem end. Press the measuring spoon gently into the seed and rib channel and pull toward you to scoop out the seeds.
My husband asked why I was taking so much time to carefully seed the tomato, cucumber and jalapeno pepper. Well, my answer was that tomato and cucumber seeds can be watery and tasteless when added to some recipes.Which can also make any leftovers of the salsa runny and bland. And because part of the people who would be eating at the gathering would be young children, I wanted to tone down the spicy flavor that we enjoy in our own home , but not everyone is a fan of.
The Creamy Cucumber Salsa Recipe is a modification from the Taste of Home ‘Crisp Cucumber Salsa Recipe’. Some of the modifications I performed based upon our needs were: forgot to buy fresh parsley so added more cilantro, we really like cumin so added an extra 1/4 teaspoon, no seasoned salt in the house but added an 1/8 teaspoon of regular salt. Looking at the final product makes me glad that summer is here and we have more access to some of the most flavorful and beautiful produce around.
