Join Debbie as she raves about whole foods, rants about chemicals and generally celebrates cooking and eating with fresh, local, nutritious foods. And sometimes she might get a little feisty….

Sometimes you’ve got to make a basic dish, one that celebrates all there is to love about freshly harvested food. Can I just brag about our cucumbers for a moment? Or should I say cucumber, because it’s the only one we’ve gotten off of our pathetic plant this year, but I do believe it was the best cucumber I’ve ever tasted in my life — no, not just because we grew it. It was superiorly crunchy (even compared with two local farms’ cucumbers) and juicy and had a distinctive “snap” when you bit into it. Perfect.

Something special had to come of the magical cucumber. We tend to just eat what we pick as close to immediately as humanly possible, though cucumbers thwart us with their thick, tough skin. Which was a good thing, in this case, because it was still around to make a simple side dish that was so fresh and yummy and actually highlighted the perfect texture of my prized cucumber.

Cucumber and Tomato Salad with Fresh Basil

Ingredients:

• 1 cucumber, peeled and cut into chunks
• 1 heirloom tomato, cut into chunks
• fresh basil, chopped chiffonade style, to taste (I used about 1/2 cup)
• a pinch of sea salt
• freshly ground black pepper to taste
• olive oil
• balsamic vinegar
• feta cheese crumbles (optional)

Don’t measure — you’ll just make yourself look foolish. There is no right or wrong here; put the freshest ingredients you can find into a bowl, drizzle with olive oil and balsamic vinegar and enjoy. You can sprinkle on feta if you wish, but tonight, I didn’t wish —  I just wanted my harvest salad to be as it was.