As an English teacher nothing hurts me more than the abuse or defilement of language. I think my children never pet a doggy, chew on a paci, nor or played with a dolly. (They did indeed frolic with dogs, benefit from a pacifier, and spend many an hour with their dolls.) In fact, I believe I felt this way about language since I was young.

I always thought that the small cucumbers that my father cut into his huge Israeli salad were called kirbs and we just had a cute nickname for them referring to them as kirbies.

Imagine my embarrassment to discover how wrong I was.

As I matured, the vernacular usage of many words bothered me less. In fact, a visit to my vegetable garden got me thinking that those delicious pre-pickles really deserve the moniker kirby. A cute name for a cute vegetable..at least in its early stages. As the yellow flowers drop and a vegetable pops out, my tiny kirbies can only be described as adorable. Their tiny thorns protude from their dark green skin. I worry that my younger ones might want to pick them early and use them as salad toys for their dolls (of course not dollies.)

But dolls don't need to watch their weight, and at 10 to 15 calories a Kirby, they won't need to. Nor will they have to avoid dehydration as kirbies pack a punch in the water department. As for vitamins, vitamins K and C are found in cucumbers. Let’s not forget how great they are sliced cold and placed on puffy, tired eyes.

So there you have it. Throw those kirbies in your salad with some pepper(and maybe some tomatoes, or since we are on the topic of what to call  them, tomahtoes.... puree them and make a delicious dairy cucumber dip .

Whatever you do,trust me ,don't call it by the wrong name or you might be thrown out on the real curb.....  

Cold Cucumber Dip