Creamy Corn Salad

Photo from
SchoolPhotoProject.com

Corn salad recipes abound this time of year, and most of the ones I've tried are very, very delicious indeed.  This recipe I'm sharing today is no exception.  It's a little different, but no less tasty.  It's from an older magazine (Quick Cooking or Taste of Home, I forget which) but I recently tried it for the first time ... and prepared it again for a potluck a few days later!  Here's the link: Easy Corn Salad. 

This salad is truly easy, requiring only a few simple ingredients, including canned corn.  My supermarket carries a store brand of crisp & sweet whole kernel corn, which includes no sugar but is a special variety of corn.  It costs the same as regular whole kernel corn, but I find it much more flavorful.  I would add, too, that the dill weed in this recipe should not really be optional, but more of a must.  And you could double the quantity of dill weed if you liked. 

If you keep grape tomatoes or cherry tomatoes in your fridge and cans of corn in your pantry, you will be all set to make an easy, colorful side salad at a moment's notice.  Enjoy!

A moment to breathe

This week was looking very busy, so I decided on Tuesday that I would make a picnic supper for Mr. T and myself.  Years ago, we used to picnic by a nearby river almost weekly in summer and fall and, although we can no longer access that picnic spot, we have found a new favorite.  We just don't get there very often.  But I remembered how refreshing those riverbank picnics used to be, and wanted to recapture that.  So I took a few minutes to think about what I had on hand that might work for a portable meal. 

I kept it simple, simple, simple -- I just used pantry ingredients to make a Summertime Tuna Rice Salad (one of our summer favorites), and packed it in a recycled potato salad tub.  I also cut up a peach and mixed it with some of our freshly frozen strawberries (thawed) with about a teaspoon of sugar in a recycled whipped topping bowl.  I had a package of sesame corn thins on hand -- have you ever tried these?  I was introduced to them by our daughter while we were out in Nevada.  Corn thins are about half the thickness of rice cakes, and quite a bit tastier.  They come with or without sesame.  They made a nice little "bread" to munch alongside our salad and fruit.

It was a simple matter to put the perishables in a small cooler and tuck in plates, napkins, serving spoons, and silverware, plus a bottle of water for each of us.  I also tucked in a section of newspaper to serve as large place mats on a possibly dirty picnic table.  When Mr. T got home, we drove about five minutes to a local park where there's a picnic table overlooking a small but tranquil pond.

The week got even busier than expected, so we've been thankful for that half hour of peace and tranquility in God's beautiful creation.  There's just something so restful and restorative about water and greenery -- and, I just happened to think, those are some of our Good Shepherd's marvelous provisions for us: green pastures and still waters.

Strawberry Time!

This past Saturday, Mr. T and I took an hour and a half and went strawberry picking at a U-pick farm in Vermont.  We didn't really have the time, but we were out of frozen strawberries from the previous time we'd gone in 2012.  Since we had to be in the area anyway (just across the river in NH) we decided to go on over and pick some berries.  What a lovely, tranquil spot.  We enjoyed the breezy sunshine and just the time to be together and accomplish something worthwhile. 
We got over 30 pounds of strawberries

These are the flats from 2012.  This year's were filled much fuller!

 and at this point they are all washed, hulled, individually quick frozen and stashed in the freezer.  We usually make strawberry sauce on Sundays when the granddaughters are with us, to go with our breakfast waffles.  Now we are all set with strawberries for many Sundays to come!

Happy Fourth of July!

Image courtesy Vintage Holiday Crafts.com

Mr. T and I would like to wish all of our friends a glorious Independence Day!  It is rainy and dreary here, but is the weather predicted to clear later today.  We are headed to a Fourth of July picnic this afternoon with friends and family, where we're sure to have good cheer and fine fellowship regardless of the weather.  We hope that you and your families will have a wonderful Fourth of July celebrating our country's independence!  We are so blessed to live in this country!

Pretty peonies

 Many years ago, my dear elderly friend Peggy gave me a peony to plant.  She cautioned me as to just the right depth to plant it, so we followed her instructions and the peony did thrive in spite of my rather brown thumb.  It didn't bloom for a few years, but every year the bush has gotten bigger and healthier looking.  For the past few years it has had quite a few blossoms.

This year there were a dozen or so buds,
 
but a heavy rain before they had all bloomed did wreak some havoc.  Thankfully, I had gotten a few pictures before the rain came.

I think Peggy would be pleased (and maybe surprised) to see how her peony bush is thriving!

July Goals

Vintage ad from my collection

 I can hardly believe it is July already.  How swiftly the summer is passing!  Time to set some goals at the beginning of this new month ...

JULY GOALS:
* Read through the July portion of the One-Year Devotional Bible.
* Complete summer Bible study from Good Morning Girls
*  Read 4 chapters in The Power of a Godly Grandparent
* Continue to implement some of the ideas from the above book
* Finish re-reading Say Goodbye to Survival Mode
* Begin to implement some of the ideas and strategies from the above book
* Memorize at least 4 Bible verses and review some older ones.
* Add 4 pages to my "What Do I Know About My God?" Scripture notebook
* Keep up with my Sunday School study -- The Heart of a Woman Who Prays
* Exercise or walk at least 20 times.
* Get to bed by 9:45 pm each night.
* Limit sugar.
* Drink enough water each day.
* Keep up with Kelly's missions in homemaking zones of the week.
* Take an overnight getaway with my husband
* Post in my regular blog as often as possible
* Celebrate Christmas in July on my Christmas blog
* Reduce grocery bill by $5 per week consistently
* Spend several hours updating my A-store.
* Do research for setting up an Etsy shop (I've already joined Etsy)
* Make at least a dozen items for sale at craft fairs.
* Write at least 4 encouraging notes to friends and family.
* Clean church and set up for potluck meal
* Make gift tags from last year's Christmas cards.
* Plan and complete several handcrafted gifts for August-September birthdays.
* Sort out and declutter the main floor at my dad's house

JULY'S HEALTHY HABIT:  Exercise

WORD FOR 2014: BALANCE

And here is how June went:
JUNE GOALS:
* Read through the June portion of the One-Year Devotional Bible -- DONE!
* Work on summer Bible study from Good Morning Girls -- DONE!
*  Read 4 chapters in The Power of a Godly Grandparent -- not done
* Continue to implement some of the ideas from the above book -- done somewhat
* Finish re-reading Say Goodbye to Survival Mode -- nearly finished
* Begin to implement some of the ideas and strategies from the above book -- not done
* Memorize at least 4 Bible verses and review some older ones -- DONE!
* Add 4 pages to my "What Do I Know About My God?" Scripture notebook -- not done, as I had planned on doing this on the weekends (my daily Bible study only has readings for weekdays).  However, I find that I only have time to SOAP the verses on the weekdays so I am using the weekends to do the Bible study questions.
* Keep up with my Sunday School study -- The Heart of a Woman Who Prays -- DONE!
* Exercise or walk at least 20 times -- not done.
* Get to bed by 9:45 pm each night-- not done.
* Limit sugar -- DONE!
* Drink enough water each day -- DONE!
* Keep up with Kelly's missions in homemaking zones of the week -- not done, but I have made a very good stab at it.
* Take an overnight getaway with my husband -- not done
* Post in both of my blogs as often as possible -- sort of done
* Reduce grocery bill by $5 per week consistently -- not done
* Spend several hours updating my A-store -- not done
* Do research for setting up an Etsy shop (I've already joined Etsy) -- not done
* Make at least a dozen items for sale at craft fairs -- not done, though I'm developing some great ideas.
* Write at least 4 encouraging notes to friends and family  -- DONE!
* Clean church and set up for potluck meal -- DONE!
* Make gift tags from last year's Christmas cards -- not done yet.
* Plan and complete several handcrafted gifts for August-September birthdays -- not done.
* Sort out and declutter my dad's attic -- not completed; I will need to make one or two more passes through the attic, at least.  But I did work at it nearly every day and did get a lot of things out of there and on to new owners or into the trash.

JUNE'S HEALTHY HABIT:  Limit sugar  -- DONE!