Last Wednesday's Picnic by the River

I never did get around to blogging about last week’s picnic by the river, but we did have one! It was a blisteringly hot, humid day, but blessedly cool down by the river.

I tried a new recipe for an unusual, warm salad. Here’s the recipe, which I adapted somewhat from a Country Woman magazine

TACO PASTA SALAD

3 cups spiral pasta, cooked
1 lb. ground beef*
1 envelope taco seasoning**
3/4 to 1 cup mayonnaise
2 to 3 Tblsp. milk
4 tsp. cider vinegar
4 tsp. sugar
1 Tblsp. ground mustard
Bagged salad mix or torn lettuce
Chopped tomatoes or halved cherry tomatoes
Shredded cheddar (optional)
Crushed tortilla chips, regular or nacho flavored

While the pasta cooks, brown the beef in a large skillet over medium heat until well done; drain if necessary. Stir in the taco seasoning and heat through.

In a large bowl, mix the mayonnaise, milk, vinegar, sugar, and mustard. Drain the cooked pasta and add it along with the beef to the mayonnaise mixture. Toss to coat. Add lettuce, tomatoes, and cheese if desired; toss to combine. Sprinkle with tortilla chips when serving.

Yield: 8 - 10 servings.

* I omitted the beef and used several cups of shredded pork in barbecue sauce, left over from crockpot ribs.

** I use my own homemade taco seasoning mix and will include the recipe here.

I omitted the cheese and we thought it was delicious without it. Also, because I was taking this to a picnic area, I just mixed the tomatoes in with the salad, not the lettuce. I took a bag of romaine salad along and we just put some on our plates and topped it with the salad mixture, then the crushed tortilla chips. We had baby carrots on the side too.

Here’s the taco seasoning mix:

TACO SEASONING MIX
1/4 cup dried minced onion
1/4 cup chili powder
3 Tblsp. salt
4 teaspoons cornstarch
1 Tblsp. dried minced garlic
1 Tblsp. cumin
1 Tblsp. crushed red pepper flakes
2 tsp. beef bouillon granules
1 1/2 tsp. oregano

Mix all together thoroughly and store in a tightly covered tin or jar. For each pound of browned ground beef, use 3 Tblsp mix and 1/2 cup water. Bring to a boil; cook and stir 2 minutes.

To use as an ingredient in a recipe, use 3 Tblsp. mix in place of an envelope of taco seasoning mix.
This works wonderfully and saves you a bundle of money!

As I mentioned, it was lovely and cool down by the river; a real oasis from the steamy heat back in the real world. Someone had made a line of rocks all across the river, a sort of little dam or breakwater. It added a picturesque note. We sat at a table under the trees and just took in the beautiful coolness while we ate. What a blessing!

Menu Plan Monday for August 6

Monday again! And a new month as well... This week doesn’t look too terribly busy so far, which is a great feeling.Today is drizzly and downright chilly... it’s only 58º as I write, but I’m not complaining. Here’s my plan for the week:

MONDAY: Hot Ham & Potato Salad, Coleslaw, Baby Carrots

TUESDAY: Avocado Omelet, Breakfast Potatoes, Green Beans

WEDNESDAY: Cheeseburger Meat Loaf Hoagies, Baked Multigrain Chips, Carrot & Celery Sticks

THURSDAY: Chinese Pepper Steak, Bow Tie Pasta, Bean Blend

FRIDAY: Pesto Chicken Salad, Tossed Salad, Ranch French Bread

SATURDAY: Tuna Melts, Pasta Salad, Raw Veggies

SUNDAY: Barbecue Chicken in Crockpot, Potato Salad, Baby Carrots

Fabulous Fruit Ices

Oh, my, are these ever delicious! I printed out this recipe from Alicia’s blog awhile ago, after Rachel raved about it. But I hadn’t had a chance to try it out until today. I don’t own a food processor, but figured a blender would work -- but mine had died and I hadn’t replaced it. I just didn’t care for the large look of today’s blenders -- too big of a “footprint” for my limited counter space. But Carrie noticed a cool retro-looking Osterizer on clearance in Walmart, and my hubby decided it was just the blender for us. And it’s red!

I did find, using a blender (and this is not a fancy one with lots of speeds) that the fruit needed to be cut in 1-inch chunks rather than slices, and that I could process about 1/4 of it at a time (with about 1/4 of the sugar syrup) for the best results. So if you use a blender rather than a food processor, keep that in mind.

You can find the recipe for fruit ices here -- , Fruit Ices-- and as you’ll see there are lots of options for the fruit you can use. I chose to use peaches, as I had some that were going bad and I also used a couple of nectarines which looked great on the outside but had gone all mushy on the inside. I know that Carrie tried the strawberry variation and thought it was wonderful, but I think the peach is just about unbeatable!

Still more craftiness

I haven’t accomplished a wealth of crafty things this week, but have a couple of items to share. First, dishcloths!

I found a wonderful pattern at a crafty blog, Princess Nimble-Thimble. If you are interested in checking this pattern out for yourself, look here:

Crocheted Dishcloth

When I found this pattern, I just couldn’t wait to get started. I only had white cotton yarn on hand, but that didn’t stop me. I dug out my H hook and started right in. Unfortunately I don’t have a picture of that one. Almost as soon as it was finished, I wrapped it up as the first installment of a friend’s birthday gift. She loved it!

The next chance I got, I went shopping for colored cotton yarn. Here’s the dishcloth I made with the color called “Gumdrops”. (The pattern says each dishcloth will take 1 small ball of the yarn. I must crochet a lot larger than the pattern’s originator, because I ran out of yarn before the edging was finished. A friend suggested using white, which was a super idea.)


I switched to a G hook for the next one, in the color called “Sea Mist”. Isn’t it gorgeous? But I still ran out of yarn before the edging was finished. Fortunately, this one also looks nice with a white edging.

Also in this picture you see a partially crocheted dishcloth in the “Orange Sherbet” color. I’m using an F hook for this one, and am hoping I can do this one all in one color. I’ve bought about 6 more balls of yarn, all in different colors, and will have lots of fun making these for gifts! I’ve found them to be an ideal project for working on at the beach.

Also this week I managed to finish the clothespin bag I was planning to make. I’m not totally thrilled with the way it turned out, but it’s a vintage style pattern and it holds my clothespins just fine. It sure is a big improvement over my [purchased] ripped, held-together-with-safety-pins clothespin bag which I’ve been using. I have made other clothespin bags (out of dishtowels) for gifts and I like the look of them much better than this one, but it will do for now. The fabric came from my grandmother... isn’t it nifty? I imagine she planned on sewing aprons from it. I have used it to make a chair cover and now this clothespin bag. (I wasn’t able to use the bias tape of hers for this project, because it was all narrow, single-fold tape and this pattern called for extra wide double-fold tape.) The bag looks lumpy in the photo because it is already filled with clothespins!



Lastly, I wanted to mention this simple daily journaling idea. I read about it on Susan’s blog (By Grace) -- it’s an idea from Jewels at Eyes of Wonder.
Basically it involves using things like cutouts from magazines and catalogs, along with stickers and other goodies, to decorate pages of a loose-leaf sketchbook, leaving some room for journaling on the pages. Jewels’ post about this -- you can find it here -- Simple daily journaling
-- will give you all the details as to how she does this. I’ve started my own journal and have been really enjoying both decorating the pages and having a space to jot down some of the thoughts and happenings from each day. Here are a couple of my pages.


This is a very fun and relaxing activity. One of my ongoing prayer requests for myself is to nurture my creativity. I seem to really need to do something creative each day, and I feel the Lord would have me take time to nurture my creativity. This simple daily journaling has been really helping with that. (As a plus, I am getting rid of lots of my magazines I've been hoarding forever! I take what I want from them, then they're off to be recycled!)

I want to thank Shereen, at Waiting for Him for hosting Sew Crafty Fridays. My crafts, no matter how small and simple, are just the sort of thing I enjoy sharing with friends at my real kitchen table. Just this morning I was showing my dishcloths to my sister-in-law, who fell in love with the “Gumdrops” one and wants to learn to crochet just so she can make her own! She came up with a really neat idea to make these squares with the white border but without the picot edging and then sew them together to make an afghan. She says they are just too pretty to wash dishes with. These are just the sort of ideas friends share at a kitchen table. So thank you, Shereen, for making this possible. And I want to encourage others who are reading this to join in on Sew Crafty Fridays... the accountability has been a huge help to me!

Edited to add: Just wanted to say that if anyone tried the links in this post, the first 2 did not work. For some reason some extra stuff got put in with them (not by me). I just tried fixing them and they do work, as of right now, anyway!

Hope this didn't inconvenience anyone too badly.

Favorite Ingredients Friday for August 3

Today I decided to share a favorite breakfast/brunch recipe. It may be here on my blog somewhere, but it's definitely worth sharing again. I thought it was especially timely right now while the blueberries are ripe for the picking. I have also made this with raspberries (and frozen raspberries, much cheaper than fresh, work just fine) -- I think the raspberry version is even better than the blueberry!

BLUEBERRY FRENCH TOAST

12 slices day-old white bread, crusts removed, cut in 1” cubes
1 pkg. (8 oz.) cream cheese, cut in 1/2” cubes
1 cup fresh or frozen blueberries
12 eggs
2 cups milk
1/3 cup maple syrup or honey
SAUCE:
1 cup sugar
2 Tablespoons cornstarch
1 cup water
2 cups fresh or frozen blueberries
1 Tablespoon butter

Place half of the bread cubes in a greased 13 x 9 x 2-inch baking dish. Top
with all of the cream cheese cubes. Top with blueberries and remaining
bread cubes. In a large bowl, beat eggs. Add milk and syrup; mix
well. Pour over bread mixture. Cover and refrigerate 8 hours or
overnight.

Remove from refrigerator 30 minutes before baking. Cover with foil and bake at 350° for 30 minutes; then uncover and bake 25 - 30 minutes more or until golden brown and the center is set.

For sauce:
In a saucepan, combine sugar and cornstarch; add water. Bring to a boil
over medium heat; boil for 3 minutes, stirring constantly. Stir in
blueberries; reduce heat. Simmer for 8 to 10 minutes, or until berries
have burst. Stir in butter until melted.

To serve, cut the French toast into squares; serve with blueberry sauce ladled over each portion.

Yield: 6 to 8 servings

This is a wonderful breakfast or brunch dish for company! If you want to make a smaller amount, you can cut the recipe in half and bake it in a 9-inch square dish.

Slow Cooking Thursday for August 2

Here is a great recipe that makes a delicious sandwich. It would be good with French fries or chips alongside, or a pasta salad or potato salad, and baby carrots. I found this recipe in Cook & Tell (see link in sidebar), my favorite cooking newsletter.

EASY ITALIAN BEEF

A pot roast that will fit in your crockpot
1 envelope dry Italian salad dressing mix*
1 16-ounce jar mild pepper rings (find them in the pickle aisle)
Water if needed

Put the pot roast in the crockpot. Sprinkle with dressing mix. Pour the pepper rings (including all their liquid) over the top. If needed, add water to come halfway up the sides of the roast.

Cover and cook on High for 4 hours; then turn to Low for 2 to 3 hours more. Shred the meat with 2 forks and serve, using a slotted spoon, on crusty rolls.

* I use my own dry Italian dressing mix. I’ve shared this recipe before, but for your convenience am including it here again.

ZESTY ITALIAN DRESSING MIX

1/2 tsp. sugar
1/2 tsp. dry mustard
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. each: pepper, oregano, onion powder, garlic powder, sweet red pepper flakes
Pinch of paprika

In a custard cup or small bowl, mix all together. Whirl briefly in a blender if you like a finer texture (I skip this step). Makes the equivalent of 1 packet Italian dressing mix. May double or triple the recipe if you need more than one packet of mix in whatever you’re making.

A Day at the Lake

What a wonderful day I had yesterday spending time with my daughter and grandchildren. along with other friends at a nearby lake. No matter how hot and sticky it may be here, there always seems to be a cool breeze under the big pine trees. There was time to read and crochet while relaxing in a camp chair under a tree, and time to play with the grandkids and enjoy their sand-covered antics. It was a perfect summer day.

God is so good to provide these joyful moments even in the midst of less-than-ideal times in our lives!