Two refreshing rice salad recipes

(Photo by Taste of Home)

Recently I've made a couple of different rice salads for potlucks at church.  I like to make rice salads because they seem easier than pasta salads, and of course they can be gluten free less expensively than making salads with gluten-free pasta.  Both of these salads are intended to be main-dish salads, but I made one of them meatless for more of a side dish.  Both were delicious and went over very well.

Here's the link to the first one: North Shore Chicken Salad.  I found this recipe in one of my favorite cookbooks, Among Friends with Heart & Soul, which has recipes by Roxie Kelley and Friends, and beautiful illustrations by the incomparable Shelly Reeves-Smith.  If you can locate a copy of this cookbook, I'm sure you would enjoy both the recipes and the artwork. 

The cookbook says that this North Shore Chicken Salad is a recipe from Judy Goplerud, owner of Home Sweet Home and The Cottage Sampler in St. Ansgar, Iowa.  I was able to locate the recipe online at Better Recipes.com, so could link to it for you.  The only difference is that the original recipe uses 2 cloves of garlic rather than one, 1 Tblsp. of Dijon mustard rather than 1 tsp., and rice wine vinegar rather than white wine vinegar.  When I made the salad, I used seasoned rice vinegar. 

The second recipe, which I made for Sunday's potluck, is this one:  Texas Confetti Rice Salad.  It calls for 4 cups of chopped turkey, which I left out as I intended the salad to be a side dish.  I also left out the chopped red onion and added some dried minced onion instead.  In the dressing, I reduced the olive oil to 1/2 cup (which was more than enough), the cumin to 2 tsp. and the red pepper flakes to 1/4 tsp.  It also was a very delicious salad.  I think next time I might use 2 avocados rather than the one.

With all the hot weather we've been having, perhaps your family might enjoy one of these refreshing salads, too!  I will definitely be making both of them again before the summer is over.

Goals for week beginning 7/15/2012

Newfound Lake 2009

Here are my goals for this week:

*  Try to finish Sunday School lesson 11
*  Limit sugar
*  Keep up with crafting goals for UFOs and Christmas
*  Exercise 5 to 6 times
*  Keep up a good water intake
*  Get to bed by 9:30 or 10 pm each night
*  Post regularly in one or both of my blogs
*  Keep up with Kelly's Missions for Zone 3, the bathroom plus 1 extra room (this week, the home office)
*  Do better at staying in touch with friends
*  Keep up with Bible study/adding to prayer journal
*  Weed garden
*  Make a daily time schedule for the things I need to do.

And here's last week's report:

*  Start working on Sunday School lesson 11 -- DONE!
*  Limit sugar -- didn't do so well with this.
*  Keep up with crafting goals for some small gifts and UFOs -- DONE!
*  Exercise 5 to 6 times -- only managed 3 times
*  Keep up a good water intake -- DONE!
*  Get to bed by 9:30 or 10 pm each night -- didn't do as well as I'd have liked with this
*  Post regularly in one or both of my blogs -- didn't manage to do this as much as I'd have liked to
*  Keep up with Kelly's Missions for Zone 2, the kitchen  -- failed miserably at this
*  Do better at staying in touch with friends -- DONE!
*  Keep up with Bible study/adding to prayer journal -- didn't manage this
*  Weed garden -- not as much as I hoped to
*  Make a daily time schedule for the things I need to do -- DONE!

Needless to say, I'm hoping for a more productive week coming up!

Pepper Jack Mac -- quick & easy comfort food for a busy day!

(Photo by Taste of Home)

I tried this recipe a few weeks back and we both enjoyed it so much.  Here's the link to the recipe:  Pepper Jack Mac.  I had to triple the recipe, if I remember right (it only serves two), because we wanted some left over.  I thought it was even more flavorful the next day. 

I did leave out the mushrooms, because we didn't have any on hand, and it was great without them, but if I happened to have mushrooms in the fridge I would use them.  It would probably be even more delicious!  I used gluten free elbow macaroni -- the kind made from brown rice -- and it worked perfectly.  My hubby said this is definitely a "make-again" meal.  Maybe your family would enjoy this flavorful mac'n'cheese, too!

Goals for week beginning 7/8/2012

Here are my goals for this week:

*  Start working on Sunday School lesson 11
*  Limit sugar
*  Keep up with crafting goals for some small gifts and UFOs
*  Exercise 5 to 6 times
*  Keep up a good water intake
*  Get to bed by 9:30 or 10 pm each night
*  Post regularly in one or both of my blogs
*  Keep up with Kelly's Missions for Zone 2, the kitchen
*  Do better at staying in touch with friends
*  Keep up with Bible study/adding to prayer journal
*  Weed garden
*  Make a daily time schedule for the things I need to do.




And here's how last week went:

*   Finish Sunday School lesson 10 -- DONE!
*  Limit sugar  -- didn't do so well with this
*  Keep up with crafting goals for some small gifts and some felt food, plus UFOs  -- DONE!
*  Exercise 5 to 6 times -- DONE!
*  Keep up a good water intake -- DONE!
*  Get to bed by 9:30 or 10 pm each night -- managed this almost every night, but a couple of nights were a lot later.
*  Post regularly in one or both of my blogs --DONE!
*  Keep up with Kelly's Missions for Zone 1, the front porch, entry and dining room -- DONE!
*  Do better at staying in touch with friends -- DONE!
*  Make a daily time schedule for the things I need to do -- DONE!



Even though I didn't manage the limiting sugar and getting more sleep goals, I am thrilled that I was able to meet most of my goals this past week.  I'm especially thankful that I managed to keep up with exercising (6 times!) even in the midst of a very stressful, most unusual week.  And another big praise is the opportunity to get together twice with friends from Wisconsin whom we very seldom see.  I am praising the Lord for this week and praying for another productive week coming up.

Up and running

(East Branch of the Pemigewasset River -- nothing at all to do with our well, but it looks cool and refreshing)

Praise the Lord, we have water again!  It was looking a bit discouraging there for awhile.  But for whatever reason, pulling the pipes out of the well, cleaning things up a bit (sorry, I don't know the names of all the parts; there is a foot valve and who knows what else), replacing O-rings, and then putting the well all back together, solved the problem.  Mr. T thinks there was an air lock problem, probably exacerbated by the fact that the pipes from the pump to the well run slightly uphill.

So ... there is plenty of bottled water in our future, either from the store (Hannaford has gallons of spring water for only 50¢) or from a local spring.  We probably won't use our well water for drinking or cooking for another week or so until everything settles down and the bleach smell dissipates.  Thanks so much to everyone who prayed for our water situation!

Happenings at our house

Nothing says "Summer!" like daisies in a Mason jar!

 There's a lot going on here, but we're counting our blessings.  A lightning strike at our house Wednesday night knocked out our phones, internet, power, water, and even my husband's cell phone, which had been plugged in and charging at the time of the strike.  We got our power back yesterday afternoon, and got the internet and phone back this afternoon, but the problem with the water continues.  Fortunately, Mr. T had these 2 days off and has been working diligently to correct the problems, but we are not out of the woods yet.  I'm sure he would definitely appreciate your prayers for wisdom.  He thought the problem was the pump, so replaced that.  The replacement was a used pump and not working too well, so he got a new one.  He was fortunate to find a suitable pump on clearance at Sears for a great price.  Now he has installed that and it's not working either.  Next step:  checking the artesian well for  problems there.  I just helped him pull the pipes out of it, so we'll see where it goes from here!

I do have many more posts in the works (recipes, especially) and will share them as soon as I can.  Just wanted to share this much and let everyone know where I've been!

Happy Fourth of July!

Image Courtesy of VintageHolidayCrafts. com

 I trust that all of you are having a blessed Independence Day as we celebrate America's 236th birthday!

Mr. T and I began the day by going out to breakfast with friends at one of our favorite diners.  Our friends are from Wisconsin, visiting family here in New England.  What a treat it was to be able to spend a little time with them ... I think it had been 9 or 10 years since we saw them last, although we have been in touch by phone and email.

Now Mr. T is off leading visiting family members on a hike of his ancestral acres.  Later, we hope to attend a church picnic we've been invited to.  We enjoyed our neighbors' fireworks last evening, so we can cross that off our list.  I hope that each of you has a wonderful Fourth of July!