Wander and Ponder on Friday: Salad Days of Summer and a Surprise

Looking at the calendar just confirmed what I already knew. This is the last Friday of the month. Am I alone in asking, "Where did July go?"                                         

July 2024 was relatively uneventful for me, but that's okay. My siblings and I chose not to celebrate the 4th of July because last year's experience felt like a civil war zone with all of the noise, explosions, fires, and disruption of households with pets—and it was just plain too hot outside. The good news is we went from over 100-degree temperatures to, finally, this week, as low as the 70s. One of my sisters called me with the news of our "cold front," while a good friend emailed asking if I pulled my winter coat from the closet. 

Yes, it's been hot in our little village, but through the years of living in this house, I have learned to spend a few mornings making what I refer to in my Pinterest boards as "Satisfying Salads." I can have a good meal without having to heat up the house. As I made my grocery list, I started thinking about the salads I enjoy but haven't had in months - at least a year or more. I was reminded that every Junior League group eventually compiles their favorite recipes, prints them in a cookbook, and sells the books as a fundraiser. And we did.

When I became a member of our local Junior Club of Walla Walla in the late 1980s, we were welcomed with a potluck featuring some of the club's favorite salads. Two definitely stood out: Broccoli Salad and Strawberry Pretzel Salad.

I pondered a bit about the traditional strawberry pretzel salad. I think that in the future, I will experiment using blueberries and blueberry gelatin and also tangerines in orange gelatin. And the pretzel crust? How about adding another crunch factor to the pretzels with chopped pecans? 

Yes, there were a few meals when I ate my dessert first. 

Yes, I am the lady Dana Carvey didn't know, choppin' broccoli.

One of the salads I adopted in the last couple of years and prepared was "Spears and Kernels," also known as asparagus and corn salad. 

I also enjoyed other salads, which I may post about later. Some of my meals consisted of salads and cold-cuts from one of my favorite supermarket delis. Yeah, so I decided to be lazy. I even bought some excellent artisan-style bread and made a few favorite sandwiches I remember from childhood, like egg salad. However, I elevated it to adult-like by adding slivered almonds to give it more substance and crunch.  

Another feature of having salads ready to eat was that while I was staying cool, I was also busy writing future blog posts and editing my third Catherine Wright book, "Witch Way to Amethyst Bay? Book Three." 

Yes, I have been teasing everyone since the COVID quarantine that Book Three was being released "any day." This time, it is for real, as the cover themes have changed and will be released in a charming cover series by best-selling book cover artist Melody Simmons. Not only a new theme cover for Book Three, but Books One and Two will be updated with new editions and new covers. These three books will make a wonderful collection set or gifts. Here is a hint...

Stay cool, my friends. Before we know it, it will be fall. Perhaps this book may get you in the mood.