Harry Potter, Pressing Matters, and Warm Weather Cooking

Shhh! We opened our mailbox on Friday, July 15th, and found a box from Amazon.com in it! Prominently marked "Please Do Not Deliver Before July 16th, 2005", nevertheless, there it was - Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.

I wondered if, being after 10:30 a.m. that we picked up our mail (the time in the morning that they promise your mail will all be in your post office box), they decided to get a head start on the next day's box-stuffing. At any rate, it was sort of a moot point for me, anyhow, because I was still plowing my way through the previous Potter book. I badly needed to re-read that so I could remind myself where we left our heroes before coming into the new story.

So, betwixt and between other activities over the weekend, I took moments here and there to read. Finally finished Book 5 yesterday, and began on "Half-Blood Prince." So far, I've only barely gotten Harry to Hogwarts, but it's proving to be an interesting read, and promising to be a darker story. I won't reveal any surprises to those who are taking as long or longer than me to read, but I will say, as always, that people usually don't turn out to be quite what you expected them to be.

There's a banner ad over on the side of this blog now. I know, I know, I don't like ads either. Trust me when I say, I'm not going to make this a regular haven for large quantities of them. The banner ad in this case is a link to Cafe Press, an online imprinting business that lets anyone set up, for free, a store of their own selling t-shirts, mugs, and more with their own graphics. You can visit my store, Folkcat Art, here. If you think that having a store like this of your own sounds appealing, however, I would be grateful if you use the banner to navigate there. Doing so will give me credit for referring you to them. Thank you.

I've been off the crockpot for over a week now. We've just been too busy, and I've been too durned hot! The last couple days, though, I began craving one of my old warm-weather classics - my own Macaroni and Tuna Salad recipe that I created myself. It's awfully nice to have something tasty and nutritious in the refrigerator, ready to be scooped out in small quantity as a side dish, or by the bowl as a lunch or light supper.

This is another dish I've always prepared by putting in "enough" of that and "about that much" of this, but I'm making an effort to nail this recipe down, too. Here's how I made it today.


Folkcat's Macaroni and Tuna Salad

Ingredients:

1 lb. rotini pasta

1 bag Birdseye Baby Peas and Vegetable Blend frozen mix (contains baby peas, snowpea pods, baby corn, baby carrots) or use veggies of your choice

¾ cup mayonnaise

3 T. spicy brown mustard

2 t. dried basil

1 t. celery salt

1 7-oz. Pouch chunk white tuna

½ cup grated parmesan and/or romano cheese

Instructions:

Cook pasta al dente according to package instructions. Put frozen vegetables in pasta strainer in sink; drain pasta onto frozen vegetables. (This both thaws the vegetables and helps cool the pasta quickly.) Drain well so the salad won't be soggy.

In a large bowl, mix mayonnaise, mustard, basil, and celery salt well to make a dressing. Add pasta and vegetables and toss to coat thoroughly.

In a separate bowl, break up tuna into small, bite-size chunks. Add to pasta mix along with grated cheese, and mix until well coated.

Makes a great luncheon entree, or a side dish for dinner. Great to pack for brown bagging, too!

Folkcat's Tip: I haven't tried this yet, but I'll bet a salad spinner would make quick work of draining the pasta and vegetables.