The Rainbow Connection

 

When you see a rainbow, do you think of a loved one who is sending you a message?  I always think that Bruce is sending me his blessings and telling me that things will be alright and to keep on living!  I have photos of the two most recent rainbows over the river, including a rare winter rainbow in the middle of February, a Valentine’s message from Bruce!  And the other rainbow was so perfectly reflected over the river  this fall!

Thanks to a little help from my friends, I can keep on living the good life!  I treasure my friendships more than ever!  If it weren’t for friends, I’d be a very lonely person!  I am so blessed that every friend I have checks in on me and comes up with ideas for things to do together.  The older I get the more I realize that experiences and the memories they generate are so much more precious than material goods.  If I had $1000 to spend on items I could purchase or spend the $1000 on a trip that will create wonderful memories, I’ll chose the trip!

But you don’t have to go far to find those kinds of experiences!  I can think of three such experiences which were the highlights of this winter for me!  Back in November, I volunteered to help at a community turkey dinner fundraiser for a local charity, Action for Animals Maine.  There must have been twenty volunteers total, and we hosted the afternoon’s dinner at the American Legion Hall.  We planned to serve up to 200 turkey dinners.  It was a lot of fun to work in a big, professional size kitchen, cooking huge pots of squash and potatoes.   I got to serve food on the line like a real “lunch lady”!  You meet so many nice people volunteering!  And then, the next week, I went on an Alpaca Trek with three friends.  It was a highlight of the entire year for me!  The alpacas look rather silly and make you smile!  They give you an alpaca to lead on a hike for the afternoon.  Mine was named “Gracie” and she said “Mmmmm” a lot!  These alpacas were trained to give kisses for treats!  You have not lived until you’ve been kissed by an alpaca!  Then most recently, dear friends of mine invited me to stay with them at their sweet little camp in the Maine mountain ski country.  An afternoon out snowshoeing was marvelous! I always feel so much healthier after the exercise snowshoeing requires!   The entire Sugarloaf area is geared to winter outdoor activity.  You name it, they’ve got it!  And the drive up was lovely too!  No highways, just rural back roads.

I find it to be so healing and uplifting to have the opportunity to make new memories with great friends!

  

On to the food!  The recipe I am featuring here is an entrée salad which I make frequently in the winter months.  By this time of year, the tomatoes at the market have reverted to the hard, pale and flavorless ghost of the real thing.   If I can’t get farm stand quality tomatoes, I tend to pout and toss the idea of making a traditional tossed salad.  However, since citrus fruits are in season starting in December, oranges are at their freshest now, juicy, tender and sweet.  You will see that I have specified Cara Cara oranges here.  I just love them!  The dark pink flesh is artistically appealing and adds such a lovely color.  Plus, they are less acidic that regular oranges and are sweeter and also seedless.  Did you know that the Cara Cara is a hybrid, actually the result of a random mutation? They were first discovered in Venezuela in the 1970’s.

Serve this with a nice loaf of bread or maybe pita bread and hummus.  This recipe calls for boneless chicken breast as the protein.  However, if you’d like to make it a side salad, omit the chicken and serve on the side with a lovely piece of grilled salmon!

 

Delicious Citrus Salad

1 Cara Cara Orange

¼ cup crumbled gorgonzola or  blue cheese

1 package lettuce mix

Hot and Spicy Pecans

Lemon Vinaigrette Salad Dressing

1 grilled boneless chicken breast, cut into bite size pieces

Make the spicy pecans at any time and store in a tightly sealed container. 

Spicy Pecans

Preheat oven to 300 degrees

2 cups pecans

2 tablespoons melted butter

1 tablespoon hot sauce, such as Tabasco or Cholula

¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper

2 teaspoons chili powder

In a bowl, mix melted butter with hot sauce and spices.  Add the pecans and stir to coat.  Spread pecans evenly in a baking sheet.  Bake for 30 minutes, stirring at least twice to roast evenly.  Cool and store.

 

Lemon vinaigrette lemon dressing:

Juice of one lemon (about two tablespoons)

1/3 cup of extra virgin olive oil

Coarsely ground pepper and sea salt

Stir well just before putting on salad.

If you would rather use a bottled salad dressing there are a few lemon vinaigrette options at the market, I use these two:

 

Assemble the salad and toss with lemon dressing just before serving.  Take care not to overdress the salad.   I like the pecans scattered across the top instead of mixed in.