Visitors, Sunshine and Boat Rides
Wonderful visitors from South Carolina arrived to spend a few days with us in Canada. The weather was very hot and humid for the first couple of days they were here. We don’t often get a heat wave in June but we certainly were having one. The temperatures were in the high 80’s and hovered around 90 for the better part of the beginning of the week. This meant we were outside on the porch the whole time. We ate our first meal at the table on the corner of the porch, we had cocktail hour on the cooler end of the covered porch where a slight breeze came down through the woods, and we slept with windows open and fans going. There is something really lovely about how everything slows down when it is hot outside. There did seem to be just enough breeze to keep us from melting, but the thought that we might jump in the lake was definitely on our minds. The temperature of the water is 68 degrees which is just a little colder than comfortable. The lake was dead calm when they arrived. Monday it was a little windy but not bad so we decided, after our walk, that we would take the boat and go down the lake for lunch at our favorite restaurant. They have lovely new docks there so arriving and docking the boat was a breeze. The lobster rolls were delicious and the sense of holiday was in the air. It was fabulous. Good thing we did a good long walk that morning. We also did another good long walk the next day before again heading out for lunch. This one was not quite as elegant as the first lunch but was certainly fun and had a view that was just wonderful. Off we went to visit the Abbaye Saint Benoit du Lac which is a beautiful Benedictine abbey on Lake Memphremagog about 20 miles from us with about 50 monks in residence. Among many things that they make, they are famous for their cheeses. We have enjoyed their cheese for many years but had never been to the Abbey itself which is a shame. Indeed, they have a gift shop that sells their cheese as well as cider and chocolate and all kinds of items. It takes visitors to sometimes get you out of your routine and to try something new. So glad we did.
Walking Plan Begins
I love visitors who love to walk as I do. Not only do I have my walking buddy Jen and her dog Lexie here in North Hatley but Genie has arrived with Nala for the summer. In addition, Betty joined us this week and trooped along with us for two days. In deference to the fact that she has come from South Carolina and has not been walking hills at all, we stuck to mostly the flats but it was still a good long walk both days. However, on Thursday morning, Genie and I along with the dogs, decided to expand our horizons a bit and do a slightly longer walk with a few more rather good hills. It has been a year since I did this walk, we’ll call it The Acres Walk, so I could hardly wait. The views are spectacular of the lake and the surrounding countryside. We chose the day because the heat had broken and we were back to absolutely clear air, sunshine and 65 degrees. Despite the coolness of the day, both dogs dove into the lake at full speed at the end of the walk and refused to come out until they were truly good and wet. The length of the walk is 9.10 km or 5.6 miles. The idea for me is to increase my walking by a mile each week. For example, I will do my regular walk most days (4.5 miles) and then on one day will do a longer walk of 5.5+ until I build up to doing a 10 mile walk. Since I am used to doing a walk every day, taking a day off is difficult for me. My wonderful Yoga teacher sent me a number of links to videos that will help with my foot soreness and I have been practicing every day. The ball rolling is also helping and incredibly the pain is subsiding. Stretching makes a huge difference and if I want to keep up this pace of walking with my goal to do the three-island walk in September, I have to not only walk but I have to stretch and do the foot massage too.
Salad Dressings
Many of you know that I have long been a proponent of “Salad in a Jar” as a way to get your salad to be portable. I discovered this option when I was still working and found it so easy to make a salad and take it to work with me every day. Here are links to a few times “Salad in a Jar” recipes were mentioned in my blog. Week 9 – February 28, 2016; Week 36 – September 20, 2015 ; Week 1 – January 3, 2016; Week 30, July 24, 2016.
Not only is “Salad in a Jar” a wonderful idea, I just came upon nine (9) recipes for Salad Dressing in a Jar on Buzzfeed. I am definitely going to try them but because I restrict sugar, I will either remove the sweetener or just lower the amount to my taste. They all sound wonderful and I really do recommend that you not use store bought dressings. Take a look at the ingredients sometime, it might just surprise you. I can’t even pronounce some of the words in this bottled dressing let alone do I know what they really are. So make your own with the best ingredients you can buy. If you restrict salt, don’t add any, if you restrict sugar then don’t add any. Most of the recipes have only a few ingredients and those are olive oil, vinegar, lemon juice, herbs and spices and mustard.
One of the salad dressings I tried was for the benefit of my husband. He suffers through eating salad because I make it and he is polite and has some, but usually without enthusiasm. He is rather fond of Ranch Dressing so I decided to try that one for him. I would lower the amount of garlic powder they recommend and not bother with the onion powder. Otherwise I made the dressing as it is recommended. He said he enjoyed it and he ate all his salad. Yay!
Here is the recipe for Balsamic Dijon. Since I can never leave well enough alone, my modifications were, remove the honey (if you do use honey use the raw local honey) and add 1 teaspoon of turmeric powder and 1 large minced garlic clove. It is delicious and the balsamic gives it plenty of sweetness.
[mpprecipe-recipe:102]
