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Cook Out Time!

One of the many joys of summer is planning and enjoying a meal outside, with or without a BBQ.  One of my favorite dishes is Potato Salad because of the many variations that can be made.  Here is the recipe for Creamy Potato Salad featured in the book “The Great Potluck Cookbook”  from Good Housekeeping.  Come borrow this book or enjoy another one of the many waiting for you at the Gardiner Public Library.

 

CREAMY POTATO SALAD

Makes 10 side-dish servings

 

4 pounds red potatoes, unpeeled

2 ½ tsp salt

1/3 cup cider vinegar

1 Tbl sugar

1 Tbl spicy brown mustard

¼ tsp ground black pepper

½ cup mayo

2 stalks celery, thinly sliced crosswise

 

  1. In 4-quart saucepan, place potatoes, 2 tsp salt, and enough water to cover; heat to boiling over high heat.  Reduce heat to low; cover and simmer until potatoes are fork-tender, 10 to 15 minutes.  Drain; cool slightly.
  2. Meanwhile, in a large serving bowl, combine vinegar, sugar, mustard, pepper, mayo, and remaining ½ tsp salt.
  3. When potatoes are cooked enough to handle, cut each into quarters or eights if large.  Add celery and warm potatoes to dressing in bowl; gently stir with rubber spatula until well coated.  Let potato mixture stand 30 minutes to absorb dressing, stirring occasionally.
  4. Cover and refrigerate until completely cold, at least 2 hours and up to 1 day.

 

Peaks Island

My last blog of the summer encourages you to drive to Portland and take the Casco Bay Lines ferry to Peaks Island.  There are several other ferry trips via Casco Bay Lines to other islands off the mainland of Portland, so do investigate those also sometime.  The ferry trip to Peaks is $7.70 round trip.  You can’t beat that for a day’s fun!

The ferry ride to Peaks Island takes only about 20 minutes, so it is the perfect choice for a short day trip.  Once you land, you can visit the shops for a short while and perhaps have lunch or a beverage at one of the restaurants nearby before taking the ferry back to the mainland.  The ferry seems to leave every hour.  You might also extend your visit by doing some walking around the small island; it is only about 4 miles around the Peaks Island Loop.

 

Rather than repeat the information available from Casco Bay Lines’ web site, I encourage you to check out their website at the following link – Casco Bay Lines – Peaks Island.

Great Summer Reads

As you are packing for your vacation, or heading out to camp, don’t forget to take a stack of books with you! Summer is a great time to relax with a good book. Following are some great summer reads you may want to take with you!

If you’re a hopeless romantic, then this is the perfect read for you. A young couple from New York finds themselves at odds when a move to South Carolina causes strife in their relationship.
Lily’s story unfolds in 1930’s Seaview, Rhode Island, a wealthy summer community preparing for an impending hurricane. Her story becomes one of love, betrayal, fun in the summer sun, and plenty of scandal.
In The Island House, a college English professor returns to her summer island house in hopes of reconciling with a past love.

 

Author Elin Hilderbrand pens a thoughtful story about friends, family, and community coming together in the aftermath of a tragedy.
The author writes about one family’s two-week trip to the island of Mallorca, a story about the complicated up-and-down dynamics among family and friends.

 

Everythingseems normal with this group of island locals until someone’s husband goes missing and the town’s deeper secrets begin to unravel.
Sarah Duffy, Library Assistant