What IS in Mish's Mason Jar????????

Isn't it fun to look forward to a Monday morning?? I've kept you waiting long enough so today is the day for my Mason jar reveal. It's been hotter than the dickens...what are dickens anyway?......and it really hasn't been good picnic weather here in Kansas. But it's cooling off a bit this week and I hope the humidity stays away for July 4th and Josey's birthday gatherings that we have planned.

During these hot summer months in Kansas, sometimes you just don't feel like eating. Or so I've been told......I never feel like not eating, hence the pleasantly plump figure that I sport. But something light and cold is definitely better than anything hot. So please let me introduce you to my Picnic Corn Salad in a jar.

I've read through all the comments and I found two of you that most closely matched what I put in my Mason jars. Here you are:

Lisa said...
Love your post as always. I'm going to say a salad will be going into those jars.

Happydaymom said...
Maybe you are putting a bunch of daisies in them, or lemonade or maybe even a layered salad. A fruit parfait, layered jello or ice cream sundaes. I love to make individual servings of sweet tea. The kids love to take out a jar to drink!

If you recognize your post above, please email me at stamplady@satelephone.com with your full name and snail mail address. I'll send out your hand stamped Mishie goody package and hook you up with your $20 gift certificate to Eclectic Paperie, courtesy of Daisy and Joy from Eclectic Paperie!

Another one of you were very close and guessed fruit salad....good try! And boy, did you guys give me some great ideas for what to do with canning jars. The comments on my original post made for a good read!! Thank you all for playing along, you really had your creative thinking caps on.

So let's talk about my Picnic Corn Salad. I saw the idea in a magazine to put salad in a jar....but for the life of me can't find the magazine. So I had to get creative and come up with a recipe that would be perfect. I found just that recipe in a recent Weight Watcher's cook book magazine. I tweaked a few of the ingredients and came up with a delicious salad that is perfect for my canning jars. Here's the salad packed in the jars. The corn salad part with the dressing is in the bottom. The lettuce mix is packed on top. Circles of pinked gingham make a simple decoration for the jars. And these jars pack up great too. You can pack them in a cooler of ice and transport them easily, or stack them in the frig til you're ready to serve. At your picnic, you could have a tray of ice and nestle them inside to stay cool too.

Here's the fun part. To serve the salad, you take of the lid and ring and invert the canning jar onto a serving plate.
Jiggle out the ingredients until it's all dumped out onto the plate. The lettuce greens are on the bottom and the colorful corn salad with the dressing is on top. A meal in itself! And the flavors.....oh the flavor of this salad. A simple and light dressing over fresh veggies, nothing better on a hot summer day!

I made up my salad for a *mock picnic* so that I could have photos for you guys. I had some extra salad and I really wanted my folks to try it. We love to share recipes and an actual taste test is even better, right? So I took my decorated jars of Picnic Corn Salad and packed a little lunch. I found this beat up, metal lunch box at a garage sale for $1 buck so I put it to good use.

I'm going to digress a bit but here's a little story: My dad and I were looking at this old lunch box and he started reminiscing. He told me about how he and my Aunt Betty would ride this old horse to a little school house that used to be near where we live. My grandma would pack them a sandwich, an apple and some water into a lunch box just like the one I have. Then they would tie it to the horse's rope on their way to school. Boy, have we come a long way since then. And here's a funny: My dad said *If you really want to take a picture of something vintage, take your mother out to your picnic table and take her picture.* Ha ha, my dad is so onery.

So I packed three pint sized jars into my lunch box that was lined with a patriotic cloth napkin. I stuck in some plastic forks (eek, I hate plastic utensils, shoulda sent some of my regular forks)....closed up the lid.....and sent along some extra dressing to drizzle on top.

Here's my folks pictured below as they came to pick up their lunch. No, they didn't ride their horse......they rode in what I call their *buggy*, one of those Ranger buggy things. We love the Amish and their horse and buggies so I lovingly named their vehicle *the buggy*.

They LOVED the salad and gave it two thumbs up! I also sent along a quart jar of my Easy Squeezy Cranberry Lime Cooler. They loved that too!!

Sooooo, I hope it was all worth the wait. Let me know if you try the salad, it's reallllllly good!!

Of course, I have to share a recipe card with you. This one will go front and center in my recipe binder! I used JustRite Stampers' new Preserves stamp set to embellish my recipe card. I think this jar image is just the most adorable thing, don't you?
I colored it in with Copic Sketch markers to resemble my actual Picnic Corn Salad....coloring corn at the bottom and lettuce greens at the top of the jar. I used a Copic Multiliner to draw in some corn kernels. The label is paper pieced and I even made a little zig zaggy shape to resemble fabric sticking out from the jar lid. I then stamped the fun scallop border from the Preserves set onto Kraft cardstock. My circles were cut out with Spellbinder's die templates.

The patterned papers for the front and back of my recipe card are from October Afternoon. I wanted to create a look that kind of resembled county fair colors and this paper was perfect!

And here's the recipe for you to copy/print....maybe I should write a cookbook! Naaaa, I don't have too many original recipes, I'm just good at finding THE GOOD ones. ;) Enjoy it, everyone!!

Picnic Corn Salad
3 cups frozen corn kernels, thawed
2 cups grape tomatoes, halved
2 stalks celery, chopped
1/3 cup chopped red onion
1/3 cup chopped green pepper
1/4 cup olive oil
2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon cracked black pepper
4 cups bagged lettuce, assorted kinds

Combine first 4 ingredients in a large bowl; toss gently. Combine oil and next 3 ingredients, stirring with a whisk. Drizzle over corn mixture; stir gently. Add lettuce, toss gently to coat. This is a delicious portable side salad; mound lettuce on top of the dressed salad; then toss just before serving to keep the salad crisp. For salad in a jar, layer corn salad into pint jars, top with lettuce. Invert on plate to serve. I usually double the dressing to have extra to pour on top.

Note: Fonts used for recipe card are listed on the left side bar, just scroll down a bit.