Salad Days - Fruit and Nutcase Rice Salad

Today I went to a friend's birthday tea, for which she chose the theme 'Mad Hatter's Tea Party' and encouraged everyone to dress up.  At first, I was a bit doubtful about dressing up, as I couldn't think what to go as.  Then inspiration struck - I love butterflies, why not go as the caterpillar? Okay, I know he probably wasn't at the Mad Hatter's tea party (I can't find my copy of the book to check) but why not, anyway? Without the hookah - I don't smoke - but with a pair of dark turquoise voluminous harem pants, a green satin top, and a couple of green-blue scarves wrapped around my head to hide my bruises, stitches and horrible greasy hair (not allowed to wash it for another few days yet!).

Next question was what to take for the table? Ahha, my salad for today. I'm fairly sure there wasn't salad on the tea table in the book either, but too bad; everyone else was likely to take cakes and my friend and I are supposed to be trying to lose weight. So since this is a bit of a mad tea party, I thought perhaps a rice salad with fruit and nuts.

So, basmati rice, cooked and cooled a bit while I put together the rest of it.  Some pistachios (unsalted) and chopped almonds, and a mix of raisins and sultanas. Some red-purple grapes, a couple of fresh apricots, a  peach and an apple, chopped up. I had a persimmon which was quite hard when I bought it a few days ago, but was melting all over the place, too soft to chop up for salad so I just slurped that up while I looked for something else to add to the salad. Ah, some halved cherry tomatoes! They're sweet and count as fruit. And last but not least, pomegranate seeds and the juice which came out as I was stripping the seeds from the pith.

The party was great, with most others dressed up too. My birthday friend dressed in white, with a white fur hood and her face made up with a pink nose and whiskers as the White Rabbit. Actually, her birthday was the following day, so this was sort of an unbirthday, appropriately. There was a bumble bee and a fairy, the Queen of Hearts, and a dormouse in a leopard print onesie.  We were jam packed around the table under a pop-up gazebo in the small back garden, so no moving around. Thankfully, the rain stopped and it was a sunny afternoon, just lovely!

There was a lot of this salad left over after the party, so that's my Sunday lunch sorted out. Standing while preparing the salad made me realise how much my left knee is now hurting, scarcely able to take my weight properly. It loosened up a little at the party, when I had a little belly dance boogie with one of the other ladies, but seized again driving home.  I now can't bear to stand and prepare food, and don't feel like it as the pain is too intense. I'm only eating so that I can take painkillers, just having a piece of fruit or bowl of cereal. So I'm going to take a break of a few days and continue this series of salads when I feel I want to eat  properly again.  I hope this flare stops soon, as I've got too much to do to be able to lie around resting!