Hooray for the Fourth of July!
Are you getting excited about the Fourth of July? I am. I ready for a four-day weekend, sleeping late, fireworks, swimming, languidly of course, and generally enjoying some summertime. No computer for me! I am still steering clear of the kitchen, too. If something needs to be cooked then it has to go on the grill. That will free up some of my valuable time for books and blockbuster movies. Surely Independence Day: Resurgence can’t be all that bad. Dana Stevens of Slate magazine thought it was a delightful summer movie, after all.
For our old neighborhood’s annual Fourth of July extravaganza we decorated our bikes (and the dog) with crepe paper streamers, bunting and flags. More importantly, everyone brought a covered dish to share. We would all admire one friend’s trademark handiwork every year: the ceremonial red, white and blue cake. She baked a simple vanilla sheet cake and decorated it with a bucket o’whipped cream, a precise arrangement of blueberries and some snappy red waves of strawberries, sliced with surgical skill. It was a crowd pleaser. We’d light a couple of sparklers and feel patriotic. And then we fall on the cake like a pack of wolves. Forget about always having room for Jell-o, give us Red White and Blue Cake, even though we had already stuffed our suburban bellies with all the standard cookout goodies. You know the drill: potato salad, cole slaw, hard-boiled eggs, pickles, watermelon, beans, weenies…
We grownups would all stand in the back yard, swatting at the mosquitos, waiting for it to get dark enough to go to the fireworks downtown. The sun never seems to set fast enough on the Fourth of July. Can you remember the joy of writing your name, in newly mastered cursive, with the glowing tip of a spent sparkler? Some bright spots never diminish with time.
I can’t compete with Lisa’s annual patriotic confection, but I can appeal to a different crowd: a large pitcher of sangria. The founding fathers would have enjoyed this during that hot July in Philadelphia.
https://www.bonappetit.com/recipes/2012/08/stone-fruit-sangria
Even though I am in my summertime kitchen denial, I do like to have a few things up my sleeve and sitting in the fridge. Sometime between the end of our latest Orange is the New Black binge and bedtime, someone I know will want a dessert-y snackum. Even if it doesn’t have any chocolate, this is a sweet summer treat. And the fresh tangy cherries are so lush and tempting and ephemeral
Just a Little Bit of Time Spent Slaving Over a Hot Stove Cherry Pie
Pre-fab pie crust
4 cups fresh cherries, pitted
1 cup white sugar
4 tablespoons cornstarch
1/2 cup water
Take the pie crust out of the packaging. Recycle the plastic, please. Bake as per directions.
Pit the cherries (very important!) and arrange most of them in the baked crust. Reserve about 1/3 cup.
Mash remaining cherries, and combine with sugar in a medium saucepan. Cook in a saucepan over medium heat and bring to a boil, stirring frequently.
In a small bowl, whisk together cornstarch and water. Gradually stir cornstarch mixture into the boiling cherries. Reduce heat and simmer mixture until thickened, about 10 minutes, stirring constantly. Allow the cherry mixture to cool slightly and then pour it over the cherries in the pie shell. Canned cherries never tasted like this!
Chill for several hours before serving.
This is one I am going to make for the Tall One when he next visits. Ever since he discovered Walker’s shortbread biscuits while on walkabout in Scotland a couple of years ago and brought them back to the intrepid colonists here he has had a fondness for shortbread.
https://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2011/06/sweets-cherry-amaretto-tart-recipe.html
Now I need to go supervise the our the ritual grilling of the hamburgers, brats and ears of corn. Have a wonderful, and safe, Fourth of July! Walk away from the computer!
“Our greatest happiness does not depend on the condition of life in which chance has placed us, but is always the result of a good conscience, good health, occupation and freedom in all just pursuits.”
-Thomas Jefferson
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