When the 4th of July falls in the middle of the week, it’s hard to get excited, but this year it fell on a Monday, creating a 3-day weekend. I was sooooo excited! Three days to cook and grill and entertain and have fun.
The worst thing about the 4th of July is that it comes in the middle of summer. We were experiencing our 16th straight day of temperatures at or above 100 degrees. Since our main patio faces west, it is actually better suited to breakfast or lunch dining than dinner. While we decorated the outdoors, we certainly didn’t eat out there.
Our indoor meals were memorable, however.
Chicken a la Michael is something you have to experience before you understand why it’s one of the most requested dishes around here. The chicken is moist and tender and the flavor permeates the entire bird. This was our first time to try the Tenderloin Stuffed Sausage, and I can guarantee it won’t be our last. Fireworks went off in my mouth when I ate it!
The Jicama Carrot Slaw was cool and crunchy. Word to the wise, don’t add your dressing until immediately before you serve it. Also, next time I make it, I plan to dress everything but the jicama. I will add the jicama in time for the very last stir.
The 4th wouldn’t be the 4th without ICE CREAM, would it? We had the traditional vanilla with raspberry sauce one meal. We walked on the wild side with Sweet Bacon Ice Cream while we watched fireworks (on television — you didn’t really think I was going to be outside for hours in 100+ degree weather, did you? I still wouldn’t be recovered enough to write this!), and somewhere in between we had vanilla with blueberries and raspberries, completing the red, white and blue color trifecta.
There was very little indoor cooking. Virtually every piece of meat and every vegetable in the house got spritzed with olive oil, sprinkled with kosher salt and treated to a session of “Grill, baby, Grill.” Even fruit got introduced to the fire. (You’ll see the stuffed grilled fruit on PrettyFood soon.)
“You have to love a nation that celebrates its independence every July 4, not with a parade of guns, tanks, and soldiers who file by the White House in a show of strength and muscle, but with family picnics where kids throw Frisbees, the potato salad gets iffy, and the flies die from happiness. You may think you have overeaten, but it is patriotism. ”
— Erma Bombeck
Leave a Reply