Food & Fun on the 4th!

Hello all.

I hope everyone had a wonderful 4th of July. Mine was busy, busy, busy! My best friend & her husband & their two kids came over to celebrate with us. I was in the kitchen pretty much all day. I definitely made WAY too much food this year but luckily majority of the main dishes were gobbled up. All I have left is a ton of dessert! 

On Sunday I decorated cookies with my best friend & her kids. We gave them 10 cookies to split up & decorate while Jess & I decorated the rest. They turned out soo cute!

These are just the cookies that Jess & I decorated. I don't have a picture of the ones the kids decorated but they were adorable too. It's fun to see kids explore their own creative side & see what they come up with. They were both a little heavy on the sprinkles & edible gel but that's what kids are good at. :)

On Monday I started prepping some of the items on our menu for the day. First up was the All-American Flag Mold. While grocery shopping one day they had these Jello flag molds that you could get for free if you bought three packets of Jello & I figured why not. Here's the recipe!

All-American Flag Mold by Kraft Foods

1 qt. (4 cups) boiling water, divived

3 cups cold water, divided

2 pkg. (3 oz. each) Jello Berry Blue Flavor Gelatin

2 pkg. (3 oz. each) Jello Gelatin, any red flavor (we used strawberry)

1 pkg (3 oz.) Jello Lemon Flavor Gelatin

1 tub (8 oz.) Cool Whip Whipped topping, thawed

***Quick Note: I just realized while making this for the 4th I used a large package of the lemon gelatin which is 6 oz instead of 3. It still turned out fine but I'd recommend using only 3 oz unless you like the extra lemon flavor.***

Add 1 1/2 cups boiling water to the blue gelatin mix in a medium bowl; stir 2 min. until completely dissolved. Repeat in separate bowl with red gelatin. Stir 1 1/2 cups cold water into gelatin in each bowl.

Spray 10-cup flag mold with cooking spray; place on baking sheet. Pour red gelatin into mold. Refrigerate 45 min. until set but not firm. Meanwhile, refrigerate blue gelatin 45 min. After 20 min., dissolve lemon gelatin in one cup boiling water in separate bowl. Refrigerate 25 min. or until slightly thickened.

Whisk Cool Whip into lemon gelatin; spread over red gelatin layer in mold. Refrigerate 10 min. or until set but not firm. Cover with blue gelatin. Refrigerate 4 hours or until firm. Unmold. Use fresh fruit & additional Cool Whip to decorate mold to resemble a flag.

How to Unmold:

Dip mold in warm water for 15 sec. Gently pull gelatin from around the edges with moist fingers. Place moistened serving plate on top of mold. Invert mold & plate. Holding mold & plate together, shake slightly to loosen. Gently remove mold and center gelatin on plate.

I know it's not the best picture but you get the idea. 

I have a few tips for this one. First off it definitely helps to spray the mold with Pam first. It was so easy to get this this out of the mold. Second, I'd recommend taking on no more than five more minutes to each of the above times. Especially for the red jello. Ours was not as set up as it could have been when we put the middle layer on & when we took it out of the mold. Finally, if you choose to decorate the mold once it is finished smaller blueberries work best & I just shoved some Cool Whip into a piping tool & it made it a lot easier to decorate.

Next up were the Revolutionary Berries. I was given a gift subscription to Disney Family Fun magazine which is where I got this great recipe. If you have kids it's definitely a great magazine to subscribe to.

Revolutionary Berries (Recipe by Sharon Cindrich & Judith Fertig)

12 oz white chocolate chips

Blue sugar

35-45 strawberries

These are really easy to make & it's a great recipe that even kids can do. Melt 12 oz of white chocolate in a microwave safe bowl on 50% power for one minute. Stir & put back in for 30 second intervals until smooth. Make sure you set your microwave to 50% power so it does not burn the chocolate. Make sure the berries are dry as any sort of moisture or water will mess with the texture of the chocolate. Dip the strawberries in white chocolate about half way up the strawberry. Then dip the strawberry in blue sugar about half way up the white chocolate. Set on a tray with wax paper to harden & you're all set. Here's how ours turned out!

Hard to see majority of the them fully decorated but you get the idea. 

Next up on the menu was Rocket Dogs which is another recipe I got out of the Disney Family Fun magazine. These were SO tasty & a lot of fun to make. While the kids didn't help out with these or any of the other recipes these are also great for little ones to help with.

Rocket Dogs (Original Recipe by Sharon Cindrich & Judith Fertig)

I switched this recipe up a bit.

16 turkey hot dogs

One can pillsbury pizza dough or plain breadstick dough 

Cheese

Skewers

Aluminum foil

Ketchup & mustard

Take the skewers & insert into a hot dog letting the skewer protrude at the top. Cut the pizza dough in strips & wrap around each hot dog. Bake in the oven according to the pizza dough directions (about 20 minutes) & remove from oven. Top with a triangle wedge of cheese, tie on a tail made from aluminum foil & squirt on stripes of ketchup & mustard.

I did not add aluminum foil tails to mine as I completely spaced but these were a total hit. The kids liked them as did the adults. I will definitely be making these again next year.

Our final recipe on our menu was the Nation's B-day Nachos. These were a pain since I made them all individually but well worth the time as they were delicious. They are pretty much just regular nachos just on red, white & blue chips.

Nation's B-day Nachos (Original Recipe by Sharon Cindrich & Judith Fertig)

Blue tortilla chips

Shredded cheese

Salsa

Sour cream

Lay out chips on a foil-covered baking sheet coated with cooking spray. Bake at 350 for 5-7 minutes. Take out of oven & top with salsa & sour cream.

And here's a great picture of everything together!

Jess also brought amazing cupcakes that were perfectly decorated for the 4th of July. All in all it was a great holiday. Great food & great company.

Hope you all had a safe & fun holiday!