One of my favourite parts about Independence Day (other than fireworks!) is the delicious Summery food that usually accompanies the day. It's usually a cookout with wonderful side dishes. I decided to try and make a meal that seemed appropriate for an Independence Day celebration. However, we don't own a grill, so I decided to go with Pulled Pork Sandwiches instead and try out as many new side dishes as I could.
And so, without further adieu, six new recipes!
BBQ Pulled Pork.
The Recipe:
- 4-8lbs Boston Butt Pork
- Pepper
- Garlic
- Steak Seasoning
- 1 Chopped Onion
- 3-4 cups BBQ sauce
- Water
This is probably one of the easiest main dishes to prepare. Easy and good is one of the best combinations. Mom has made pulled pork several times in our family and every time I think it is the absolute best tasting pork. Yum!
I coated the meat in seasonings and then stuck it in the crockpot with water and onions to cover it. Let it cook on low for 6 hours. Then, drain the water, pour in the BBQ sauce, and cook on high until ready to serve. Shred it up and you are good to go.
While the meat was cooking, I set to work on making the buns. I used the same recipe that I used for Sloppy Joes.
While in the midst of preparing a meal that would pair well with a fireworks show that night (Chattanooga celebrates a day early) we got news that the fireworks would be canceled due to an enormous amount of rainfall. No fireworks would be a bummer, but the rain was beautiful!
One of the side dishes that I only tasted recently (and loved!) is broccoli salad. It is a blend of random foods mixed perfectly to make a delectable side dish. Thanks to Megan for giving me her sister's recipe, this turned out beautifully!
The Recipe:
- 1 lg bunch broccoli, cut into bite sized pieces
- 1 cup yellow raisins (I used black because yellow were more expensive)
- 10 strips bacon, fried and crumbled
- 1 cup sunflower seeds
- 1/2 onion, chopped (or to taste)
- 1/2 cup mayo
- 3 Tablespoons sugar
- 1 Tablespoon vinegar
Mix it all together. And you have an impressive side dish that is so simple, yet so good!
After the broccoli salad was in the fridge I went to work on cutting tomatoes, cucumbers, and potatoes. All while watching The Office.
This is a Tomato Cucumber Toss. I made it up, sort of. Mom has made something like this before and I'm not quite sure what she put in hers, but this turned out pretty good.
The Recipe:
- 5 Tomatoes diced
- 2 Cucumbers diced
- Vinegar to taste
- Sugar to taste
- Salt
- Pepper
- Parsley flakes
Mix it up and it's like a salad without the lettuce. Yum!
Here are the finished rolls. This bun recipe is the best I've ever found. My favourite part about them is that they stay moist days later, unlike most bread recipes that turn crusty after 24 hours.
Another new recipe that I have never made (not even the boxed kind!) is macaroni and cheese. It's a classic, but neither Damarise nor I really like it that much. However, I decided I'd try it out. It was super simple. Just some noodles, cheese, milk, and seasonings. Yum.
The Recipe:
- 2 Cups Macaroni Noodles
- 3/4 lb Velveeta
- 1/3 Cup Milk
- Pepper to taste
Cook noodles as directed on the box. Drain the noodles when they are cooked and mix in the other ingredients.
I also stumbled upon Martha Stewart's website full of wonderful meal ideas. What caught my eye was a watermelon drink. I decided to try it and regretted my decision immensely. It said to mix watermelon with Sprite and serve it. But it tasted pretty terrible. However, it was another recipe to add to the list... and not one I'd make again.
Dessert covered recipe number 29, thanks to Jimmy. He brought back an icecream maker this past week and after making a Walmart run to buy the special ingredients and stopping by a nifty little ice shack we set to work making it. (also, this picture of the ice getting is the only picture we got of the entire ice cream making process. Ooops). Getting the ice was pretty exciting though and something Damarise and I have been wanting to do for a while.
Jimmy has the icecream recipe so I can't repost it on here because I don't know what it is. Or I could just claim that it's a secret. Either way, it was delicious! We made cream cheese ice cream with strawberry pretzel filling (with Basil! Crazy). It was phenomenal. Jimmy did an awesome job of making it and getting everything to fit in our freezer. It was definitely a good wrap up to the meal and a perfect dessert to celebrate the Fourth of July.
The wonderful eaters for this meal were: Greg, Janessa, Micah, Sonya, Faith, Jimmy, Megan, and Damarise. I love having them all over. Conversation at the table is always filled with laughter and after dinner we all crash around the living room, talking, laughing, playing games, or playing guitar. Getting to relax with all of them is the best part of having them over for meals. It's fun to cook but without people to share it with it would not be near as fun. They all seemed to enjoy the food (except the terrible watermelon drink!) and there were plenty of leftovers for people to take home too! All in all, I'd say tackling 6 recipes in one meal went okay!
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