Independence Day Meal (Recipes 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, and 29)

I'm kicking this recipe goal into high gear. My boss has given me more hours at work, which is fabulous, but it also gives me less time to tackle the goal of getting 50 recipes. So, I decided to try out as many new recipes as I could for one meal. Phew!

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!

Lasagna and Breadsticks (Recipe 11)

Lasagna – layered deliciousness. It's a beautiful dish with the perfect mixture of meat, cheese, and sauce. And it is surprisingly easy to make. I always thought lasagna was a complicated dish, but after making it, it has become one of the most fun dishes to make. 

Meatballs are the essential meat in lasagna. So, I began by whipping up a batch of Mom's meatballs. Growing up, whenever Mom made meatballs for dinner, Dad always made a comment about how he married Mom because she made the best meatballs he had ever tasted. Not gunna lie, her meatballs are the most amazing ones I have ever had, and I have never been able to replicate them. Thus, I changed the recipe a bit and adapted it to make my own meatball recipe. 

The Recipe: 

• 1 pound of Ground Beef
• Breadcrumbs
• Salt
• Pepper
• 1 Egg
• Onion Powder
• Garlic Powder
• Italian Seasoning

I would put how much of the seasonings I put it, but I didn't count. Just do it until it looks right. 

Roll them up and bake them at 350ºF for 20-30 minutes. After that time pour spaghetti sauce over them and cook for another 20 minutes. 

Then comes the fun part. The actual lasagna. 

The Recipe:

• 1 Box of Lasagna Noodles
• 1 1/2 Jars of Spaghetti Sauce
• 2 Pounds of Ricotta Cheese
• 1 Egg
• 2 Bags of Mozzarella Cheese 

Boil the noodles for the time suggested on the box. While the noodles are boiling mix together the egg and Ricotta Cheese. This makes it fluffier. I also added in some Italian Seasoning just to add flavour. 

When the noodles are cooked spread a thin layer of spaghetti sauce on the bottom of a 9"x13" pan. Then place the noodle horizontally. Spread spaghetti sauce and ricotta cheese over the noodles. Then place bits of meatball over the sauce. Cover with mozzarella cheese. And repeat.   

For the last layer simply put sauce and cheese on top. Cook at 375ºF for 30-40 minutes. 

I also made breadsticks to go with the meal. I used a tasty braided bread recipe and just made it into breadsticks instead. 

The Recipe:

• 2 Cups Warm Water 
• 2 Tablespoons Yeast 
• 1/3 Cup Sugar 
• 2 Teaspoons Salt 
• 1/3 Cup Vegetable Oil 
• 1/2 Teaspoon Garlic Powder 
• 1/2 Teaspoon Oregano 
• 4-5 Cups Flour (but probably more like 6)

Mix together the water, yeast, and sugar to proof. In another bowl mix together the rest of the ingredients. When the yeast has proofed mix with the other ingredients. Knead and let rest for one hour. After an hour shape into the desired bread type. Braided bread, breadsticks, or rolls. Let rise for 30 minutes. 

Bake at 375ºF for 12-15 minutes or until golden brown. Serve hot! 

Damarise was at work and couldn't join us for dinner. Which, while being lonely without her, also meant there was no one to get a picture of dinner... or to remind me to. So alas, I have no more pictures of dinner. Oops. 

The verdict: The gracious eaters for this meal were Davey, Jimmy, Megan, Faith, Sonya, and Carolyn. They ate it up and left plenty of leftovers for lunch and dinner the next day. I'm a huge fan of anything Italian and after realizing how easy it was, it is definitely a meal I'll make again. 

Sloppy-Joes on Homemade Rolls and Potato Salad (Recipes 7 and 8)

Recipes seven and eight were made for the sole purpose of complimenting recipe six – the Strawberry-Rhubarb pie. I knew I wanted to make that and have people over to eat it, but I felt weird about just offering dessert. So, I scoured the web (i.e. the food section on Pinterest) until I found something that caught my eye. Sloppy-joes. It has been ages since I've had sloppy-joes and I've never made them from scratch so it was the perfect chance to make a new recipe, plus it was a Summery dish that would go well with the pie. 

I began the morning by looking for a good hamburger bun recipe. After comparing recipes I have with recipes I found online, I ended up going with one online. But it was a good start to the morning. Read some in the Psalms, some C.S. Lewis, my recipe book and drank some strong Zambian coffee. Mmm. 

Next, I set to work peeling the potatoes for the potato salad and boiling some eggs for it as well. Helpful tip: if you are boiling a pot on the stove and don't want it to boil over, place a wooden spoon over the pot. I don't know how it works, but it keeps it from boiling over. 

I would post the recipe of the potato salad on here, but I really don't know how to make it. I throw in some mayonnaise, mustard, vinegar, onions, garlic powder, onion powder, salt, pepper, paprika, and whatever spices sound good at the time. I mix it up until I think it tastes right. There really is no recipe for it. Just do what suits you best. 

Ah! The hamburger buns. Bread for me is a hit or miss situation. Either the bread turns out perfectly fluffy and wonderful, or it is dry and crusty. These rolls were thankfully on the fluffy and wonderful side. 

The Recipe: 

• 1 cup Milk 
• 1/2 cup Water 
• 1/4 cup Butter 
• 4 1/2 – 5 1/2 cups Flour 
• 2 1/4 teaspoons Yeast 
• 2 tablespoons white Sugar 
• 1 1/2 teaspoons Salt
• 1 Egg

Mix together the warm milk, sugar, and yeast to proof. After proofing mix together with the other ingredients. Knead well. Let rest in a greased bowl for 30 minutes. After 30 minutes divide into rolls and place on a greased baking sheet for another 30 minutes rest. 

Bake at 400ºF for 10-15 minutes or until golden brown. 

And last but not least to complete the meal: the Sloppy-joes!

The Recipe:

• 1 Onion, diced 
• 1 Green Bell Pepper, diced 
• 1 and 1/4 lbs Ground Beef 
• 1 and 1/3 cups Ketchup 
• 2 tablespoons White Vinegar 
• 1 heaping tablespoon Brown Sugar 
• 1 teaspoon Chili Powder 
• 1 teaspoon Paprika 
• 1 teaspoon Salt 
• 1/4 teaspoon Black Pepper 
• 2/3 cup Water

Sauté the green pepper and onion in a skillet.  

Mix all the ingredients together with the cooked ground beef. (I also put a little bit of mustard in mine). 

Serve it up on the rolls with some potato salad and veggies. 

And enjoy it with some friends. 

The verdict: the eaters for this meal were Jimmy, Sonya, Faith, Megan, Matt, and Damarise. I think it turned out well. It was a simple Summer time meal with leftovers! Yes! And as always, great fellowship. We even played some Fffbasketball after dinner. I have great friends! 

Strawberry-Rhubarb Pie (Recipe 6)

Strawberry-rhubarb pie is the epitome of Summer pies. Strawberries were on sale at Aldi – a pound for $.99! Such a good deal! I snagged up a few cartons and went on the search for rhubarb. I went to Walmart in search of that delectable plant and came up empty handed. Nobody knew what rhubarb was. 

Then Tuesday morning I went to an early breakfast with Janessa at a whole food's store. We were sitting up stairs eating muffins and sipping piping hot coffee when I spotted the dark red, beautiful stem poking out from amidst a mass of leafy vegetables. It had to be rhubarb! When we finished our meal we went downstairs and I found perfect looking rhubarb. I bought it and was probably too excited about it, but it was a great find.

I took it home and prepped the rhubarb and strawberries for the pie. 

The Recipe: 

• 3 cups strawberries hulled and quartered 
• 4 cups rhubarb, chopped into 3/4-inch pieces 
• 2 tablespoons lemon juice 
• 1 cup flour 
• 1/2 cup sugar

Does that not look like Summer?

Oh, my mouth is watering just looking at these pictures.

Mix it all together. 1 cup flour seemed like a lot, but it is necessary. 

The pie crust, an essential part of all pie, and so simple to make. I didn't have a pie pan so I put my pie crust in a round cake pan. It turned out fine, so if you don't have a pie pan, no worries!

The Recipe:

• 2 cups Flour
• 1 teaspoon Salt
• 1 cup Shortening (or margarine)
• 4ish tablespoons Water

Mix it up in a bowl and divide the dough in halves. Take one half and roll it out to fit the pie pan. Take the other half an cut it into strips to place on top of the pie. 

I did not add in the full cup of flour and had to go back and add it in before completing my pie. 

When the pie is ready for the oven, brush the dough with an egg white and water mix. (I added a wee bit of sugar to mine so that the crust would have a little sweetness). 

And just in case you had any illusions that when I cook I keep everything neat and tidy, let me just dismiss that idea and give proof that I am probably the messiest cook ever. It takes me a while to clean up after cooking. But it is worth it!

Preheat the oven to 425ºF and cook for 20 minutes. After 20 minutes put the oven on 350ºF and cook for 30-40 minutes more. The crust should be a golden brown and the strawberry-rhubarb mix should be bubbling. 

Serve it up with a dollop of vanilla ice cream and your taste buds will be in Summer taste heaven. This is probably one of my personal favourite pies and it is perfect for eating after enjoying a game of Ffbasketball with friends. 

Bruschetta Chicken, Asparagus, and French Bread (Recipes 4 and 5)

Can I just say that God is an incredible Creator? Have you ever thought about how beautiful the world is that He created? He created so many good and beautiful things for us to enjoy. He didn't make food bland and colourless, but rather He made food aesthetically beautiful and wonderful to eat. Sometimes when I'm cooking I just have to stop and marvel at God's glorious creation. What a great God we serve!

The recipe I wanted to try was a bruschetta chicken recipe. Bruschetta is basically tomatoes, spices, and oils mixed together. I didn't have all that the original recipe called for, so I adapted and came up with this instead:

• 1 pint of Cherry Tomatoes
• 2 Tomatoes diced
• 3 tablespoons Vinegar
• 3 teaspoons White Sugar
• 1 tablespoon Olive Oil
• 5 cloves of Garlic minced
• 1 tablespoon dried Basil Leaves
• Salt and Pepper to taste
• A few drops of Lemon Juice
• Some cut up fresh Spinach 

Mix it all together in a bowl and let it sit in the fridge for a while to soak up all the delicious juices. 

While that was sitting in the fridge ready for dinner I got to work on the bread. I love baking bread. I love how simple it is, with just a few ingredients, but how it becomes a fluffy loaf of deliciousness after a few hours. 

This recipe for French Bread probably just became my favourite bread recipe. Not only did it taste good (which is always a nice surprise!) but it was fun to make. It is a very involved bread recipe. Most bread requires an hour or more of rest. This recipe called for punching it down every 10 minutes while it rested. Fun? Yes!

The recipe:

• 2 tablespoons Yeast
• 2 cups Warm Water
• 2 tablespoons Honey
• 2 tablespoons Oil
• 1 tablespoon Salt
• 6 cups Flour

Mix together the honey, yeast, and water in a separate bowl. 

Mix together the flour, salt, and oil in another bowl. When the yeast mixture has proofed (i.e. started to poof up a bit) pour it into the flour, salt, and oil mixture. Knead it together into a ball of dough. 

Set it in a greased bowl to rise for one hour, punching it down every ten minutes. 

While waiting every ten minutes to punch down the bread I sat and read some new books that I got. 

 When the dough has been risen and punched 6 times, form it into loaves and let it rise for 30 minutes. 

Preheat the oven to 400ºF and bake for about 15 minutes. 

 While the bread was baking away in the oven, I set to work on the chicken. The recipe for the chicken called for salt and pepper... that's it. Well, I don't know about you, but to me that sounded awfully bland and didn't I just write about how wonderful God is to create food that isn't bland? So why wouldn't I try and make the chicken as good as it could be. I wanted a flavour that would compliment the spices of the bruschetta, so I opened up the fridge and took out ingredients that looked good. 

First I defrosted chicken breasts and sliced them in half lengthwise. I then put them in a large bowl with a little bit of oil, parmesan, salt, pepper, garlic powder, and onion powder. After getting them nicely coated I stuck them in a tupperware container and smothered them in sour cream and a little bit of mustard to give it a kick. 

The picture looks terrible! I am so sorry. I should have taken a picture of it cooking because it looked a bit more appetizing. However, this is what the chicken looked like before I stuck it in the fridge to marinate for a few hours.  

After letting the chicken marinate for a few hours, I grilled each side for about 30 seconds in a skillet, then stuck it in the oven to bake for about 15 minutes. 

I also cooked up some asparagus for the meal. I recently discovered the wonders of asparagus a few weeks ago. Asparagus is easy to fix, but it looks classy and sophisticated. 

First I boil a pot of water. While the water is coming to a boil, I break of the ends of the asparagus. They will break at the point where they are good, so it's simple. 

When the water has come to a boil, simply throw in the asparagus for 2-3 minutes (depending on the thickness of the asparagus). As soon as the time is up, quickly take them out and put them in a bowl of ice water. 

This is called blanching and is one of my top ten favourite cooking vocabulary words. 

Blanching stops the vegetable from cooking any more and gives it a vibrant colour as well as a soft inside with a crunchy outside. Mmm. 

When the asparagus has sat in the ice water for a bit take it out and roast it in a skillet with some Olive Oil, Garlic Powder, Parmesan, and Salt. And there you have it, a beautiful vegetable that takes about 5 minutes to cook. Yum! 

The final bruschetta chicken. I put the bruschetta on the chicken and sprinkled it with a little bit of cheese.

The verdict: Faith, Megan, Jimmy, Damarise, and Davey were my fantastic eaters for this meal. This meal started out looking much better than cow tongue, and I think they all agreed that it tasted better too. The bread was a huge success and both loaves were demolished by the end of the meal. I'd call this meal a success! We didn't revert back to a bowl of cereal; great day! 

End note: I love these people! They bring so much joy to my life. I'm thankful for their willingness to try new foods and brave my cooking. I'm thankful for the time we have to fellowship together during and after the meal. God is a glorious creator in the foods that He created, but He is an incredible creator in creating each of these lovely people! Cooking and baking and having them enjoy it is the best!