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!

Fish Tacos with Mango Salsa (Recipes 21 and 22)

Cooking is like an art. There is a variety of colour to visually appeal to the eye. Yet, the art of cooking goes deeper than aesthetic beauty. There is also the beauty of texture. Knowing that pudding will be smooth and light when you eat it is all in the art of whipping it together. There is art in putting together the right foods to create a flavour that appeals to all the tastebuds. Cooking is an art that appeals to many of the senses. And so I say again, even though I feel like I say it every time I write, God is an amazing Creator. I am thankful that He created a world with colour and taste, smell and texture. It definitely makes cooking all the more fun. 

And with that little shpeel out of my system, here are recipes twenty-one and twenty-two.

It began in San Diego. Our flight touched down a little after lunch time and after realizing we couldn't check into our hotel until 4pm we decided to wander around and find something to eat. We came across this little shack advertising Fish Tacos. I like trying new foods, plus Damarise had eaten one before and said they were amazing. So I ordered one and my tastebuds were rejoicing. They were great. (And yes, I couldn't help it... I wanted to post a picture of my family from our time in San Diego. I love 'em!)

The Fish Tacos led to me and Damarise raving about them when we got home the following Friday. Matt heard us and told me that that should me my next new recipe. I needed no more convincing. I researched the web for a fantastic fish taco recipe and came up empty handed. Correction, I'm sure there are many, but they all called for ingredients I didn't have. Thus began my adventure...

Everything in this post follows no recipe. I just mixed a little of this and a little of that until I got what I wanted. Yikes. 

I wanted to try making a salsa for on the fish tacos. I was searching around our fridge when I realized I had several mangoes that needed to be eaten immediately. Orr...made into Mango Salsa. 

The Recipe: 

• 2 Mangoes (diced)
• 1 Purple Onion 
• 4 Orange, Yellow, and Red Peppers
• 1 Large Tomato
• A pinch of Salt
• Some Lime Juice
• Sugar to taste

(I apologize for the blurry picture, but I only took a picture for Instagram.. not on the camera. Oops). Mix up the ingredients and let it sit in the fridge for a while to get some juice. Mmm. So colourful and delicious. 

Next I whipped up some guacamole. The avocados were ripe to perfection. I added some salt, lemon juice, and sour cream until it tasted just right. I also love the pale green colour of guacamole. 

And then came the fish. Fish is incredibly easy to make. It cooks in under 5 minutes and can be seasoned easily.

The Recipe:

• Fish 
• Lime Juice
• Bread Crumbs
• Salt
• Pepper
• Chili Powder
• Paprika

I covered each piece of fish in lime juice, the spices and bread crumbs. Then I let them marinate in the fridge for a bit.  

After they were done cooking I put them in a bowl, cut them up and poured in a packet of Ranch Dressing mix. This added a flavour that blended well with the guacamole. 

The table looked so colourful. And, just like they served them in San Diego, I put a lime on everyone's plate. Thank you, Aldi, for having limes on sale! 

My the time everything (rice, refried beans, fish, cheese, guacamole, sour cream, and mango salsa) had been piled onto a tortilla it was a bit hard to close, but tasted so fresh. 

These were my wonderful eaters: Jimmy, Sonya, Megan, Janessa, Faith, and Damarise. I just love them all! If it weren't for their willingness to come sit in our hot house (our A/C still doesn't work) and try whatever new concoction I've made... well, this blog wouldn't exist and I probably wouldn't even want to try 50 new recipes. They are always generous and provide awesome feedback. 

Also, even though everything was made without a recipe... I think it was a hit. I definitely want to make it again!

Sourcream Onion Burgers and Corn on the Cob (Recipes 17 and 18)

As soon as I said I would get better at posting pictures I immediately got worse about posting in general. Oops. However, regardless of my two week hiatus, I am back with recipes to share! This one I made the day after National Corn on the Cob day. I have never made corn on the cob, even though it is probably one of the easiest foods to cook. Simply place the cob of corn in a pot of water and boil it until perfection. (Easy, right?)

I knew I wanted to make corn, but I had to have a meal to go with the corn. And that is when I remembered a recipe I had seen on Pinterest. Sour Cream and Onion Burgers. Yum. I have been on a sour cream kick lately (just ask any of my friends). Sour cream and nutella makes a good strawberry dip. Sour cream in brownies makes them moister with a hint of cheesecakes. Sour cream makes anything taste richer. So, how could I resist making Sour Cream and Onion burgers? The answer: I couldn't.

The Recipe:

• 2 pounds Ground Beef
• 1 cup Sour Cream
• 1 (1 ounce) envelope Dry Onion Soup Mix
• 1/2 cup Bread Crumbs
• 1 Egg
• Salt and Pepper to taste

Mix it all up to perfection. And add spices you want. I tweeked this recipe a bit by adding breadcrumbs from a leftover doughnut instead of real bread crumbs. It gave the burgers a little bit of a sweet flavour as well. 

Then comes the grilling. We do not own a grill, but we do own a George Foreman grill. (Fun fact: George Foreman was a boxer... I had thought, until about a year ago, that he had only invented this handy grill. Oh, the things you learn!) 

The lovely thing about burgers is the colours that come out. There's the soft sea green of lettuce, the rich fire engine red of tomatoes, the yellow of mustard, all on a canvas of a rich dark burger. It's like looking at art. I'm so glad God didn't create food as dull and colourless. 

I served up the burgers with a side of corn on the cob (which I would post a recipe for, but literally all it is is boiling it in a pot of water) and some ranch potatoes. 

The eaters for this meal were: Megan, Faith, Greg, Janessa, Sonya, and Austin. Our air conditioning hasn't been working and our house was probably around 90ºF plus humidity. So, amidst the sweat and stickiness we enjoyed our meal. Nobody complained and it was a great Summertime meal! 

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! 

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!