4th of July Recipe Roundup

What does the 4th of July look like for you this year? Are you traveling or doing a barbecue with friends? Maybe you are flying solo this year due to coronavirus still being very much a concern in our country. My whole family had a trip planned to Santa Barbara that we had been looking forward to since February. The 4th is always a bit of a flop for me, so I was looking forward to being with family this year. Plans have obviously changed and we are staying home.

I’m laying very low this year, but hope to be meeting up with a few friends by a pool at some point this Saturday. I’m thinking festive Perfect CCC’s or S’mores Cookies and The Baker Mama’s American Flag cheese board will be my contributions. I rounded up those + some favorite summer recipes from my site and a few from websites I trust. Hopefully, this list will help make your holiday a little more special no matter what your celebration looks like.

Sweets
S’mores Cookies
Cherry Peach Pie with Homemade Vanilla Bean Ice Cream
Berry Cobbler
3-Ingredient Individual Strawberry Trifles
Sugar Cookie Pizza with Strawberry Icing or M&M Cookie Pizza (with festive M&Ms)
Perfect CCC’s (with festive sprinkles)

Sides
Watermelon and Heirloom Tomato Salad
Shaved Cauliflower Salad
Brussels Sprouts Salad with Avocado and Pistachios
Charred Corn Salad with Feta, Basil, and Jalapeno
The Mix
Watermelon Feta Pistachio Salad

And now a few recipes I’ve made or recommend from sites I trust!

The Baker Mama’s American Flag Cheese Board
Broma Bakery’s S’mores Rice Krispie Treats
Half Baked Harvest’s Bourbon Peach Baked Beans (I love this recipe!)
Barefoot Contessa’s Flag Cake (a 4th of July staple. I’ve made this exact recipe and is insanely good)
Elisabeth & Butter’s Blackberry Cobbler Ice Cream
The Defined Dish Whole 30 BBQ Ribs (I’ve been craving ribs, is that weird?)
A Peony For Your Thoughts Red Potato and Sweet Corn Salad (APFYT was my sister’s old blog, we havne’t made this recipe in forever, but it is so good and I always think of it when it comes to barbecues).

I hope you have a wonderful and safe 4th!
Annie

Wintergreen Salad

I got the inspiration to make this salad from an airport. Yes, an airport. It’s based on a salad from Modern Market I had in the Denver Airport a few months ago. I had never heard of Modern Market, but after an indulgent weekend in Vail for my friend Trinian’s bachelorette party, it was an airport restaurant with salads on the menu, and a salad was necessary.

The salad exceeded expectations, I knew I had to recreate it. With the name Wintergreen Salad, I’ve been waiting until the holidays to get this post together. It’s hearty with the roasted fingerlings, but light with the citrus basil vinegarette. It also includes one of my favorite salad ingredients - dates!

Make it for lunch, make it for dinner, make it as a side for your Christmas dinner, I love love love this salad!

Wintergreen Salad adapted from Modern Market
Yields 6-8 for a side salad, 3-4 as an entree

Ingredients:
5 oz pre-washed box of mixed greens
3/4 lb. fingerling potatoes
1/4 cup green onions, chopped on a bias (2 stems)
1/2 cup dates, pitted and chopped (about 8 large dates)
1/2 cup walnut pieces, toasted
4 oz. goat cheese, crumbled
2 medium Granny Smith apples, thinly sliced

Dressing:
1/2 cup olive oil
1/4 cup white wine vinegar
2 Tbsp. freshly squeezed orange juice
1 bunch of fresh basil
large pinch of salt and pepper

Directions:
Start by roasting your potatoes. Slice them in half lengthwise and widthwise. On a rimmed baking sheet, toss in olive oil, salt, and pepper. Roast at 350 degrees for 15 minutes or until they tender.

While the potatoes are roasting, toast your walnuts in a saute pan over medium heat. Shake the nuts around in the pan to toast evenly, about 5 minutes. Don’t take your eye off of then, nuts can burn very quickly. Take off the heat and set aside.

Then, make the dressing. Combine all of the ingredients in a small food processor or blender until the basil is finely chopped. Add more salt and pepper to taste if needed.

To assemble, toss the greens with the goat cheese, walnuts, dates, apples, roasted potatoes and enough dressing to your liking. There will likely be leftover dressing! Top with chopped green onion and some fresh cracked black pepper.

*would be great with chicken or roasted salmon if serving as an entree

Annie

Easy Holiday Cheese Board

So I was annoyingly stressed out these past two weeks thinking about all the holiday events coming up and all the things going on at work to get prepared for the holiday season that I didn't even want to do Friendsgiving. GASP! Friendsgiving is one of my favorite traditions of the past couple years. First headache was gone when my sweet friend Lexy said she would host. Second headache was gone when I decided to bring the easiest cheese board thanks to Hickory Farms! 

Quick story time. Me and Hickory Farms go way back. Every year growing up, one of my dad's co-workers would gift his fellow employees with a Hickory Farms gift box. My sister's and I would anxiously await the evening when my dad would come home with the coveted Hickory Farms gift box. We would rip open the box, fight over who got to eat the little strawberry hard candies and then start sampling every meat, cheese and spicy mustard, completely ruining our dinner. 

I'm often asked what my favorite food is, and struggle to muster up an answer. I could never answer that question with just one thing, but recently I've really been trying to nail down at least my top five favorite foods. So far chili has been put on my list, and after making this epic holiday meat and cheese board for Friendsgiving, it became apparent that cheese boards are also in my top five favorite foods. 

Not only do I love eating meat and cheese boards, I also love making them. But, I will admit going to the store and wandering the cheese aisle can be super daunting. With a million options, textures, colors, names etc. it's overwhelming deciding what cheese and meats to pair. With Hickory Farms Signature Party Planning Gift Box  the stress is gone. Cue the "easy" part of this holiday cheese board.

Hickory Farms perfectly curates their boxes to make for a perfect holiday cheese board. The Signature Party Planning box consists of four cheeses, three meats and assorted mixed nuts. Exactly what I would purchase if going at it by myself at the store. These amounts will serve about 12 people. Or 10 hungry 20-something girls at Friendsgiving...oops!

My cheese board assembly tips:
-Cut each cheese a different way. Cubes, triangles, slices, crumbles...
-Bring in different textures such as mixed nuts, fruit, crackers, olives or pickles
-Be colorful. Use cheese and meats of different color to keep it visually pleasing.
-Get your greens in. Some kind of fresh herb to contrast all the orange and cream. I used bay leaves because they were on hand. 
-Include some kind of mustard, jam or spread

Take a slight bit of the holiday stress off buy purchasing a Hickory Farms gift box for your next holiday gathering. Wow your friends and fam with this easy (and epic) cheese board when you show up for Thanksgiving. P.S. If you are last minute and don't have time to order something, and you are local to the OKC area, I know for a fact there is a Hickory Farms kiosk set up right now in Penn Square Mall. It is stocked with tons of meats, cheeses, mustards and pre-selected gift boxes. Cough Thanksgiving is in less than a week cough cough.

Happy holidays from my easy cheese board to yours!

Annie

Thank you to Hickory Farms for kindly sponsoring this post. All opinions are 100% honest & completely my own.

Bites of My Life

Happy Monday, I mean Wednesday, what? I'm confused. Welcome to the shortest/longest/strangest feeling work week. Taking last Friday off to move out of my house, turned the weekend into 5 days and now the work week is only 3. The restaurant my company has been working tirelessly over the past 2+ years is just days away from opening. This means the coveted 3 day week will be more like a straight 3 week work week. Seeing everything fall into place is extremely rewarding and exciting. 

Last week I moved out of my sweet little home of the last two years. A new place to call home is on the horizon, but I'll never forget the people, things and memories at Mahler Pl. A very long weekend of multiple cook outs, multiple days by the pool (finally) and a few days of rest to catch up on sleep made for a very successful 4th of July! 

-After two straight years of piling into our living room to watch The Bachelor(ette) every Monday, the last Bach watch party at Mahler Pl. called for copious amounts of Domino's eaten on the floor. 
-Happy birthday to the girl who celebrates everyone more than herself! 
-More pizza had to be consumed to morn not living together anymore. 
-Day 1 of the holiday weekend and Vim Vitae's reduce bloat juice was already needed...
-2 batches of festive Perfect CCCs were made over the weekend! Pro tip, serve them with my Homemade Vanilla Bean Ice Cream for a real crowd pleaser! 
-Guacamole needs a place at every cookout. 
-On a mission to make everything I ate over the weekend festive. 
-Another episode feat. ME coming soon to OKC Over Easy. 
-Peach, Avocado and Cucumber salad from the newest issue of BA. The perfect accompaniment to our Sunday night steaks and potatoes. 
-Flamingos > Swans.
-Only a corner of all the snacks that were consumed. Calorie overload is a must on holidays. 
-"There's only 3 of us, but we love the 4th" ;)

Annie

Last Minute Holiday Treats

I love my job, but if I could quit my job and just stay home and bake all day, I'd be the happiest. And probably the fattest. This time of year especially, all I want to do is bake.

I'm a little down to the wire, but I still had a few special people I wanted to gift with a little something. I made up a batch of my peppermint bark and cookie butter rice krispie treats, with festive sprinkles, of course. Packaged them up and I'm getting them delivered today. Below I have rounded up tasty holiday treats, some made by me, the rest inspired by others.  Co-workers, neighbors, classmates, instructors, yourself ;), anyone who is still left on your list would love one of these treats! Just click on any picture above for it to take you to the recipe. 

Peppermint Bark

Christmas Crack

Snowball Cookies

Merry Berry Scones

Gingerbread Sandwich Cookies

Homemade Turtles

Dipped Oatmeal Ginger Cookies

Chocolate Eggnog Cupcakes

Peppermint Mocha Cookies

Peppermint Bark Popcorn

Holiday Peppermint Brownies

Spicy Hermit Bars

The first few recipes are pulled from the TAB archives, but these other gorgeous recipes are from the gals below! 

Baked by Rachel's Chocolate Eggnog Cupcakes with Eggnog Cream Cheese Frosting

Sally's Baking Addiction's Peppermint Mocha Cookies

Cookie + Kate's Peppermint Bark Popcorn

Local Roots Dietitian's Healthy Holiday Peppermint Brownies

And Ina's Spicy Hermit Bars

And because it's the season of giving, I'm giving you a few more ideas that could easily be transformed Christmasy with a few sprinkles or red & green colored candies like my Signature Sugar Cookies (we make these for santa every year), Cookie Butter Rice Krispies, Cookie Butter Popcorn, M&M Cookie Pizza, Homemade Pop Tarts and Slutty Brownies.

I'm spicing my sugar cookies up a bit this year and adding crystallized ginger in them. Inspired by Ina of course. Because WWTBCD? Add crystallized ginger to her sugar cookies! I'll keep you posted on how they turn out. 

Annie