The Fourth of July gave me plenty of opportunity to give a few new recipes a try, and I think I would make everything I tried again.
We started our family gathering with this Blueberry Strawberry Jicama Salsa. It had beautiful patriotic colors, and I love jicama. I didn't add quite the recommended amount of jalapeno, so the salsa didn't have much in the way of heat, but it was very fresh tasting and different. As salsas go, probably wouldn't be first on my list for true salsa flavor, but it's great for the summer holidays (Memorial Day, Fourth of July, and Labor Day).
In combination with plain hot dogs and brats, I decided to give Plain Chicken's Cheesy Bacon Wrapped Hot Dogs a try. They were awesome! Delicious! Even though it seems ridiculous to spend time embellishing plain hot dogs--totally worth it.
Dessert was a two for one deal this time around. I made this Strawberry Shortcake Trifle, but changed it up for the fourth holiday and added blueberries. Yum! I love trifles anyway, and this is the perfect summer dish.
We finished our evening with these Ferrero Rocher-Stuffed Cupcakes with Nutella Buttercream. I did cheat a little on this recipe and use Duncan Hines Dark Chocolate Fudge cake mix. Partly I was lazy, and partly I wanted to make sure I had 24 cupcakes for our gathering. Frankly, the Ferrero Rocher bakes up weird. The flavor is fine, but the texture becomes very spongy. All is forgiven with the buttercream though.
So good, and I'm not even that big of a Nutella fan. Totally making the buttercream again, just so we can eat it with a spoon.
What a beautiful evening we celebrated together, the food was good too, and we topped it all off with some delicious Party Sangria and sparklers. Doesn't get much better than that.
We started our family gathering with this Blueberry Strawberry Jicama Salsa. It had beautiful patriotic colors, and I love jicama. I didn't add quite the recommended amount of jalapeno, so the salsa didn't have much in the way of heat, but it was very fresh tasting and different. As salsas go, probably wouldn't be first on my list for true salsa flavor, but it's great for the summer holidays (Memorial Day, Fourth of July, and Labor Day).
In combination with plain hot dogs and brats, I decided to give Plain Chicken's Cheesy Bacon Wrapped Hot Dogs a try. They were awesome! Delicious! Even though it seems ridiculous to spend time embellishing plain hot dogs--totally worth it.
Dessert was a two for one deal this time around. I made this Strawberry Shortcake Trifle, but changed it up for the fourth holiday and added blueberries. Yum! I love trifles anyway, and this is the perfect summer dish.
We finished our evening with these Ferrero Rocher-Stuffed Cupcakes with Nutella Buttercream. I did cheat a little on this recipe and use Duncan Hines Dark Chocolate Fudge cake mix. Partly I was lazy, and partly I wanted to make sure I had 24 cupcakes for our gathering. Frankly, the Ferrero Rocher bakes up weird. The flavor is fine, but the texture becomes very spongy. All is forgiven with the buttercream though.
Phe. Nom. En. Al.
What a beautiful evening we celebrated together, the food was good too, and we topped it all off with some delicious Party Sangria and sparklers. Doesn't get much better than that.
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