FOOD ART AND FAMILY FUN - SOME TASTY RECIPES FOR JULY 4TH

(From the recipe collection tested and tried and found to be true by Sheila Gail Landgraf)

The Meal Celebration for Independence Day is looking good! 

M E N U

Drinks:          White Sangria with Red, White and Blue Stared ice

                      Cubes/Sweet Tea,/Water

Appetizer:     American Taco Cups

Bread:           Best Blueberry Muffins

Salad:           Pasta with Beans and Greens

Entrée:         Pulled Pork BBQ Sandwiches with White Sauce

Side:              Fresh Corn on The Cob

Desserts:     Pretty Patriotic Pie, Linzer Star Cookies

Serve the traditional cold iced tea and water to drink with your meal, but before time to gather together, freeze several ice cubes in star-shaped trays.  Use food coloring to make the ice red and blue. Fill them into a pitcher of White Sangria and place along side a tray of glasses and serve first along side of the appetizers.

WHITE SANGRIA

Ingredients:

1 bottle of white wine (I use Riesling)

2/3 cups white sugar

3 oranges

1 lemon

1 lime

½ liter ginger ale or club soda

Directions:

Pour wine into your pitcher and squeeze juice from the orange, lemon and lime into the wine.  Toss in the fruit wedges, and add sugar.  Chill overnight.  Add ginger ale or club soda just before serving.

Make the appetizer below to serve with the Sangria:

American Tacos

(They are American because we are eating them on Independence day (LOL)

Ingredients:

1 can refried beans

½ pound cooked taco-seasoned meat

1 cup shredded cheddar

1 cup salsa

½ cup sour cream

½ cup sliced black olives

1 bag of Tostitos “Scoops”

Directions:

Set chips on a platter and layer with beans, meat and cheddar.  Heat in microwave until hot.  Top with salsa, sour cream and black olives. 

You know I’m going to say it….pull out the red, white and blue dishes! 

It is okay to mix styles of china, that only makes things more interesting.  If you don’t have red, white and blue dishes, don’t fret about it, there are lots of great paper styles.  Go casual and use paper, or bring out the colors in your napkins and tablecloth or centerpiece.   

You might consider tucking a tiny flag into your napkin rings.  If you don’t want to spend a lot on flowers for a center piece, go to the dollar store and stock up on flags.  Put several of them inside a clear vase in the center of your table.  You’re all set!

Since we will be having bread with the sandwiches already, I’ve chosen to serve blueberry muffins. Here is my favorite blueberry muffin recipe:

BEST BLUEBERRY MUFFINS

Ingredients:

1-3/4 cups flour

¾ teaspoon salt

¼ cup sugar

2-1/2 teaspoons baking powder

2 teaspoons grated lemon zest

1-1/4 cups blueberries

1 egg

¾ cup milk

1/3 cup vegetable oil

Melted butter and sugar

Directions:

Sift all dry ingredients into a large bowl.  Sprinkle over lemon zest and blueberries. Beat egg well and add milk and oil.  Mix (don’t beat.)  Spoon into prepared muffin tins. Fill to the top.  Bake at 425 degrees for 15 minutes until beautiful and a little brown. Cool for 5 minutes.  Remove from tins.  Brush muffin tops with butter and dip in a bowl of  crystallized sugar.  Serve warm.

Here is one of the best salads ever, and my family always enjoys it.  I’ve often used it in lieu of the traditional boring baked beans.

PASTA WITH BEANS AND GREENS

Ingredients:

8 ounces uncooked bow tie pasta

1 large onion chopped

1 package fresh mushroom caps, sliced

2 teaspoons olive oil

4 cups fresh kale

1 cup chicken broth

2 teaspoons minced garlic

½ teaspoon salt

½ teaspoon pepper

1 15 ounce can Great Northern Beans, drained and rinsed.

¼ cup shredded Parmesan cheese.

Directions:

Cook pasta.  Saute onion and mushrooms in oil for five minutes.  Add kale and next five ingredients and cook while stirring for 15 minutes, or until kale is tender.  Add beans and cook for one minute more.  Remove to serving platter, tossing gently.  Top with cheese.

Now for the main dish!  The very important ingredient here is the white sauce.  White sauce is a southern tradition, and my family loves it!  Here is a main dish that uses white sauce and always turns out good.  I’m making it a 4^th of July tradition at our house:

PULLED PORK BBQ SANDWICHES WITH WHITE BBQ SAUCE

Make the Sauce first and let it sit for several hours in the refrigerator.

SAUCE

Ingredients:

1-1/2 cups mayonnaise

1 teaspoon lemon juice

1/3 cup white vinegar

1 teaspoon pepper

½ teaspoon salt

½ teaspoon sugar

1 garlic clove, minced

Directions:

Mix all together and refrigerate for several hours. Flavors need to blend before using.

PORK

Ingredients:

1-1/2 pounds pork tenderloin – trimmed.

½ cup apple cider vinegar

¼ cup water

3 Tablespoons brown sugar

2 tablespoons kosher salt

¾ teaspoons freshly ground black pepper

½ teaspoon ground red pepper

½ teaspoon chili powder

¼ teaspoon garlic powder

Directions: 

Cut the pork into 2 – ½ inch chunks.    Mix the other ingredients together and pour into a sauce pan and bring to a boil.  Reduce heat, add pork and simmer for one hour or until tender.  Remove pork from pan.  Using two forks, shred.  Place on a platter and pour liquid left in pan over pork.  Serve with your favorite bread, mini buns or biscuits, and top with White BBQ sauce.

For a side dish I want to have an old favorite, fresh corn on the cob, cooked in the husks and served hot with butter.  Here is an easy way to prepare:

CORN ON THE COB

Buy very fresh, healthy corn, preferably from a local grower.  Preheat oven to 350°F.  Leave the husks on the corn. Place the corn on the cob directly on the oven racks. Bake for about 1 hr depending on size. When the husks have turned a light brown on the outside they should be done. This is the best way to cook fresh corn on the cob.  It is easy and it is always good.

This year I chose two easy, tasty and colorful desserts that are a bit lighter after such a heavy meal.  I also wanted them to be cool.  I may add a little vanilla bean ice cream to go with these selections as well.

PATRIOTIC PIE

Ingredients:

1-1/2 cups boiling water

1 – (3oz.) pkg. Jello Berry Blue Flavor Gelatin

1 pint fresh blueberries, washed and drained.

1 cup ice cubes, divided

1 Honey Maid Graham Pie Crust (6 oz.)

1 – (3 oz.) pkg. Jello Strawberry flavor gelatin, or any other red flavor.

1 pint of fresh strawberries, washed and sliced into thin slices.

1 cup Cool Whip Whipped Topping

Directions:

Add ¾ cup boiling water to blue gelatin mix;  stir two minutes until completely dissolved.  Add ½ cup ice cubes; stir until melted.  Pour into crust; refrigerate 5 to 10 minutes or until set but not firm.  Meanwhile repeat to dissolve red gelatin mix in a separate bowl; stir in remaining ice cubes.  Cool 5 minutes or until slightly thickened.  Spread fresh blueberries over top of blue gelatin when firm.  Spread Cool Whip over blue gelatin layer; Spread sliced strawberries over Cool Whip layer,  cover with red gelatin.  Refrigerate 2 hours until set.  Garnish with fresh fruit before serving.

LINZER COOKIE STARS

Ingredients:

1-1/4 cup softened butter

1 cup sifted powdered sugar

2-1/2 cups all purpose flour

½ cup finely chopped roasted pecans

¼ teaspoon salt

¼ teaspoon ground cloves

¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon

1 teaspoon grated lemon rind

¼ cup seedless raspberry jam

Powdered Sugar

Directions:

Using a medium speed mixer, beat butter and add powdered sugar slowly until light and fluffy.  Combine flour with next five ingredients and gradually to mixture.  Divide dough into two parts and cover and refrigerate for one hour.   Roll dough out on a lightly floured surface and cut out 3” stars with a star shaped cookie cutter.  Using a smaller cutter, cut a star out of the center of half of the stars  Place all on a lightly greased baking sheet and bake at 325 degrees for 15 minutes.  Spread solid cookies with jam, and sprinkle remaining cookies with powdered sugar.  Top the solid cookies with the hollow stars sprinkled with powder sugar.  This should give you 3 dozen cookies, you can take the leftovers to work later.

Hope your 4^th of July Independence Day holiday is wonderful and full of this country’s traditions!

May God Bless America Forever!

SEASONS - SUMMER OFFICIALLY ARRIVES TODAY - LET'S GET THE MUSIC STARTED

(Writing and photography by Sheila Gail Landgraf)

W. H. Auden once said that music is the best means we have of digesting time. I couldn't agree more, especially in the summer time.  What a perfect time to enjoy everything that there is about music. 

It is a lot of fun to start the summer with an open-air outdoor concert.  Choose any group that intrigues you. There is just something about gathering together with a group of friends, walking through the woods to an open meadow, lugging your lounge chairs and blankets and food  with you.  Then you simply spread the blankets on the ground and enjoy one of your favorite beverages while you watch the sun start to set as you wait on the music to begin. Endings and beginnings always work well together.  There is something magical about it.   It is such a summer moment.  It is great fun to watch expressions and greetings as the people begin to file into the area and the crowd begins to grow in numbers.  Sitting in the summer breeze and relaxing for awhile gets you into a perfectly mellow mood that causes you to want to sing along when the music begins to happen.
  

 There is even something thrilling about watching the sound team fine tune every piece of the finest sound equipment that technology has to offer, until finally the band bursts forth onto the stage and jump into their first song as the crowd goes wild with excitement.  People's faces light up with anticipation, and there is a sudden sense that we all are one, just for a moment in time.  Everyone loves the song, and everyone claps and sings along.  It could be happening in an open meadow, or it could be somewhere on the beach, the mood is always the same, fun and upbeat.  For just a few hours, there is nothing but the music. No worries, no cares.  This is the magic of summer. 

 Sometimes the music is pop, or rock, country, or classical; it really makes no difference, the feeling is always the same.  Music just makes people happy.  Sometimes the concert is in the park, or even on the sidewalk of a city, or outside a quaint little cafe. 

Alabama can claim a very rich musical history.  The state is full of stories of how music was made in the world of jazz and blues.  This is the place where "The 20th Century Gabriel" Erskine Hawkins lived and led his band back in 1939.  We can boast of the landmark for the famous song called "Tuxedo Junction."  The song is about a jazz and blues club in the Birmingham suburb of Ensley. The area is referred to as "Tuxedo Junction", even though the building is called the "Nixon Building" (built in 1922). This is due to the location of a streetcar crossing at Tuxedo Park, hence "Tuxedo Junction". The empty building still stands at 1728 20th Street as a testament to the musical heritage of the area.  He is only one of many jazz singers who got their start right in Alabama, and more than likely, they were made famous under the skies full of southern sunshine that we all still love to listen to their music under. 

Some of my favorite musical memories as a young teenager happened during the summers when we loaded up a car full of kids and headed off to an event sponsored by the local radio station called "The Shower of Stars."  I didn't realize at the time that I was actually living through musical history, as some of those "unknown at the time" groups were The Eagles, Three Dog Night, Patsy Cline, The Rolling Stones, The Beach Boys, The Righteous Brothers, Lou Christie, Roy Clark, The Loving Spoonful, Herman's Hermits, Paul Revere and The Raiders, The Animals, Neil Diamond, Kenny Rogers, The Guess Who, Rare Earth, The Carpenters, just to name a few.  Many got their first break at those local concerts I attended back in the day.

Then there was always "The Hangout" at the beach.  It was a little different in our time.  You gathered up on a concrete pavilion raised out of the sand on the shore, fed a juke box, and danced until your parents came by and "collected you," much to your embarrassment.  The most requested dance song was a folk-rock song written by Bob Dylan called "Quinn The Eskimo" or better known as "The Mighty Quinn."  A lot of arguments are still out there over exactly who Quinn the Eskimo was, but we didn't care. We only wanted to dance the night away.  

You can imagine my surprise when I discovered that my grown children are now frequenting a musical festival in Gulf Shores, Alabama every year called "The Hangout."  It is a large gathering of popular musicians on the beach.  They always have a blast.  I'm glad their summers are in some ways similar to those beach days I once enjoyed.  The memories you make with your friends are priceless.  The songs never leave your heart. 

I have a few less sizzling, yet still quite pleasurable memories of an outdoors Lee Greenwood concert we took my parents to on my Dad's birthday one year.  It was in a time when The Alabama Symphony was doing a series that still continues today called "Music Under The Stars."  These were all held at local parks at night and accompanied by the Alabama Symphony Orchestra.  They were great!  I left the Lee Greenwood concert feeling quite proud to be an American, and there were even fireworks that lit up the night sky at the end.  I'm told a similar event is coming this summer to Railroad Park.  Just check out the website for The Alabama Symphony Orchestra. 

There is another small residential park in Chelsea, Alabama where we have enjoyed some great classical music.  This was during the times where the symphony was performing "Pops In The Park."  We were served wine and popcicles, and there were also fireworks at the end.  One of my favs was a night when they did broadway musical songs with lots of Disney tunes. 

Yes, summers should definitely be filled with music.  I've really come to appreciate all the local church events in the area that feature great Christian music too.  Nothing could be better than being in a whole crowd of born-again Christians singing "Shout To The Lord" at the top of their voices while lifting their hands in praise.  Then there are those quieter, sweeter times, like the times at camp when you go to the outdoor chapel and everyone sings a cappella; so beautiful!  So moving! 

There is nothing like it.

But you really don't have to leave the comort of home in order to enjoy the music of summer.  If you have a front porch and can find an old record player, just invite a few friends over for lemonade and ice cream.  Make the front porch swing the box-office seats, designate a good DJ to spin the albums, and enjoy your own favorite tunes! 

If you have been a bit too modern lately and need to revamp your old album collection, there are a number of awesome used music stores in the Birmingham area.  I highly recommend you visit Charlemagne's in the 5 Points South area.  I'll warn you though, you won't be able to do this without staying awhile.  The music available is amazing!  It is like stepping back into a time capsule.  For 35 years they have been bringing the coolest music to Birmingham's southside.  They buy, sell and trade records, CDs, DVDs and books.  It is well worth the trip down memory lane to visit this establishment, and I'll bet you will not leave empty handed; nor will you have to break the bank to pay. 

So what's stopping you? 

Get everyone together and start enjoying the music of summer!

Keep a song in your heart all summer long!