Sunday, July 4, 2010

HAPPY FOURTH OF JULY!!!

DESSERT TIME!!!!

We all have our strengths and weaknesses. I can sit here and tell you about how honored we should be to have our fellow Americans in combat and how brave they are. Or, I can share with you what I know more about...how to COOK and SERVE for the holiday festivities. We each have our duties, and I am doing mine WITH PRIDE :-)


I wasn't REALLY expecting company for the holiday, so I did my shopping on Friday just for my hubby and myself. THEN my daughter writes asking me what we're doing on the holiday. HMMMMM, should I ADMIT we have no plans and be subjected to possible last minute babysitting duty for the two grandchildren??? HMMMM, hubby would might not like that, but he was in the shower, so I answered that I was free and available. LOL (Brave, am I?) Instead of being her last-minute babysitter, she asked if SHE and THE KIDS could come over.

AWESOME!!!!

But now I have to go back to the store...no big deal...(Other son added to list of people coming along...) I had a coupon for another store for charcoal but had to do one of those ten dollar purchase things to use it. And, I like to PREPARE. LMAO...HMMMM...again

I am used to stores running out of red and blue produce items around the Fourth of July and I had JUST been to the store Friday and didn't get blueberries because I didn't need them. But they had them at Meijer's. Now I was going to PayLow to use a coupon and there were no blueberries in sight. Figured...I knew Meijer's runs out of blueberries quickly on a normal basis, so I thought JUST TRY, JUST TRY the local farmer's market on Taft Street. A little late on a Saturday afternoon, I didn't even know how late they stayed open, it was close to four, but I figured...JUST TRY. THEY HAD BLUEBERRIES!!! YAY!!!

Although I had no idea what I was making, I had picked up Jello at Paylow, along with strawberries and Cool Whip, so I had the ingredients now, just no picture of what they were making. I went on line to find recipes and consulted my Jello Cookbook, which is ancient, but came up with the Fresh Fruit Parfaits.





Ingredients:
Four strawberries divided into fourths lengthwise
36 blueberries
4 oz pkg. strawberry Jello
3/4 c. boiling water
1/2 c. cold water
ice cubes
Cool Whip

Garnish:

6 strawberries
18 blueberries


I took about four strawberries and cut them lengthwise. I divided those slices evenly per glass. I then added six intact blueberries per glass. Combine 3/4 c. boiling water with gelatin mix until dissolved. Add cold water and ice cubes. Pour on top of fruit in glasses.



They should not take longer than 30-45 minutes to gel, but then you'll top with garnishment ingredients (Cool Whip and berries) to decorate.

AND

IF YOU HAVE MORE JELLO AND MORE BERRIES...

there's jello shots...



Fill nine Dixie cups with a slice of strawberry and four blueberries. Combine 8 oz. boiling water with Jello mix for about a minute. Add 1/2 cup of cold water and 1/2 cup of vodka.

 

Then pour over the fruit in the Dixie cups. And refrigerate.


And make sure the little ones don't get the Dixie cups.

HAPPY FOURTH OF JULY!!!