US Independence Day Celebrations

[Fat Guy]

Moderator's note: the following posts are gathered from a previous US Independence Day topic that is now closed. The new topic is available here.

[tommy]

ok, seriously, i need some help...

i'm having about 20 ppl to my house for the 4th. i want to feed them something besides burgers and dogs, but i'm having a hard time getting a plan together that would provide people with some good eats, while ensuring that i *don't* have to stand in front of the grill for hours while my guests are there.

any suggestions would be *greatly* appreciated. i should probably post this on the cooking forum as well.

[LaurieA-B]

i'm having about 20 ppl to my house for the 4th.  i want to feed them something besides burgers and dogs, but i'm having a hard time getting a plan together that would provide people with some good eats, while ensuring that i *don't* have to stand in front of the grill for hours while my guests are there. 

Laurie Colwin has a piece in Home Cooking titled "How to Avoid Grilling." She recommends, for warm summer evenings, serving Lebanon bologna sandwiches. Her sandwiches involve cream cheese and herbs. "Make an enormous pile of these sandwiches cut in half and serve with potato salad, cole slaw or a big green salad." Whether this would succeed depends on your crowd.

What are you doing this year, tommy? Here's a link to last year's excellent Fourth of July cooking thread.

[suzilightning]

ok, seriously, i need some help...

i'm having about 20 ppl to my house for the 4th.  i want to feed them something besides burgers and dogs, but i'm having a hard time getting a plan together that would provide people with some good eats, while ensuring that i *don't* have to stand in front of the grill for hours while my guests are there. 

any suggestions would be *greatly* appreciated.  i should probably post this on the cooking forum as well.

german potato salad

stuffed eggs(ok deviled is you like mustard)

big spinach salad

muffalettas

grilled chicken and sun dried tomato sausages

tomato and mozzarella salad

carrot raisin salad

mexican coleslaw - with jicima, jalapenos and mangoes with a lime vinaigrette

i work till 9 thurday night then have to be back to work 9 saturday morning. john is camping out with his siblings and firends after seeing neil young at spac in new york.

katie- enjoy cape may and may you have a warm, balmy, sunny weekend

i think i'll just take some time to sit near our little lake and, if it's nice, maybe take the canoe out on it....

[davidthomas8779]

ok, seriously, i need some help...

i'm having about 20 ppl to my house for the 4th.  i want to feed them something besides burgers and dogs, but i'm having a hard time getting a plan together that would provide people with some good eats, while ensuring that i *don't* have to stand in front of the grill for hours while my guests are there. 

any suggestions would be *greatly* appreciated.  i should probably post this on the cooking forum as well.

A leg of lamb on indirect should do the trick and not require a lot of intervention.

[guajolote]

4th of July menu for family and friends (old and new)

Pickled Mushrooms

Pickled Beets

Pickled Asparagus

Guacamole w/ Chips

Smoked Pork Butt

Smoked Swedish Potato Sausage

Chicago Baked Beans

Potato Salad

Coleslaw

Melon Soup

Chocolate Truffles

Drinks:

Sparkling Lambrusco

Rose wine tasting

Beer

Pear Cider

Cognac

Calvados

Homemade Lemon/Lime ade

and maybe a couple of other things

[Malawry]

We've been invited to the farm owned by some friends' parents for an old fashioned cookout, volleyball, croquet, and badminton. The farm grows all kinds of fresh herbs and flowers and has some educational gardens we can explore, and it's very close to Gettysburg if there isn't enough to occupy us.

The hosts and other guests are providing hot dogs, burgers, veggie burgers, slaw, lemonade, potato salad, a green salad, and a few assorted starters and desserts. (I bet there will be brownies. Everybody always brings brownies to these things. I love brownies, but there have to be other portable heat-resistant pastries besides these.)

I made a huge pot of vegetarian baked beans and baked some peanut butter cupcakes. I'll make a chocolate frosting tomorrow and frost the cupcakes after we arrive. I think of the chocolate-peanut butter combination as quintessentially American though I have no real basis for this assumption. Baked beans seem very American but I believe they're not uncommon in the UK.

[vengroff]

At a 4th of July cookout I went to, someone brought a pie that was 1/4 blueberry and 3/4 cherry. The blueberry quadrant was topped with little pie crust stars, and the cherries were topped with stripes. I only tasted the cherry part, but it was really good, with a homemade all-butter crust and fresh cherries. It was a great alternative to the usual flag sheet cake with crappy icing.

There were also brats, simmered in beer, onions, and cloves, then grilled. After all the recent warnings, I was careful to avoid the ketchup option.

Some great salads too. It was probably the best culinary 4th I've been to. Washed it all down with some Freedom Rose (from the patriotic people of Rhone). Afterwards, we went up on the roof and watched the fireworks on the mall.

[Rachel Perlow]

Our town had it's Independence Day celebration last night. We do it up right, with live music and free goodies for the kids (glow stick necklaces), and adults (cold drinks, popsicles & ice cream sandwiches - OK, those are probably for the kids too ). A lot of people show up early to picnic on the grounds of the middle school, where the fireworks display will be after sunset. We arrived at 6:45 with our friends and were among the first to arrive, but we had a lot of picnic-ing to do!

The Menu

Appetizers

Cape Cod Potato Chips

Bing Cherries

Watermelon

Mains

Cold Fried Chicken, not homemade, but from a new local place

The Sangweech

Sides

Coleslaw (Fairway Market, NYC)

Marinated Button Mushrooms (Fairway)

German Potato Salad (homemade)

Fiesta Corn Salad (homemade)

Confetti Macaroni Salad (homemade)

Sliced Cucumber and Onion Salad (homemade)

Cherry Tomatoes, organic

Dessert

Blueberry Pie (homemade by our friend) with Cool Whip

Watermelon

Bing Cherries

Drinks

Iced Tea (homemade with honey and a little U-Bet Cherry Syrup, I brought a gallon and we drunk about half)

Sodas

India Pale Ale

Some Pics

[glossyp]

Nice photos Rachel and what a great menu.

We were fortunate to be invited to the lovely home of fellow egulleters yesterday. It was a combo 23rd wedding anniversary (congratulations again you guys!)/Independence Day celebration and they laid out a wonderful spread utilizing lots of local products - some home grown and some from the farmers' market supplemented of course from the grocers.

We had:

Grilled North Shore Skirt Steak w/secret rub and chimichurri sauce from home grown parsley

Grilled NS flank steak cut very thin teriyaki-style with a modified version of Sam Choy's teriyaki marinade & sauce recipe

Caprese salad with succulent local tomatoes and two kinds of basil

Grilled Ewa sweet corn from Aloun Farms - this was so good it didn't need any butter or salt

Onions seasoned with garlic and butter and grilled in foil packets

Roasted red peppers

Everything was delicious and we felt particularly thankful for good friends, the bounty of the land and the freedom to enjoy all of it.

Happy Fourth of July to everyone!

[Malawry]

Last night, we went to the house of our friend's parents for 4 July dinner. They grilled pork spareribs and made a pasta salad with lots of dill, pimentos and olives. We brought grilled summer squash from the farmer's market. Dessert was raspberry sorbet, ginger ice cream, fresh crisp cherries, and cappuccinos from their new espresso machine.