Patriotic Party Food

The Fourth of July is coming fast, enjoy some great ideas to dress up your “typical BBQ” and add festive touches to your Fourth of July Party! From hot dogs, to watermelon you will find fabulous ideas to dress up the food you might already be serving.

Watermelon seems to be a staple at any 4th of July BBQ. Allow something healthy to act as a dessert.

Rocket Dogs

Hot dogs are something found at an ordinary BBQ. Instead of the typical hot dog, how about these rocket dogs for the kids. Really kid friendly and easy to make in advance. Simply wrap each hot dog in Crescent Roll Dough. Cook in a preheated oven at 400 degrees for 9 minutes. Remove from oven and cool for a few minutes. Thread onto a wooden skewer. Top with a triangle cut out of cheese and a festive cupcake liner on the bottom. A great holder for the skewers is a pre-made cake pop holder made by Wilton, (found in the specialty item baking section of your local Wal-mart).

Sparkling Italian soda fun

Italian soda’s are all the craze right now, but here is a great way to dress them up for your Fourth of July occasion. I bought raspberry syrup, half & half, and star ice cube. Pour half syrup and the remainder full of half in half in each star in the ice cube trays. When they are partially frozen, stick a sucker stick in the middle of each star. Let them freeze overnight. Place frozen ice trays next to cups, and cans of sprite. Simply take out a star from the ice cube tray and stir it into your sprite! Perfect mix of cream and syrup without the mess!

Perfectly Portioned chips

I found the blue and white striped popcorn like boxes at Partyland in Lehi. Add a printable &/or ribbon. Place a waxed wrapped gingham wrapper in box and place the chips in the box for a festive and grab and go way to display your chips!

Patriotic Pretzels with a patriotic twist

Enjoy a chocolate treat after dinner is done. A great simple party favor, or something great to just place in a basket for guests to snack on.

Simply place chocolate chips in a zip-lock baggie. Place in microwave for 30 second increments until melted. Place pretzels onto a piece of waxed paper. Cut off a very small corner of the baggy and pipe into shapes. Place in fridge to set the chocolate.

Patriotic Spinach Salad

This eloquent spinach salad is my secret weapon when I need to bring a salad to parties. I usually use cheese filled tortellini, but couldn’t help switch them out when I found these darling cheese filled red white and blue star ravioli’s at Costco. Impress your guests by bringing this Red White and Blue salad to your 4th of July Party.

1 to 2 packages of baby spinach
1 c craisins (or grapes)
1 c Parmesan cheese (shredded) – or any white cheese
¼ c red onion chopped
½ package of Cheese filled star Ravioli or tortellini
½ c of honey roasted almonds

Dressing:
1 c veggie oil
¾ c sugar
½ tsp salt
¼ tsp pepper
½ c red wine vinegar
2 tsp minced garlic
½ tsp paprika
Put in blender & blend for 1 minute. Put on right before you serve or to the side

Festive Jello cups

There are so many fun ways to enjoy red & blue Jello, but this individual portion will be something your guests have never seen or tasted before!

Patriotic Jell-O

Ingredients:
1 (6 ounce) box red Jell-O gelatin (I used raspberry)

1 (6 ounce) box blue Jell-O gelatin (I used berry blue)

4 cups boiling water

2 envelopes unflavored Knox gelatin

1/2 cup cold water

1 1/2 cups boiling water
1 (14 ounce) can sweetened condensed milk

Directions:
1. In two separate rectangular pans (9×13-inch is fine), sprinkle each box of Jell-O gelatin. Add 2 cups of boiling water to each pan. Stir until the gelatin dissolves. Put in refrigerator for at least 3 hours, until the liquid turns into jiggly Jell-O.
2. Cut each flavor into small blocks. Carefully mix the blocks in a 9×13-inch pan.
3. In a different bowl, sprinkle 2 pouches of unflavored gelatin into 1/2 cup of cold water. When the gelatin blooms, add 1 1/2 cups boiling water. Whisk it together until it dissolves. Add the can of sweetened condensed milk. Stir and cool.
4. Pour the milk mixture over the Jell-O blocks and stick it in the refrigerator for at least 3 hours (or overnight).
5. Cut into squares or rectangles, and Bon Appetit.
Source: RecipeBoy.com (Adapted from The Food Librarian)

Red White & Blue Ice Cream Sandwiches

Each BBQ needs a sweet treat for your guests. Enjoy this easy treat that can be made simply and in advance!

Red & White Snicker doodles


½ cup butter

½ cup granulated sugar

1/3 cup brown sugar

1 egg

½ t. vanilla

1 ½ cups flour

1/4 t. salt

½ t. baking powder

Sugar (for rolling dough)
Red & Blue Gel food coloring
Beat together butter & sugar. Add remaining ingredients. Put in fridge from 30 min – 1 hour. (I have made them without this step and they work out okay). Take 1 TBSP dough, roll into balls, and then into sugar. Put on an un-greased or parchment paper lined cookie sheet. Bake at 300 degrees for 12-14 minutes. They may look undercooked.

For the ice cream simply take a small Ben & Jerry’s carton of ice cream Cut directly through the carton to make slices of Ice Cream to put in-between one red cookie and one blue cookie. Roll each cookie in sprinkles. Place in freezer and bring out later in the party to keep ice cream frozen.
For additional information in regard to table decorations and printables seen on today’s show, feel free to visit Mandy’s Blog –
http://mandydouglass.blogspot.com