4th of July Party Ideas

The 4th of July will be here before you know it. Can it be? I remember when I thought summers lasted forever. What happened? Don't tell me, I really don't want to know because I suspect it has something to do with that aging thing.

Every year our family, it seems, tries something different for the 4th, not by design, more happenstance. As I am contemplating this year's celebration, I jotted a few notes down and thought I would share them with you.
4th of July Party Ideas

Old Fashioned (My favorite, actually)

Activities - Gunny sack races, 3-leg races, wheelbarrow races, croquet, baseball, Annie Annie Over, Capture the Flag, Frisbee Golf. And for those inside games: a puzzle table, checkers, Old Maid -- any non-electronic game that is quickly played.

Food:  Hot Dog Bar (served with a full array of condiments - chili, pickled onions, relishes, chutneys, cheese, salsa, etc), Ice Cream Sodas, unshelled peanut baskets, watermelon triangles on popsicle sticks, macaroni salad, fruit salad, bottles of coke, ice tea, s'mores.

Friendly Cook-off

Choose a dish, or condiment, or even a barbecue dipping sauce, something that everyone in your group seems to like and suggest a friendly cook-off. Assign cooks and judges. Set up a tasting station, providing judging scorecards and blindfolds. And of course, a prize. A chef's apron would be fun. Then provide the necessary accompaniments so that everyone can enjoy the delicious food.

Backyard Camp Out

This is something we've done several times and it is always a favorite of the kids. We set up "camp" in the afternoon and position the tents so that they all open up to a fire pit. We always grill on these nights and look forward, after fireworks, to star gazing, stories around the campfire and of course, roasted marshmallows. Evenings like these are memories your children will never forget.

Historical 4th Tours

Spend some time prior to the 4th scouting out local history venues; museums, living history centers, old military forts, train stations, etc. Your local chamber of commerce or state historical museum could help you find historical sites in your area.  One activity our family particularly enjoys is visiting a Civil War reenactment, and local chapters are hosting these living history events all over the country. It brings history alive. No longer does it just reside on the pages of a long-forgotten textbook, a connection is made to those long ago events and people that can still teach us things to this day.

Heritage Potluck

I love this idea ... and it spreads the work of food preparation around, and that's a very good thing. Smile. Have everyone bring a favorite dish from their childhood. This could be anything from store bought pinwheel cookies to grandma's famous potato salad. It's important for the host family to supply some kind of meat, unless you are aware that someone else is bringing that dish, a salad and condiments. You never know what will show up at your table and the stories that will accompany those dishes. What you learn about your family and friends through their food choices will provide fodder for future storytelling. And if you end up with three or four dishes of grandma's famous potato salad, you'll never forget the experience!

Enjoy the 4th and take a moment to recognize the greatness of this place we call home.

For more ideas, see our Pinterest page.

RECIPE | Focaccia Bread of Julia Bakery

One of my favorite things to do is walk through a local mall we have in this area that specializes in international cuisine. This mall gives new meaning to food courts everywhere. Yes, you can find a hamburger, but oh so much more; Korean, Thai, Indian, Mediterranean, Russian ... and the list goes on. For those who live on the east side of Seattle, you probably already know that I'm talking about Crossroads Mall, a tiny place yet it's flavor makes up for its square footage. You have to visit just before the noon hour ... the aroma is absolutely divine.

The following recipe is from a Slavic bakery in Vancouver, Washington, called Julia Bakery. It has many loyal customers as well. Their bakery is well known and well loved. This is one of their requested recipes. Enjoy.

FOCACCIA

3 cups water
3/4 oz instant yeast
2 pounds plus 1/2 cup of white flour
3/4 oz of salt

Mix water and yeast for a few minutes.

Add flour and salt

Let dough rest for 45 minutes to 1 hour.

Preheat Oven to 350 degrees

Roll into thin dough and fill with your choice of cheese, meat, olives, sundried tomatoes, etc.

Bake for 10-12 minutes.

Recipe Courtesy of Nenad Indic, owner of Julia Bakery in Vancouver to FOX 12 in Portland, OR.

RECIPE | Civil War Camp Bread

Every year our family loves to attend one if not several Civil War Reenactments. One of the most fascinating aspects of these events is touring their camps ... and especially their food preparation. That is just me ... the men in our house love to tour the armament and cannons and horses. The recipe below is an adaptation of a recipe a living historian gave me last summer. It had been in her family for a long time. It is absolutely delicious and so easy! The texture is wonderful ... and truly, there is nothing like making bread outside! While they bake their bread over an open fire, we used briquettes.

Civil War Camp Bread

3 cups warm water
1/2 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup sugar
2 1/2 teaspoon salt
4 1/2 teaspoon active-rise yeast (2 packages of yeast)
9 cups flour

Combine water, butter, sugar, salt and yeast. Let proof for 15 minutes. Add half of the flour and incorporate. Stir in remaining flour and turn out onto floured board. Knead bread for about 10 minutes or until elastic and smooth. Add up to 1/2 cup additional flour if needed.

Place dough into greased large pan, cover with plastic wrap and let rise until double.

After dough has risen, remove from bowl and deflate. Shape into ball and place into a 12-inch, 8-quart, cast iron dutch oven. Let rise until double, about an hour.

Place dutch oven over hot briquettes -- 10 underneath the dutch oven and 16 on the top. Bake for about 30 minutes. Remove from the fire and let cool in pan.

To make removing the bread easier, we used a parchment dutch oven liner and was able to lift out the bread with a spatula.