Happy 4th of July week! And what a bonus that it falls on a Friday this year for a three day weekend! How will you be celebrating?
This year, we’re ditching the giant neighborhood party (we moved that to October when it’s a little cooler) and we’ll be heading over to my best friend’s mom’s for BBQ and watching the kids splash in the giant inflatable water slide. Low-key, but with just enough 4th of July Tennessee redneck thrown in there.
Best Friend’s Mom (Hi, Mary Rose!) is taking care of the BBQ and making “Buster Bars”, AKA the most amazing ice cream treat you’ll ever meet - layers of crushed cookies, ice cream, fudge, and whipped topping.
Best Friend is making hot dogs, brats, and smoked sausages and bringing all the fixin’s.
My mother-in-law will do baked beans and deviled eggs. And I’m in charge of potato salad and the fruit. I think I like low-key and easy. (Of course we say that, and then every one of us will show up with at least two extra side dishes “just because we wanted to make sure we had enough food”.)
If you’re still on the fence about what to bring to your own get-together, here’s a quick round up of ideas-
Main Dish -
These marinated chicken breasts are written for the air fryer, but work great on the grill!
Anything with my grandaddy’s homemade bbq sauce is a winner.
This lemon-garlic pork tenderloin makes amazing little sandwiches with a jazzed up mayo, or, speaking of little sammies, how about these skillet sliders with caramelized onions?
Sides and Salads -
Fresh Corn Salad is always a hit. Eat it as-is, or scoop it up with a tortilla chip!
This is the potato salad I’m bringing - always a good idea to have a no-mayo potato salad recipe for when it’s 100 degrees outside!
I’ve never been to a pot-luck where mac ‘n cheese wasn’t a welcome addition.
And I’d be ok if this broccoli cheese cornbread made an appearance. (Maybe that should be one of my unaccounted for extra items…)
Snacks and Dips -
If someone is grilling burgers, bring this bacon jam. You’ll be everyone’s best friend!
A caramelized onion chip dip that I can eat a whole bowl of all by myself? Yes, please.
If you always bring the “healthy” thing - try a big veggie platter with two kinds of hummus.
And if your cucumbers are coming in, make a jar of these quick refrigerator pickles to go with all those sandwiches, bbq, and burgers!
Desserts -
This recipe for peach upside down cake is perfect for summer, plus it makes two cakes, so there’s plenty to go around!
If you want to keep it festive, take the strawberries and cream cake or the strawberries with cornmeal shortcakes and add in blueberries for a fun red, white, and blue dessert!
Make an iconic height of summer cherry pie! Here is where we finally come to this week’s recipe - Cherry Pie with Crumble Topping (down below). This is the cherry pie my mom always made, and one of dad’s favorites. I may have made a few tweaks (sorry, mom) because I wanted more cherry filling and less crumble topping. The tart, tender cherries are balanced by the sweet, crunchy topping, and the filling is just juicy enough to swirl with the vanilla ice cream that you’ll scoop over the top, but not so runny as to cause a mess when slicing. And everyone will say “oh just a small slice”, but then they’ll come back for more.
Happy 4th of July - Stay safe, have fun, eat lots of good food, and we’ll be back here next week!
MONDAY - Roasted Tomato Pasta with Chicken Cutlets
Lots of cherry tomatoes coming in! I’ll roast them with olive oil and garlic until they burst open, then toss it all with thin spaghetti and fresh basil. Chicken cutlets cook up super fast in a skillet and are always a crowd pleaser.
TUESDAY - Sheet Pan Gnocchi with Italian Sausage
Italian Sausage links on one side of the sheet pan, store bought gnocchi with sliced onions and peppers on the other. Just 35-ish minutes (stir and flip halfway through) at 400 and dinner is done!
WEDNESDAY - Ramen and Dumpling Soup
I know, soup in summer, am I nuts? But this is light and brothy, chock full of veggies like baby bok choy, carrots, and mushrooms, and can be customized to everyone’s liking. Oh, and it’s one pot and you don’t have to sauté the vegetables first - all wins.
THURSDAY - Focaccia Pizza and Salad
If you’re thinking we just had this a couple of weeks ago, you’d be right! But we loved it so much, it had to pop back in the rotation! Plus it’s easy for the day before the 4th of July when I’ll probably be prepping some other things.
FRIDAY - 4th of July Picnics!
SATURDAY - Dinner at Dad’s!
My brother, sister-in-law, and nieces are coming in for a pool day at dad’s. We’ll grill some ribs and try another batch of German Fried Potatoes. We’ve almost got it down perfect! Garden veggies for the side - either green beans or squash and zucchini. (Maybe both…)
SUNDAY - Dinner at YaYa’s (the in-laws)!
We might just do leftovers from the 4th. Otherwise, she has a bunch of fun, frozen, Asian style foods from Costco - egg rolls, fried rice, lo mein, etc. - that make a quick dinner!
LUNCHES for this week -
America’s Test Kitchen posted a picture of a beautiful Niçoise salad (a composed tuna salad), and I wanted it! So, I got good oil-packed tuna at the store, and can use garden cucumbers and tomatoes. If I prep the components at the beginning of the week, I can easily throw it together each day.
EXTRAS for this week
First, I have to show off the Black Forest Cake I finally made! I used this recipe from Recipe Tin Eats, and it came out great! It’s not too sweet and stays light since the “icing” is just sweetened whipped cream. Pretty close to what we had in Germany!
For this week’s “afternoon coffee and cake” time, I’m going to make this Whipped Cream Cake (posted on Zoë François’s website) by Rose Levy Beranbaum, author of The Cake Bible. It looks similar to a pound cake, but the only fat in it is heavy cream (no butter or oil!), and I am intrigued.
Cherry Pie with Crumble Topping
Makes one 9-inch pie
· One 9-inch Deep Dish Pie Crust, store-bought or homemade (my favorite homemade recipe below)
Filling
· 3 cans (14-ounce each) Tart Cherries in water, drained (NOT cherry pie filling)
· 1 cup White Sugar
· 3 tablespoons Cornstarch
· ½ teaspoon Ground Cinnamon
· ¼ teaspoon kosher Salt (Morton or other store brand)
· 1 teaspoon Lemon Juice
Topping
· 1 stick Butter, cold and cut into small pieces
· 1 ¼ cup All-Purpose Flour
· 3 tablespoons White Sugar
· 3 tablespoons Brown Sugar
· 1/3 cup finely chopped Pecans (can omit if necessary)
· 1/3 cup Old Fashioned Oats
· ¼ teaspoon Baking Powder
· ¼ teaspoon kosher Salt
Preheat oven to 350 and arrange a rack in the middle position. No need to par-bake your pie crust. Keep it frozen until ready to use.
Make the filling - In a medium-large saucepan, combine sugar, cornstarch, cinnamon, and salt. Whisk together to fully mix and remove any lumps. Stir in drained cherries and lemon juice. Set the pot over medium-high heat and bring to a boil. Continue cooking (stirring constantly) for about 2 minutes until mixture has thickened, reducing heat as necessary to prevent splattering. Set aside to cool completely.
Make the crumble topping – In a large bowl, stir together the flour, white sugar, brown sugar, pecans, oats, baking powder, and salt. Add the pieces of cold butter and toss around. Then use a pastry blender to work the butter into the flour mixture until only some small pea-sized pieces remain. Use your fingers to smash those larger pieces flat and work them into the mixture. Stir everything one more time. Set in fridge until ready to use.
Assemble the pie – Set the pie plate with crust on a larger baking sheet. Spread the cooled filling in the crust, then top evenly with the crumble mixture. Do not press it down, just use your fingers to gently spread it if needed.
Bake on the middle rack for 45-50 minutes until crumble topping is golden brown and the juices are bubbling around the edges of the pie. If the crust seems to be browning too quickly, you can cover the edges loosely with foil.
Cool pie to room temperature before slicing. This pie is best on the day it’s baked; store any leftovers, covered, on the counter for 2 days or in the fridge for up to 4 days.
NOTE - Even though fresh cherries may be in season, I kept this recipe using canned cherries, because that’s how mom did it. So, don’t worry about pitting a bunch of cherries and make this pie in any season! (I’ve not tried it, but I do think you can use thawed and drained frozen cherries if you can’t find the canned.)
Pastry Crust
Makes two crusts for a 9-inch pie. Freeze second one for another time if not needed now.
· 3 cups All-Purpose Flour
· 1 teaspoon kosher Salt (Morton or store brand)
· 1 tablespoon White Sugar
· 1 ½ cups (3 sticks) cold Butter, diced
· 1 large Egg
· Cold Water
· 1 tablespoon White Vinegar
Place flour, salt, and sugar in a food processor fitted with the blade. Pulse a couple of times to mix.
Add in half of the diced butter and pulse about 20 times, until the mixture looks like coarse meal.
Add in the remaining butter cubes and only pulse 10-12 times. Some of the butter pieces will still be “pea sized”.
Beat the egg in a measuring cup and add enough cold water to get to 5 ounces. Mix well. Add in 1 tablespoon vinegar.
With machine running, quickly pour in egg/water mixture, then pulse several times until dough starts to come together. It will still be crumbly, this is okay, do not over mix.
Lay out two large pieces of plastic wrap. Divide the dough between the two pieces, piling it in the middle. For each, use your hands to gently knead the dough working in the loose crumbles. Shape into a round disk, wrap in the plastic wrap, and chill one hour or overnight.
To roll and shape pie crust – Lightly flour a surface for rolling dough. Place dough disk in the middle of the area. (If you refrigerated your dough longer than one hour, you may need to set it at room temperature for 15 minutes to soften.)
To roll dough into a large round-ish shape, place your rolling pin in the middle of the dough and gently roll away from you. Turn the dough a quarter turn and roll again. Repeat rolling and turning until the crust starts to take shape, increasing pressure a little bit at a time. Add flour as needed to prevent sticking. Roll until dough is between 1/8 and ¼ of an inch.
To move dough into pie pan, either gently roll dough around the rolling pin and unroll into pan or fold dough into quarters, place in pan, and then unfold. Press dough into pan, then trim so that there is an excess of about an inch all the way around the edges. Fold the excess under, and crimp dough as you wish.
Freeze dough in pie pan for at least an hour before using or freeze until firm and wrap in plastic for freezer storage.
That’s all for now, thanks for reading! See you back here next week!
(Don’t forget you can see all of the past newsletters and recipes at the archive link below!)
All recipes categorized by type can be found in the index!
Maybe not cornbread with broccoli -- Cornbread - yes!, Broccoli - No!