4th of July Treats & Eats

Forth of July will always have a special place in my heart. Growing up we would spend the day with my grandparents watching fireworks at the Lufkin Zoo. Now that I am an old married lady, Derek and I are creating our own traditions. For starters how sweet are these shoes??

The red, white and blue festivities started at breakfast with raspberry and blueberry muffins. YUM! I used Martha White mix and just added milk. You can also use this mix to make pancakes.

Next on the menu, star spangled fruit. I cut a watermelon into thin round slices, punched out stars with a star cookie cutter then tossed in some fresh blueberries for a delicious summer treat!  

My red velvet marble brownie stars were a big hit! I found a pin that led to this blog full of awesome recipes. This blogger made hearts with her recipe but I used stars to go with our 4th of July theme. The stars were hard to get out of the pan :( maybe hearts are easier? 

UPDATE: Find out what I did with the brownie scraps here

White chocolate covered strawberries are a big hit in my house! I make them every Valentines day. Normally I drizzle milk chocolate over them but this time I tried something new I saw on Pinterest.

Step 1) In a microwave safe bowl add 1 cup of while chocolate chips
Step 2) Pour 1 tablespoon of vegetable oil over the chips
Step 3) Microwave in 20 or 30 second intervals, stirring each time
Step 4) Stop heating when most, but not all, of the chips are melted. Stir until chocolate is smooth and chips are completely melted. BE CAREFUL not to overcook
Step 5) Hold a strawberry by the green stem and dip in chocolate, let extra chocolate run off
Step 6) Hold the strawberry until no chocolate runs off and dip the tip in a small bowl of blue sprinkles
Step 7) Place on parchment paper or a waxed paper lined pan
Step 8) Cool in the fridge then enjoy!

We needed something to wash down all this 4th of July goodness. I searched for 'pink punch' on Pinterest and found this Champagne Punch recipe. All you need is a pitcher, 2 bottles of champagne, 2 cans of Welche's Strawberry Breeze frozen juice concentrate and slices of fruit. Defrost the cans of juice before making. Open the juice cans and pour 1 into the pitcher then add both bottles of champagne. Add the second can of juice to taste. I ended up using all of the second can in our punch. Place your slices of fruit in the pitcher to top off the drink.  

We finished the day watching the downtown and Fiesta Texas fireworks from the top of a hill. I hope your 4th of July was filled with glittering fireworks, homemade BBQ and sunburned shoulders!

Keep Pinning!