4th of July part 2.. all about the food

After several trips to Costco and Harris Teeter, both fridges were packed and all the meals were planned ao let's just say we did not starve this weekend. I wanted to share several of the yummy recipes that I made this weekend. ENJOY!

American Flag Cookie Cake

1 roll of Sugar cookie dough

1 80z stick of Cream Cheese

Powdered Sugar

Strawberries

Blueberries
Roll cookie dough out onto a cookies sheet, covering the entire bottom. It WILL stretch, you just have to be patient and keep pressing with your fingers and keep in mind the dough will be thin. Cooke for about 10 minutes and let cool completely.

With an electric mixer, mix cream cheese and approx 2-3 cups of powder sugar. I just taste to make sure it tastes sweet and not too much like cream cheese. You may need a whole box, one of these days I will measure:)

Spread over the entire cooled cookie and decorate with strawberries and blueberries. Now you have a wonderful INDEPENDENCE DAY dessert:) This has been a tradition that my mom use to make every 4th of July, so I am just keeping with the tradition.

Best Blueberry Muffins Ever

FOR THE MUFFINS:

1 1/2 cup All-Purpose Flour
3/4 cups Sugar
1/2 tsp Salt
2 Tsp Baking Powder

1/3 cups Vegetable Oil (or applesauce)
1 Whole Egg
1/3 cups milk

1 cup Blueberries

FOR THE CRUMB TOPPINGS:

1/2 cups Sugar
1/3 cups Flour

1/4 cups butter
1 1/2 tsp Cinnamon

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Grease muffin cups or line with muffins liners

2. To make the muffins, combine flour, sugar, salt and baking powder.

3. Place vegetable oil into 1-cup measuring cup; add egg and enough milk to fill the cup. Mix this with the flour mixture. Fold in blueberries.

4. Fill muffin cups 2/3 full, and sprinkle with crumb topping mixture.

5. To make crumb topping: Mix together sugar, cup flour, butter, and cinnamon.

Mix with a fork, and sprinkle over muffins before baking.

4. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes in the preheated oven, or until done.

This was a great breakfast treat for the morning and went great along with our Ham, Cheese-n-Egg Cups, grapefruit salad and Grits. YUMMY!

Ham, Cheese-n-Egg Cups

12 oz slices reduced-sodium Virginia or Black Forest Ham
3 (1oz) slices 100% whole grain or white bread, each torn into 4 pieces
12 eggs
3 c cheddar cheese
3 tbl chives
1/4 tsp. Black Pepper

400 Degrees

Grease the Muffin pan.

Gently fit ham slice into each cup (edges will stick up) add some bread into each cup then pour egg on top. sprinkle with cheese and pepper.

Bake 15 minutes or until set. Sprinkle with chives and serves. This picture is ready to go in the oven, sorry I don't have a finished product picture, we were so hungry I did not have time to take a picture. Matt and I LOVE these and thought we would share our yummy find.


G.R.I.T.S, yes and also grits:) You can't have eggs without good ol southern grits

Paula Deen's FRIED OKRA SALAD

If you like okra or even if you don't you MUST try this recipe. This is a crowd pleaser for sure. I did not take a picture of the final product with the okra but once again I did not have time.. Sorry folks, but check the link about for the recipe.