Colorful Foods for a Festive July Fourth
Adding color to your menu will bring your guest happily to the table. Remember color isn't just for deserts anymore. Red, white and blue foods are a colorful addition to the Fourth of July celebration. Guest will enjoy the refreshing taste and appeal that these foods bring.
Make a flag cake that can be the centerpiece of your table. Bake your favorite cake in a 9x13 pan. Frost the cake with vanilla or a cream cheese frosting. Using blueberries for stars, apply them in the upper left corner of the cake. Slice strawberries to make the red stripes, and for the spark add sparklers right before serving.
Patriotic cupcakes are easily made by separating white icing into thirds. Make cupcakes to your liking, let them cool. Divide your frosting into thirds, leave one white, using red and blue food coloring add each color to a third of icing. Frost each cupcake alternating the red, white and blue colors. Add little flags or sparklers to the center of each cupcake.
Not only is color for food but you can add it to your beverages too. Fill ice cube trays with red and blue colored beverages, such as Gatorade or Kool-Aid then freeze. When frozen place some clear, red and blue cubes in a dessert glass and add some flavored seltzer. Garnish with a flag for festiveness.
A red, white and blue fruit salad will be a refreshing treat. Dice apples, blueberries, strawberries into a mixture of lime juice, honey and fresh chopped mint. Serve this as an entrée or a topping for ice cream.
A red colored refreshing salad to try would be a Summer Tomato Salad. It is easily made by using not to ripe, coarsely chopped tomatoes or cherry tomatoes with parsley leaves and chopped basil. Drizzle with extra virgin olive oil and toss.
Fourth of July Apples are a festive red appetizer. Cut and core apples into eighths and sprinkle with lemon juice. In a bowl combine eight ounce package of cream cheese, three tablespoons of softened butter, half cup of walnuts and a half of a cup of crumbled blue cheese. Refrigerate this for three hours, when chilled use a butter knife to apply this spread to the apples.
For a blue main course try Blue Catfish Fillets. Pat your catfish almost dry and dip fillets in three quarters cup of blue cornmeal with finely chopped jalapeno pepper, half of a teaspoon of salt and two cloves of garlic. In a large skillet heat one inch of oil and fry fillets until brown on each side and the fish becomes flaky inside. Serve this with a wedge of lime or lemon or even salsa.
Spice up your plain Potato Salad with a Blue Potato Salad. Peruvian fingerlings are the type of potatoes to use for this. After boiling the potatoes mix in two tablespoons of grainy mustard, a quarter cup of white wine vinegar, three sliced celery stalks, two sliced green onions and two minced flat leaf parsley. This will make six servings.
Bake some White Pizza Bagel Bites for an appetizer. Place one package of frozen bagel bites on a cookie sheet with the cut side up. Sprinkle the bagels with garlic powder and bake until lightly toasted. Top them with sliced olives, chopped green peppers and mozzarella cheese. When you have them topped bake for another five or more minutes, or until cheese is melted.
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