Fourth of July 2012

As soon as RM & I came back from our trip to Vegas, I started planning the menu for our Fourth of July Barbecue.

 Of course Moe wanted pizza- we quickly shot his idea down.

RM is the "Barbecue Master" in our home. He's always looking for new recipe ideas for barbecue sauces and other techniques to making meat more tender.  RM succeeded- the barbecued beef ribs and barbecued chicken were juicy, flavorful, and had that great smoky taste. 

 I made the side dishes which were: Hawaiian Mac salad, corn on the cob, biscuits, and Fijian Taro.

When I asked RM if we should have vegetables or green salad,

 he replied, "Nah, we'll eat the healthy stuff tomorrow."

This is a Polynesian dessert called Pani Popo. 

It's sweet coconut rolls baked with coconut sauce. 

Moe is allergic to coconut so I made homemade angel food cake with strawberry filling. 

 It's called "Strawberry Sparkle Cake".  It's a little time consuming, but it was worth every single bite!

Patriotic Rice Crispy treats- I didn't have white frosting to make the stars. 

 I had fun piping the designs- a very fun activity to do with your kids. 

 I kept thinking of my little nieces and nephews and how much they would have loved helping me.

After we ate, we managed to roll ourselves out of the door and drive to Roseville for the fireworks.  RM's Aunt Lucy & his cousins came to our home for our Fourth of July feast.

(Pictured here is Cousin Drew, Aunt Lucy, RM, and Moe)

There were two firework shows on both ends of the town.  As soon as one fireworks show ended, we turned our chairs the other direction and watched an equally big fireworks show.

Everyone had such a good time, we started making plans for next year.

 Moe is hoping that there will be pizza.