We had a perfect day Monday--lovely weather, dry and sunny, not too cool or too hot.I love our family get togethers. We have good times and I really like my family and being with them. As with holidays everywhere, we feasted. I have a sense that our eclectic feast is generally typical--most 4th of July feasts are made up of the traditional and favorite foods of that particular family, whatever they may be.
My brother made these baguettes and, oh, yum! N picked the wild black raspberries. I'd never had them. They are really good! Little bursts of flavor. We had cherries, too, and some strawberries. Fresh picked lettuce and herbs. Homemade tomato sauce for pasta.
I think it's probably an American law written somewhere that you have to grill for the 4th of July. We grilled chicken and brats and packets of veggies in foil went on the coals (zucchini, summer squash, onion slices, pepper slices and cherry tomatoes). Most of us had a hand in the grilling. C&N brought home grown corn (frozen from last year, but still so sweet!). We had the bread with butter, with olive oil, I added a basil leaf. My sister had made a tasty spread with cream cheese, chopped green onion (salad onions) and chopped dried cranberries. It was really good on the bread.
And our family tradition...tinned black olives. When we were kids at every family holiday meal the can of black olives would be carefully drained and served in the nice dish as a rare and expensive treat. For a really fancy dinner mom would add carrot and celery sticks and maybe some green olives and sweet pickles, but mostly the black olives were the staple.
And to this day, at every family holiday meal, one of us turns up with a can of olives to serve. With the olives, our feast was nearly complete. For my family, dessert is a main part of the meal!
I bought mini-cupcakes with poofs of icing and colorful sprinkles. My brother brought a few homemade truffles and flourless peanutbutter cookies he'd made. N showed K and me how to smush a truffle onto a cookie for a true delight.
After feasting we sat around and talked (segregated, as seems to be tradition. This time the guys were on the porch and we ladies sat inside). D (in the shorts above) took us for boat rides on the river. It was perfect weather for a lovely cruise. The scruffy guy in the jeans is my sweetie. (C is off the the right out of the picture, the porch wasn't quite big enough for me to get all three into one shot.) We got our calendars out and planned our next girls day out (end of July for K's birthday!)We drove home (it's about 60 miles) with the windows down, enjoying the perfect weather, feeling replete and very happy.
