Forth of July Recipes

The forth of July is rapidly coming this year and hopefully this article will help you plan a really good meal for your family and guests over the holiday. I usually start my cooking articles off with some history but I'm going to skip that in this article and get right to the recipes.

Many of us, myself included plan to grill out for the forth of July. With this in mind I have some wonderful recipes to help fill in your menu plan this forth of July.

On July the third start preparing your appetizers and side dishes. The dip, coleslaw, potato salad, and BBQ sauce will all have a much better flavor if their flavors are allowed to meld overnight. Also you want to do all your shopping on the third of July so you won't find yourself rushing to the store right before your party or cookout. Grab some steaks of your choice. 1 inch to 1 and 1 / 2 inch thick are perfect. Your wieners, hamburger meat, and veggies.

Start out with chips and dip for your guests at your forth of July event. Here is a excellent appetizer idea for your party: If your going to have a lot of guests the recipe easily doubles.

How to Make a Really Good Avocado Dip

Making a really good avocado dip at home is a simple and easy task. It will be very easy for you to create your own family tradition from the basic example listed below.

Ingredients:

2 large ripe avocados. Try and focus on the type of avocado you want for your dip rather than a brand name of avocado. Brand names add cost to the price and take away from what is really important, the food. Never pay for a name when you can be paying for more food when making a really good avocado dip.

16 ounces of sour cream. Pick your favorite. I use no name brands because of the value. If you absolutely must have a brand name product try Breakstone's Sour Cream. It is reasonably priced and of good quality. Good sour cream is absolutely essential when making a really good avocado dip.

2 tablespoons of Parmesan cheese. This cheese will add a contrast of flavors to your really good avocado dip.

2 medium ripe and firm medium tomatoes.

1 medium onion.

1 tablespoon of cayenne peppers

1/8th tablespoon of garlic powder.

2 tablespoons of lemon juice.

Directions:

Cut your avocados in half and remove the seed from the middle and scoop out the meat into a mixing bowl. Mash the avocado flesh until it is of dip like consistency. Add your lemon juice quickly and mix thoroughly to prevent discoloring of the avocado flesh. No discolored avocado for our really good avocado dip.

Throw the onion into a food processor and process until finely chopped Add to mixing bowl with the sour cream, cheese, cayenne pepper, and garlic powder.

Dice your tomatoes and toss them and the juice into the mixing bowl as well. The fresh tomatoes juice will add needed moisture as well as flavor to your really good avocado dip.

Stir all these ingredients thoroughly and allow to chill covered in the refrigerator until serving time. Serve in a bowl in an ice chip nest to keep dip cool.

Really good avocado dip is best served with crackers or thick chips or veggie strips. An exotic use for this dip would be to place a scoop of the dip on a hot baked potatoes and serve as a side item to a grilled steak or chicken.

While your guests are munching on the awesome dip you prepared, you will have time to prepare the meal itself. Wrap some baking potatoes up in tinfoil and pop in the oven to cook. They will take about an hour to an hour and a half to cook. Keep warm in a oven at 140 degree.

Your going to want a few side dishes for your main course and here they are:

Jalapeno Coleslaw

1 Medium Head of Cabbage

2 Medium jalapeno peppers

1 dill pickle

1 cup of mayo

1/4 teaspoon of salt

1 tablespoon of apple cider vinegar

1 small green pepper

1/2 small sweet white onion

Chop your cabbage up in manageable pieces and wash thoroughly. Do the same with your jalapenos, pickle, green pepper and onion. Toss all of these in the food processor and chop till they are finely ground and mixed up thoroughly. Add the mayo, salt, vinegar and mix again until all the ingredients are evenly mixed. Pour out into a bowl, cover and place in the refrigerator until serving time.

This coleslaw is amazing with grilled burgers and hot dogs fresh off the grill. Your guests will love you for it. You might want to make a batch of slaw without the peppers for those people who cannot eat hot foods due to gastrointestinal issues.

Jalapeno Potato Salad

3 Baking Potatoes

1 medium jalapeno pepper

1 dill pickle

2/3 cup of mayo

1/8 teaspoon of salt and pepper

1/2 medium onion

1 boiled egg

1 medium stalk of celery

1 tablespoon of deli mustard

Boil your potatoes until they are firm but done. this will probably take around 20 minutes on most stoves. Take 2 of the potatoes and mash them up to almost mashed potato consistency. Take the other potato and chop it into small cubes and toss in the bowl with the mashed potatoes. Chop your pickle, onion, celery, and boiled egg up finely and place them in the bowl with the potatoes along with the mayo, mustard, salt and pepper. Mix thoroughly. Chill until ready to serve. This dish will be much better if made a day ahead of time and allowed to sit and let the flavors meld with one another in the salad. As with the slaw, you might want to make a batch without the peppers for people who can't tolerate an over abundance of spicy foods.

My secret BBQ sauce:

I have a very simple recipe for my BBQ sauce. I use a basic BBQ sauce right out of the jar from the grocery store called Bullseye Original BBQ sauce. They have a version of their BBQ sauce now that does not contain high fructose corn syrup and that was the deal maker for me. My secret is that I add an additional ingredient to the BBQ sauce. I take a ripe pear and puree it and mix it with a couple bottles of the standard BBQ sauce. It gives the sauce a sweet unique flavor unlike any other sauce I have ever tasted. Add some hot pepper to the sauce to give it some heat if you want. Sweet and hot go together well in grilled meats and veggies.

Fire up the grill and let the coals get white hot. Have some smoke chips on hand to give your food that smokehouse taste. Many people use hickory chips for smoking. Personally I prefer mesquite chips for my grilling. If you choose to try mesquite use the chips sparingly. Mesquite has a strong flavor and a little goes a long way.

Take your fresh corn and dip it in a tray of your BBQ sauce and lightly coat the ear of corn and place on the cool part of your grill. If you have never had grilled corn you are in for a real treat. Watch your corn closely so it does not char to much as this will impair the flavor greatly.

Put your wieners on the cool part of your grill as well as they will taste better cooked slowly and have more time to absorb the smoke flavor. Dab some BBQ sauce on them when they are almost done if you want the BBQ flavor for your wieners. Place your hamburgers on the medium heat part of your grill and cook. When they are about 2 or 3 minutes from being done brush with BBQ sauce and allow to char slightly. Place your steaks on the medium to high temperature part of your grill and brush with BBQ sauce. Many people disagree with me on this but I always cook my meats at the very least medium well. I don't want my family or guests getting sick from undercooked meat and neither should you. I have made previous guests mad over this issue as some people get very offended that I won't serve them a undercooked steak. Medium well cooked steak can be just as juicy as a medium steak if cooked properly. This takes practice but is well worth the effort to keep people healthy.

After all this cooking I'm sure your hungry. Have someone else serve the food you cooked and sit down to a heaping plate of heaven and enjoy your forth of July feast.