Sometimes July 4th Means Celebrating More Than Our Nation's Birthday

July 4th is a triple celebration is our family, so we pretty much know how to have a great party. Using a BBQ as the "main" theme, we believe the rest is just a matter of organization and letting "the chips" literally fall where they may.

The reason this is a fun holiday is we celebrate the nation's birthday, our mother's birthday and my sister's wedding anniversary. Living in South Orange County, we have "bombs bursting in air" starting at 9 p.m., so we start having fun around four in the afternoon. The reason our BBQ's are always successful is that we get all of our guests-both family and friends involved.

The hosting family (usually my sister since she has the biggest backyard and a pool) assigns parts of the menu, breaking it down into sections: proteins, vegetables (which include salads), starches, desserts, drinks and paper products. We have those who are either too busy or (from knowledge in past years)inept at the simplest of culinary skills bring the last two sections. Then we let creativity invade everyone else's desires. Both my sister's and my husbands like to man the grill, which is fine with us!

Most years, the men pick out something that all the attendees can enjoy: boneless chicken thighs (they stay juicy and moist), pork ribs, turkey and beef burgers and salmon. More often than not, the men simply brush all their choices with some olive oil and sea salt. Then they serve teriyaki and barbecue sauce on the table. Many will also top their meats with some of the salsas or dips served with the veggies and chips.

Our mother likes to bring the comfort food-noodle pudding for our clan-could be potato or pasta salad for your family. Other in-laws like to bring crudite trays with special spinach dips/salsas/hummus. Some friends get creative and bring gourmet chips, tabbouleh salads, breads and rolls. I have been dubbed the dessert queen. I usually make a "red, white and blue" fruit dish of some kind. One year I did a fruit pizza with sugar cookie crust, fat-free cool whip, topped with the most beautiful berries. Another year, berry kabobs with chocolate dipping sauce. I also whip up a couple of batches of everyone's favorites of my biscotti recipes to have with coffee after the sun goes down.

Now our family are a bunch of tea-totalers, so we toast our birthday/anniversary people with strawberry flavored sparkling cider. We have a no-cal punch out of diet cran-raspberry juice and diet lemon-lime soda and a bevy of different waters and teas. A coffee bar accompanies the dessert spread. For our son and daughter who have friends attending and enjoy beer-its BYOB time for them.

Those bringing the "set-up" items are told how many to prepare for and to keep it in the theme of Independence Day.

Getting our family and friends involved in more ways than just eating at our July 4th BBQ Party has made it one of our most successful and enjoyable events. The other fun thing is because everyone has helped create the fun, they're more likely to help clean it up! And because everyone has brought either their own serving pieces or brought them in disposable items, there's much less stress on my sister and I after "the party's over" in the way putting everything back to normal when we have work the next day.

So take a few tips from a person who has thrown over 20 July 4th BBQ Parties-get your guests involved!