THE NIBBLE BLOG: Products, Recipes & Trends In Specialty Foods
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July 1, 2012 at 5:00 am
· Filed under July 4th/Independence Day
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There’s plenty of time to create a star-spangled menu for July 4th. Here are recipes for foods and drinks:
BREAKFAST
Yogurt Parfait: Start the day with plain or vanilla yogurt, or cottage cheese, topped with raspberries and blueberries.
LUNCH & DINNER
Patriotic Cheeseburger: Cut cheese slices into star shapes and tint the pickles blue. Recipe.
Potato Salad: Make red, white and blue potato salad with your favorite recipe. If you can’t find purple Perurvian potatoes (pretty close to blue!), keep the skins on red-jacket potatoes. Sprinkle top with crumbled blue cheese or goat cheese, and decorate the bowl with a perimeter of blueberries or a dice of cooked Peruvian potatoes.
SNACKS
Bean Dip: Make a white bean dip and garnish the perimeter of the bowl with chopped, seeded tomatoes. Serve with a mix of blue corn, red corn and white corn tortilla chips. Recipe.
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Red, white and blue cookie pizza. Photo courtesy California Strawberry Commission. Get the recipe. |
Fruit, Cheese & Crackers: Spread crackers with goat cheese and garnish with a strawberry slice,
topped by a blueberry. For a sweet version, use graham crackers and cream cheese.
Goat Cheese Stuffed Celery: Crunchy, creamy and accented with pomegranate arils and blueberries. Recipe.
Tortilla Chips: Use blue and red tortilla chips with your regular nachos recipe, along with white Cheddar or other good white melting cheese. Sprinkle some blue cheese or goat cheese (it‘s very white) atop the red salsa.
DESSERTS
Angel Food Cake: White cake with red and blue berries. If you’re grilling, grill the cake first. Recipe.
Parfait: Layer vanilla ice cream with strawberry or raspberry purée; top with whipped cream and blueberries.
Patriotic Cookie Pizza: Sugar cookie dough (from the supermarket), whipped cream, vanilla yogurt, strawberries and blueberries. Recipe. Similarly, you can top a white-iced cake or vanilla pudding pie or tartlets with red and blue berries.
Patriotic Cupcakes: Red velvet cake, white frosting and blueberries. Recipe.
Patriotic Toll House Cookies: America’s favorite cookie is cut into star shapes with a red, white and blue icing and garnish. Recipe.
If you have a favorite July 4th recipe, please share!
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June 30, 2012 at 7:17 am
· Filed under Cocktails & Spirits, July 4th/Independence Day
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A star-spangled cocktail (photo © Congress Hall). |
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We serve Bloody Marys, Margaritas and Martinis year-round. But we love occasions that merit special cocktails.
So we were more than pleased when this red, white and blue “Star Spangled Banner” cocktail recipe arrived from Congress Hall, a 200-year-old classic American resort on the ocean in Cape May, New Jersey (so charming, we wanted to make a reservation—see the photo gallery).
RECIPE #1: STAR SPANGLED BANNER COCKTAIL RECIPE FOR JULY 4TH
This drink delivers delightful flavor from the two orange liqueurs and fresh raspberries.
Ingredients Per Drink
3 tablespoons fresh raspberries, macerated and muddled
¾ ounce orange liqueur (Cointreau, Curaçao, Grand Marnier, GranGala, triple sec)
¾ ounce blue Curaçao
2 ounces vodka
Coarse sugar or drink rimmer with red or blue flecks
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Preparation
1. Moisten the rim of a Martini glass and dip it a half inch deep in sugar (use a shallow bowl for the sugar).
2. Combine the muddled raspberries with the orange liqueur. Add to the bottom of the glass.
3. Combine the vodka and blue Curaçao. Blue Curaçaos vary in color. If you want a darker blue, add a scant drop of blue food color (Curaçao is colored with food color. Cointreau, Grand Marnier and other high-end orange spirits are based on Cognac or other aged spirit, which yields a natural rusty orange color.)
4. Shake with ice and strain into glass. Serve.
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RECIPE #2: THE PATRIOT COCKTAIL
For a red, white and blue effect, you can also use whipped cream and blueberries atop a red drink. You don’t have to sweeten the whipped cream; unsweetened, it provides a more sophisticated contrast atop a sweet drink.
Adapted from a Congress Hall recipe.
Ingredients Per Drink
1 part vodka
3 parts cranberry juice or pomegranate juice
Whipped cream (how about Bourbon whipped cream?)
Garnish: blueberries
Ice cubes
Straw
Preparation
1. Shake vodka and juice with ice in a cocktail shaker. Pour over ice cubes in a collins glass.
2. Top with a small amount of whipped cream. Garnish with blueberries and serve with a straw.
Find more of our favorite cocktail recipes.
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Whipped cream and blueberries turn any sweet red cocktail into a patriotic one (photo © Congress Hall). |
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June 29, 2012 at 1:15 pm
· Filed under Chocolate, Giftable, July 4th/Independence Day
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Party line party favors for July 4th. Photo
courtesy Choclatique. |
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If your crowd spends a preponderance of time discussing politics, serve some of these clever chocolates for July 4th.
Made by the creative L.A. chocolatier Choclatique, white chocolate shells are filled with chocolate ganache and topped with colored white chocolate donkey and elephant medallions in party colors.
They are sold in two-piece party favors (one elephant, one donkey per box in a 12-box package) and boxes of 8, 15 and 30 pieces, all ranging from $18.00 to $55.00.
And of course, given party politics, each size is available in all-donkey or all-elephant.
Head to Choclatique.com and search for “Capitol Collection.”
Find more of our favorite chocolates.
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