We present three recipes with photos, plus another 18 links below. Recipes #2 and #3 can be pulled together in just 10 minutes.
 
 
RECIPE #1: JELL-O FIRECRACKERS OR SHOTS

To celebrate July 4th, Kraft Recipes has developed this fun snack and dessert.

You can make it for any special occasion (Chanukah, Christmas, St. Patrick’s Day, Thanksgiving…) by varying the colors.

And…you can turn the recipe into Jell-O shots by adding vodka or tequila.

Ingredients For 20 Pieces

 
Preparation

To make the alcoholic shots, see Variation, below.

[1] and [2] Make fun Jell-O “firecrackers” for kids, or add vodka for Jell-O shots. Photos courtesy Kraft.

2. SPRINKLE the unflavored gelatin over 1/4 cup milk in a medium bowl; let stand 5 minutes. Bring the remaining milk to a boil in a saucepan. Remove from the heat, stir in the sugar and vanilla, and add to plain gelatin mixture. Stir until the gelatin is completely dissolved. Cool for 10 minutes.

3. SPOON the berry gelatin into 20 (1-ounce) plastic shot glasses sprayed lightly with cooking spray, adding 2 teaspoons to each. Refrigerate for 15 minutes or until set but not firm.

4. TOP with the unflavored gelatin mixture, adding 2 teaspoons to each cup. Refrigerate for 10 minutes. Insert a cherry, stem end up, into the white gelatin layer. Refrigerate for 2 minutes.

5. COVER with the cherry gelatin, adding 2 teaspoons to each cup. Refrigerate for 2 hours or until firm. Remove from the cups before serving on a platter or individual plates.

Variation With Alcohol: Prepare as directed, reducing the boiling water to 1 cup and dissolving the berry and cherry gelatin mixes in 1/2 cup boiling water each. Stir 1/4 cup vodka into each flavor of gelatin, then continue as directed.

Infuse the maraschino cherries in a glass jar. Add 1/2 cup vodka and cover with a tight-fitting lid. Refrigerate for at least 2 hours. Then drain, pat dry and use as directed. (Yes, you can drink the alcohol you’ve drained.)

Variation Without Maraschino Cherries: Substitute small strawberries or blackberries for the cherries.
 
 
GELATIN VS. GELATINE: THE DIFFERENCE

It’s the same product. Gelatine is the British spelling and pronunciation (jell-a-TEEN in the U.K. versus jell-a-TIN in the U.S.).
 
 
EASY FRUIT DESSERTS
If you’d like to celebrate with fruit, bring home some a watermelon, some blueberries and your choice of creamy topping: Cool Whip, vanilla yogurt, yogurt or sour cream (the latter two sweetened as desired).

Both recipes are super-quick and easy and low in calories.

Two super-easy, red-white-and-blue fruit desserts: [3] fruit cup and [4] star “cake” (photos courtesy National Watermelon Promotion Board).

Ingredients

 
Preparation

1. SCOOP watermelon balls into a glass serving bowl. Add the berries and sliced starfruit and toss with your hands to disperse. Cover with plastic and refrigerate until ready to use. To serve…

2. ADD the topping(s) or serve them on the side.
 
 
RECIPE #3: WATERMELON STAR “CAKE”

Ingredients

 
Preparation

1. CUT a circle from the center of the melon, five inches thick or as desired.

2. REMOVE the rind and cut the fruit into a star shape. Cover in plastic and refrigerate until ready to serve.

3. ASSEMBLE: Frost the top and garnish with berries. As desired, pipe additional cream around the base, as shown in the photo.

You can use any berries you like, plus nonfat/0% fat Greek yogurt (photo #2). Blueberries and strawberries are brighter in color for red, white and blue pops.

But vary the berries or use stone fruits (cherries, peaches, plums, etc.) and enjoy your favorite fruits, frozen on a stick, all summer long.

RECIPE: BERRY-GREEK YOGURT POPS

 
Preparation

1. PURÉE the blueberries and 1 tablespoon sugar in a food processor or blender. Transfer into a small bowl.

2. RINSE the bowl of the food processor/blender and add the yogurt and the other tablespoon sugar. Blend and pour the yogurt mixture into the ice pop molds, filling them halfway. Add the strawberry slices and top off with the blueberry mixture. Repeat.

3. Place the molds in freezer to harden; consume within 2 days. Running molds under warm water can help release the pops from the molds.
 
 
NEW FROM CHOBANI: NON-GREEK CHOBANI SMOOTH

Chobani, the nation’s top Greek yogurt maker, has just launched Chobani Smooth, a blended, 1% milkfat yogurt in five flavors:

[1] and [2] Make red, white and blue yogurt pops with Chobani’s plain, 0% fat Greek yogurt (photos courtesy Chobani).

[3] and [4] Meet Chobani Smooth, “American-style” yogurt in five flavors (photos courtesy Chobani).

Each cup (photo #3) has about 11 grams of protein and 120 calories. A two-pack of 5.3-ounce cups (photo #4) retails for a SRP of $1.79.

Chobani calls their new Smooth Yogurt line, “American-style,” but it’s actually European style. See our Yogurt Glossary for the different types of yogurt, including Australia-style, custard style (a.k.a. French style and Swiss style), Greek-style (a.k.a. strained yogurt) and sundae style.

The majority of blended yogurts in the U.S. are made with artificial ingredients, says the company. Those that aren’t are the more expensive “premium” brands.

The mission of Chobani Smooth is to offer the other segment of consumers—those who don’t like the tanginess of Greek yogurt—an option that has:

 
CHOBANI GREEK VS. CHOBANI SMOOTH

If Chobani became the #2 yogurt seller in the U.S. by selling Greek yogurt, why enter the European-style space?

To attract the other half of the market!

Greek yogurt is made like regular yogurt, but the liquid whey is strained out. The result is thicker and tangier, with more protein and fewer carbohydrates.

Finally, Chobani Greek is available in 0%, 2% and 5% (whole milk) milkfat. The Chobani Smooth line is 1%.

Greek yogurt accounts for about half of all cup and carton sales of yogurt. Given that Chobani is America’s largest Greek-style yogurt maker, will Chobani Smooth propel the company to become the largest yogurt maker, period?

That’s the plan!
  

June 30th is National Mai Tai Day, a drink that is attributed by most experts to Victor J. Bergeron, a.k.a. Trader Vic (1902-1984).

Bergeron was the founder of the Trader Vic’s restaurant chain that was so popular in the 1950s and 1960s, which grew to some 30 Trader Vic restaurants worldwide, plus a wholesale food products business.

Trader Vic and his “amicable rival,” Don The Beachcomber, introduced mainland America to “tiki” drinks: plenty of rum and sweet mixers, garnished with baby orchids and perhaps a mini Japanese paper umbrella.

Bergeron, son of a San Francisco grocer, entered the restaurant business at age 32 in 1934—the year following the end of Prohibition. He used $300 of his own money and $800 borrowed from an aunt to open Hinky Dink’s, a hole-in-the-wall restaurant and beer joint in Oakland.

He began inventing and improving his vision of South Seas food—largely, the Cantonese cooking he had come across there.

To go with the food, he invented exotic, rum-based drinks with catchy names, such as Doctor Funk of Tahiti, Mai Tai, Missionary’s Revenge, Queen’s Park Swizzle, Scorpion, and Sufferin’ Bastard, among others.

> The original Mai Tai recipe is below.

> In addition to National Mai Tai Day on June 30th, you can celebrate these related holidays:

> National Cocktail Day, March 24th

> National Tropical Drinks Day, June 26.

> National Piña Colada Day, July 18.

> National Rum Day, August 16.

> Here are the year’s 49 cocktail holidays.

Before we get to the Mai Tai recipe, let’s start with some history.
 
 
THE HISTORY OF TROPICAL/POLYNESIAN DRINKS:
TRADER VIC’S IS BORN

In 1937, Hinky Dink’s morphed into an upscale South Pacific theme restaurant with a menu and Polynesian decor, intended to provide “complete escape and relaxation.” [source]

Theme-oriented restaurants had been established a few years before then (the history of theme restaurants), based on concepts from hot rods to fishing villages. Don The Beachcomber, and then Vic Bergeron, pioneered the Polynesian theme restaurant.
 
 
THE ORIGIN OF TIKI DRINKS

Polynesian restaurants were known for their “tiki drinks,” so-called because the restaurants were decorated with tiki statues, along with other theme items such as South Seas-style wood surfboards, fake palm trees, and fish-shaped lights floating above, “trapped” in fishing nets.

The exotic drinks added excitement to the overall category of rum drinks, which was focused on the Daiquiri, Dark and Stormy, Mojito, and Rum and Coke/Cuba Libre (the Hurricane, Piña Colada, and others had not yet seen the light of day).

Others included Navy Grog, invented by Don the Beachcomber in Hollywood in 1944; Planter’s Punch, invented in Jamaica by 1878); Rum Runner, created in the 1950s at the Holiday Isle Tiki Bar in Islamorada, Florida; Tahitian Rum Punch, invented by Don The Beachcomber; and the Zombie, invented by Don the Beachcomber and popularized at the 1939 New York World’s Fair.

Tiki-inspired ceramic glasses, mugs, and drink bowls were designed to fan the flames, as it were. Some bowls even had a center well into which Sterno could be poured for flaming drinks. Other drinks were flamed with a tablespoon of high-proof rum, which was added to the surface.

The history of the tiki bar is below.
 
 
THE INVENTION OF THE MAI TAI

The Mai Tai (pronounced my tie), was created in 1944 by Trader Vic. He tested the recipe on two friends from Tahiti, one of whom exclaimed “Maita’i roa a’e”, or “out of this world—the best” in Tahitian. Bergeron shortened that to Mai Tai—“the best.”

Trader Vic’s recipe is the one that endured, combining dark and light rums, lime juice, orange curaçao, orgeat syrup (almond-flavored simple syrup), and regular simple syrup. The original had a simple garnish (a mint spring) or none at all.

There is another drink called Mai Tai Swizzle, from Don the Beachcomber. It was invented in 1933, but it seems to have disappeared from his menu sometime before 1937 [source]. But the recipe was quite different, augmenting the rum with grapefruit juice, lime juice, Pernod, and bitters. Here’s the recipe.

Over the years, Trader Vic’s Mai Tai has been further “developed” by bartenders, into a fruitier and more colorful drink.

[2] A Mai Tai based on the original recipe—except for the flowers (photo © Turntable Kitchen).

[3] A modern Mai Tai, looking like a Tequila Sunset—not what Trader Vic created (photo © Real Restaurant Recipes).

[4] Ceramists had a heyday designing ceramic vessels for tiki drinks (photo © Dan Lasner | Unsplash).

Why? Because fruity drinks are downed more quickly, leading to another and another (i.e., more drinks sold). To add to the colorful drink, a baby orchid and/or miniature Japanese umbrella appeared as garnish; or at least, a pineapple slice, orange slice, and/or maraschino cherry.

As one article noted, “The flavor is often dominated by fruit, and that helps hide the heavy taste of alcohol. This is perfect for drinkers who prefer less alcoholic flavor…They end up tasting so good that a person can almost forget how potent they really are.” [source]
 
 
RECIPE: THE ORIGINAL MAI TAI

Bergeron invented the Mai Tai to showcase a favorite aged rum—the 17-year-old J. Wray and Nephew Ltd. Jamaican rum, golden and medium-bodied (the brand is now owned by Campari America).

The name was allegedly taken from maita’i, the Tahitian word for good or excellent.

He also used rock candy syrup, which is sweeter and thicker than regular simple syrup: 2 parts sugar and 1 part water instead of a 1:1 ratio (recipe).

However, the Mai Tai was such a smash hit that “A couple of years after the cocktail’s invention, the world ran out of the 17-year-old rum…so [Bergeron substituted] a 15-year-old J. Wray and Nephew.” [source]

But once that, too, dwindled in supply, Bergeron created a blend of Jamaican rum and aged molasses-based Martinique rum to emulate the Wray and Nephew rum.

[5] If it uses blue curaçao, it’s not an authentic Mai Tai. A Mai Tai uses orange curaçao, not blue curaçao, and no pineapple or cherry (but here’s the recipe for this “Blue Hawaii” from Culinary Creative).

[6] As tiki culture evolved, so did the drinks—into flaming bowls equivalent to six or more drinks, served with jumbo straws. Here’s the recipe for this Volcano Bowl from Kitchen Riffs).

Thus, here’s a current approximation of Bergeron’s revised Mai Tai:

Ingredients Per Drink

 
________________

*Original recipe: 2 ounces 17-year old J. Wray & Nephew Rum.

**Original brand: Holland DeKuyper Orange Curaçao.

†Original recipe: 1/4 ounce Trader Vic’s Rock Candy Syrup (sweeter than orgeat, which is almond-flavored simple syrup).

‡Original brand: Garnier Orgeat (orgeat is the preferred simple syrup in France. This brand no longer exists.)
________________
 
Preparation

SHAKE the ingredients vigorously with the ice. Strain into an ice-filled double-old fashioned glass. Add a sprig of fresh mint

Regarding the subsequent fruity, colorful modifications to his drink, Bergeron said:

“The flavor of this great rum wasn’t meant to be overpowered with heavy additions of fruit juices and flavorings.” Alas, bar owners and bartenders could care less [source].

 
THE HISTORY OF THE TIKI BAR

Ernest Raymond Beaumont Grant (1907-1989) a Texas native, began to travel the world—including the islands of the Caribbean and the South Pacific—in 1926. A bootlegger during Prohibition, he moved to Hollywood and when Prohibition in 1933, opened a bar called Don’s Beachcomber, the first tiki bar.

Grant changed his name to Donn Beach, and in 1937 changed the name of the establishment to Don the Beachcomber.

He then opened what became a very popular bar on Hollywood Boulevard in Los Angeles. It was decorated with items from the South Pacific, and Beach developed a cocktail menu that developed “secret recipes” inspired by the many types of rum drinks he had experienced during his years of island travel.

In 1934, Victor Bergeron, who had also toured the South Seas, transformed his Oakland, California saloon Hinky Dinks into Trader Vic’s upscale Polynesian bar and restaurant. He created his own menu of rum drinks.

Located some 380 miles apart, the two pioneers of “tiki culture” became amicable rivals.

Following World War II, the interest in South Pacific culture blossomed and the tiki boom took off. Tiki bars popped up all over the country, each attempting to outshine one another with lavish decor and rum cocktails served in mammoth bowls with floating orchids and tiny paper umbrellas [source].

Both of the original bars expanded into restaurant chains. Don The Beachcomber had 25 locations, the last of which closed in the 1980s (two short-lived locations opened in 2001 and 2004, and a restaurant in Huntington Beach licensed the name in 2009 [source].

Tiki culture peaked in the 1970s, and if you were of drinking age at the time, you may be missing those delightful drinks.

So throw together a Mai Tai, and celebrate National Mai Tai Day.

CHECK OUT WHAT’S HAPPENING ON OUR HOME PAGE, THENIBBLE.COM.

Here’s a very quick, yet very high-impact, trio of drinks for July 4th weekend. One has no alcohol, one is lightly alcoholic and one is full-cocktail.

Call them Lady Liberty Lemonade or Lady Liberty Sangria; or add gin, tequila or vodka for a Lady Liberty Cocktail.

Even if you have time for nothing else, you can make this!

The amounts needed will vary depending on the size of your pitcher.
 
 
RECIPE #1: LADY LIBERTY LEMONADE

Ingredients

 
Preparation

To serve with ice cubes, prepare a can of lemonade and freeze it in ice cube trays, five hours in advance or overnight. This keeps the drink ice-cold without diluting it.

1. PREPARE the lemonade according to package instructions.

2. WASH the fruit. Slice the apples, cut the slices into stars, and add all the fruit to the pitcher of lemonade. Chill in the fridge until ready to use.
 
 
RECIPE #2: LADY LIBERTY SANGRIA

Club soda added to this recipe serves two purposes: to add fizz to a still wine sangria, or to dilute the drink to a lower-alcohol, lower-calorie spritzer.

Ingredients

 
Preparation

[2] For sparkling sangria, use Prosecco, an Italian bubbly.

1. SLICE the apples, cut the slices into stars, and add all the fruit to a pitcher. Top with the wine, liqueur and juice, and stir gently to combine. Refrigerate until ready to use.

2. FILL glasses and top off with club soda.
 
 
RECIPE 3: LADY LIBERTY COCKTAIL

Substitute gin, tequila or vodka for the wine in recipe #2.
 
 
LIGHT WHITE WINES

These wines are light enough for the hottest days of summer. Consider picking up varieties that you haven’t had before. Even if they won’t unseat your current favorite to drink as is, they will blend beautifully into the sangria.

Why stick a hot dog in a roll?

These Hot Dog Firecrackers are an easy recipe to serve over 4th of July weekend, fun for all age.

You don’t need a roll to hold the ketchup or mustard. You can neatly add them to the “firecracker” via a squeeze bottle or a knife.

This recipe came to us from USA Pan, makers of fine bakeware.

Prep time is 15 minutes, cook time is 15 minutes.

You don’t need a grill: These firecrackers are baked in the oven.
 
 
RECIPE: FIRECRACKER HOT DOGS FOR JULY 4TH

Ingredients For 16 Hot Dogs

 
Preparation

1. PREHEAT the oven to 350°F. Stick the skewers through the center of the hot dogs until there is an inch and a half of the skewer coming out from the top of each dog.

2. PLACE the crescent dough on flat surface. With a knife, cut ¾ inch thick strips.

3. WRAP each hot dog with a strip of dough, leaving a gap between each spiral. Place the hot dogs on a half sheet pan (see below), leaving a small amount of space between each hot dog. Bake for 15 minutes or until golden brown. While the hot dogs are cooking…

4. CUT stars from the cheese. Assemble on top of the finished hot dogs and serve.

THE HISTORY OF SHEET PANS

A sheet pan, baking tray or baking sheet is a flat, rectangular metal pan used in an oven. It is typically used for baking bread rolls, pastries and flat products such as cookies, sheet cakes, swiss rolls and pizzas.

The most basic sheet pan is literally a sheet of metal, hence the name. If you have a cookie sheet with no continuous lip around the edges, you have a sheet pan.

One or two edges are rolled to enable easy handling in and out of the oven. The open sides allow you to remove the warm cookies without disturbing their shape.

Modern sheet pans used in commercial kitchens typically are made of aluminum, with a 1 inch lip around the edge.

The Sheet Pan Evolves

The next step in the development of the sheet pan was to include a lip on one or more edges, to prevent food from sliding off. Some pans add handles to aid in placing the pan in, and removing it from, the oven.

A sheet pan that has a continuous lip around all four sides is also called a jelly roll pan. It can be used to make the flat cake layer used for jelly rolls and roulades with other fillings.

Today, there are specialty sheet pans that include a layer of insulation or air (an “air bake pan”), designed to protect delicate food like macarons from burning.

Sheet Pan Sizes

In the U.S.:

 
Sheet Pans Vs. Cookie Sheets

Cookie sheets are different from baking pans. Baking pans have rolled edges, and cookie sheets do not.

Cookie sheets offer the advantage of a large surface area with no edges to impede removing the baked cookies. But their lack of edges limits their uses:

You can bake cookies in a baking pan, but you can’t cook a roast (or anything else that expels juice) on a cookie sheet.

Baking pans for roasts, called roasting pans, are deeper, to accommodate the size of the roast plus the juices it emits.