If you need a special house gift for a summer host, consider baking cookies in special shapes. Or, bring the cookie cutters as gifts, along with pre-measured ingredients, as an activity gift.

Most people who bake have cookie cutter circles, flowers and hearts, and perhaps some holiday shapes. But with more than 15,000 listings on Amazon.com, you can find something personal for your friends and family.
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A tasty flag! Photo courtesy SecretLifeOfAChefsWife.com.

What a great dessert surprise for July 4th!

This flag cake originated on 17andBak­ing.com, and was reposted on SecretLifeOfAChefsWife.com.

Elissa, who posted the recipe at age 17 (she’s now 21), said at the time:

“While I wish I could claim credit for it, the idea of a flag cake was completely my father’s. It was all a bit of an experiment and when I finally cut the cake open, revealing the familiar red white and blue, I was so surprised to see that it worked.”

You can use any recipe for a three layer white cake. Elissa deliberately made the cake completely white on the outside, with a cream cheese frosting flavored with lime zest. Cutting into a plain cake makes the flag motif an even bigger surprise.

Are you dying to make it? Here’s the recipe.

Perfect for a July 4th celebration: red, white and blue Jell-O shots.

All you need is a mini star silicon mold, like this one from Wilton. You can probably pick one up locally, where July 4th-themed housewares or are sold (or a good baking supplies department).

Then, just follow this recipe on GoodCocktails.com.

And plan ahead for red, green and white Jello-O shots for Christmas, using lime Jell-O instead of Berry Blue.

Jell-O shots are made by substituting approximately one third to one half of the second cup of liquid added to Jell-O powder (the first cup is the boiling water that dissolves the gelatin.

Vodka or rum are popular (flavored vodkas add another flavor dimension), but the shots can be made with any alcohol. Note that the alcohol blended into the Jell-O is absorbed much more slowly than in a cocktail, resulting in abject drunkenness on the part of those who underestimate how much alcohol they have consumed.

No, the Jell-O shot was not invented by American singer-songwriter Tom Lehrer in the 1950s. He is well known for writing about it, making the recipe as a subterfuge to consume alcohol on the alcohol-restricted Army base where he was stationed.

Jell-O shots seem like a modern concept, but Jell-O itself (flavored, sweetened gelatin) was invented in 1897. Beginning in the 1400s, gelatin (protein produced from collagen extracted from boiled animal bones and connective tissues) had been used to make desserts.

In 1862, the first modern cocktail recipe book was published in the U.S.: Jerry Thomas’ Bartenders Guide. You can still buy it (reprinted) on Amazon.com.

Thanks to some pretty crafty sleuthing on the part of JelloShotRecipe.Blogspot.com, you can see a photocopy of the first known recipe for a molded gelatin-alcohol combination.

Jerry Thomas advises: “The strength of the punch is so artfully concealed by its admixture with the gelatine, that many persons, particularly of the softer sex, have been tempted to partake so plentifully of it as to render them somewhat unfit for waltzing or quadrilling after supper.”

That sounds so much more charming than “abject drunkenness.”
  

We’ve had chicken salad BLTs and turkey BLTs, but were only recently inspired by Castello USA to make this blue cheese BLT.

It’s a lovely a new take on a BLT:

 
You can make it vegetarian by substituting Baconnaise [a NIBBLE favorite] or Nasoya’s Nayonaise and optional vegan bacon, such as Smart Bacon from Lightlife.

Enjoy it open face or not, with a cold beer.

It may be the perfect sandwich to enjoy over July 4th holiday: It’s red (tomato), white (bread and blue cheese) and blue (blue cheese again).

You can apply the same principle to the red, white and blue burger in the photo below, adding a slice of red onion.

Castello has a long heritage of making creatively crafted cheese in Denmark. Each type of cheese is made at a single dairy, which specializes in the production of that particular cheese.

There are many more more delicious recipes with all of Castello’s cheeses at CastelloCheese.com.

We especially earmarked:

Drink red, white and blue for July 4th. Photo
courtesy Herradura Tequila.

Just start with a clear spirit or mixer, layer on other flavors like coconut water. You can turn it into a cocktail by adding a clear liqueur.

 
 
RECIPE: TEQUILA RED, WHITE & BLUE

Ingredients For 1 Drink

 
For Garnish

Preparation

1. PLACE berries and crushed ice in the glass.

2. COMBINE drink ingredients in a cocktail shaker. Shake and strain into the glass.
 

Find more cocktail recipes at Herradura.com.