Entertaining for the 4th of July with Style

Entertaining with patriotic flair can be achieved easily with these 5 great recipes that are sure to be a big hit at your cookout or family gathering. I have included two of my own 4th of July recipes and a few of my favorites from other sites. These tasty and colorful recipes are sure to put a smile on the face of every guest at your party!

My delicious pound cake with homemade sweet cream and fresh berries is always a big hit with my friends and family. You can find my recipe by clicking here

This fun drink, which is also pictured at the beginning of this post is full of flavor and a great conversation piece. I created this delicious mocktail with a blend of sorbet, a carbonated drink and a pop rock rim. Perfect way to get your 4th of July popping...literally. You can find my recipe here

These delicious ice pops are great for those hot summer days and perfect  for celebrating the red, white and blue. 

Find the recipe here

These cheesecake stuffed strawberries are perfect for a light dessert, but taste indulgent enough to make you feel like you are not missing out on anything. Find the recipe here

This clever dessert is simple., but artfully displayed and delicious

Find the recipe here

Happy Fourth of July and Bon Appetit!

Cherry Bomb

A fruity libation is always a perfect addition for summer entertaining. This drink is bursting with flavor and sizzles and POPs literally.  A bold cherry base and a rim of POP rocks make this an amazing drink for your July 4th celebrations.  I came up with the name "Cherry Bomb" because it is the perfect description for this drink. The flavor bursts in your mouth like a bomb!

This is a great mocktail that can be enjoyed by children and adults. You can also make this a very grown up drink by adding your favorite liquor and then you have a pretty amazing cocktail:-)

This drink was so well received at my 4th of July barbecue last year, that I thought the recipe should be reposted for those of you that may have missed it the first time around.

 Ingredients

Cherry Sorbet

Sprite or 7up

Pop Rocks 

You can serve this drink in any glass, but I thought the martini glass gave it some extra oomph:-) To make this drink, simply put a scoop of sorbet in a glass and pour sprite over it. Rim your glass with Cherry pop rocks and Voila! Cherry Bomb!

Cheers!

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas! I hope your Christmas holiday is amazing! I am making preparations for tomorrow and getting excited! I can't wait for my son to open his presents:-) Here is a quick post to spread some holiday cheer. I wanted to share some of my favorite Christmas songs with you. I hope you have an amazing celebration with your family and lots of wonderful memories to cherish for a lifetime:-) 

 

The Christmas song by Nat King Cole is my favorite Christmas song of all time. A voice like silk and a timeless classic.

"Let it Snow" This is another classic song. So upbeat and cheerful!

No list would be complete without "This Christmas" by Donny Hathaway

 

"A Wonderful Christmastime by Paul McCartney" This song just makes me happy:-)

"Merry Christmas Baby" This song holds a very special place in my heart. When I was a little girl, my Dad always always played this song on Christmas.

"Give Love on Christmas Day" Such a powerful message in this song and I love hearing Michael Jackson:-)

 

"Christmas Time is Here" This reminds me of my childhood.  I love this music so much that I even bought all of the other  music by Vince Guaraldi and I listen to the Charlie Brown Instrumentals all year long. It is really great music and very relaxing.  I hope you enjoyed the Christmas selections. What are your favorites?

Cranberry Sauce with Vanilla Coffee Infused Pears

This cranberry sauce is full of flavor and everyone I serve this too wants to know whats in it.  I love coffee and can drink it all day everyday and I came up with the idea of boiling pears in a mixture of strong vanilla flavored coffee before adding them into the cranberry sauce.  Now you can have your coffee and your cranberry sauce!

Coffee is probably not a flavor that you expect to find in a cranberry sauce, but this cranberry sauce is Disneyland for your taste buds! When you combine all of the ingredients together, the flavor is delicious and the coffee just adds another dimension. This will not taste like coffee cranberry sauce, but it will have a unique flavor that makes you keep wanting more. This is so good, that I have seen people put this on their plate and eat it for dessert.  

 Pears boiling in an ocean of sweet strong vanilla coffee

 Don't feel like brewing coffee? No problem! Run to Starbucks and get too large Venti coffees  and pour into a pot with the vanilla when you get home:-) See how easy that is? LOL

Your cranberries will start off like this

When your cranberries start to boil with the sugar,it will look like this, but be sure to reduce heat and boil gently

After your cranberries have boiled a while, they will look like this

Add those sweet succulent pears into the cranberries. Once you put this in your mouth, you will never want to open a can of cranberry sauce ever again.

 

Look at those juicy pears swimming in a sea of sweet sticky goodness...plump cranberries, sugar, pears, vanilla coffee. Yes Please!

Ingredients

1 Bag fresh cranberries

4 ripe Bosc Pears

6 cups very strong coffee

2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

2 1/2  cups  white sugar 

1/2 cup light brown sugar

Directions

Slice pears in half (to allow even more of the coffee flavor to infuse the pears, cut the pear into smaller chunks, or simply cut the halves in half:-). Brew six cups of coffee and stir in 1 1/2 cup of sugar and the vanilla. Put coffee mixture into a pot and let it come to a boil, add pears and bring back to a boil.  Let the pears simmer for 15 minutes. Let the pears sit in the coffee mixture for ten minutes and then discard the coffee mixture. When the pears are completely cool, chop the pears into very small cubes and set aside.

Stir the remaining white sugar and light brown sugar and water together in a pot and bring to a boil.  Add the cranberries and bring back to a rapid boil then simmer and boil gently on medium/low heat for ten minutes. As the cranberries are cooking, use spoon to gently pop the cranberries. It is important to cook the cranberries long enough to release the natural pectin that makes the cranberries turn into a thick jelly consistency.  Add the pears to the mixture and cook for another few  minutes to evaporate the extra moisture from the pears. Let it bubble away on low heat and you may need to let it cook for anywhere from another 3-7 minutes.  Be careful to stir constantly to make sure the sauce does not burn.  Let cool and refrigerate. The sauce will thicken as it cools.

Note: After this has cooled and been refrigerated, you should have a nice jelly like consistency.  If your sauce does not thicken, just simply put back in pot and cook a bit longer to evaporate some of the extra liquid.

Pumpkin Pie Milkshake!

I have to tell you that this pumpkin pie milkshake is quite addictive! It is a little more mellow than the sweet potato pie milkshake recipe I posted earlier. You can see that recipe here.  This is smooth, creamy, rich and decadent with a hint of pumpkin and delicious spice, but this is not overpowering. The whipped cream really makes this even more delicious. I love serving these shakes in double shot glasses on a cute platter with mini pumpkins, or for another cute presentation, serve them with ginger snaps. Fabulously cute! The perfect unique Thanksgiving dessert!

 Doesn't this look creamy and delicious? It is!

Mini Pumpkins and orange straws add the perfect touch. the brown sugar rim is really tasty and for another twist, can rim the glass with graham cracker crumbs.

No, I don't play fair. Look at that sweet, sugary, yummy, delectable, brown sugar rim. Don't you want some?

Look at this scrumptious whipped cream....is your mouth watering yet?

BAM!

What are you waiting for? It's time to indulge!

Ingredients

3/4 cup milk

1 tablespoon brown sugar

1 tablespoon white sugar

3 cups vanilla ice cream

3/4 cup canned pumpkin

3/4 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions:

Mix the sugar, vanilla, pumpkin pie spice and milk and then pour into blender. Add remaining ingredients and blend on high speed until smooth. Immediately serve with whipped cream.

Sweet Potato Pie Ice Cream Shake Shots-

 

Although I am from Southern California, my roots are indeed southern.  In most households during the holiday season, the ubiquitous pumpkin pie always makes an appearance, but in my family, the sweet potato pie is the holy grail of holiday desserts. Most southerners know and love this delicious pie, but I recently realized that a large segment of society has slept on the sweet potato pie. Wake up everybody! You may never want to eat pumpkin pie after trying a sweet potato pie. The flavor is much more complex and robust than pumpkin, although I love pumpkin desserts as much as the next person, the sweet potato tastes amazing in a completely different way.  (pumpkin lovers, I have the perfect recipe for you too, come back later this evening:-)

For those that are unfamiliar with the sweet potato, it can be confusing because a yam is what is actually used to make sweet potato pie.  But we just call them sweet potatoes, when what we are really referring to is a yam. A true sweet potato is very light in color with a light skin, but a yam has a dark reddish skin and bright orange flesh.  It is very important to know the difference because if you don’t use a true yam, you will not have that deep earthy flavor.''

I was in my  kitchen experimenting and I thought to myself, 

hmmmm?????? I wonder what a sweet potato pie milkshake would taste like?  And then I thought this would make an outta sight dessert for Thanksgiving, but I was a little nervous about trying it.  Before I knew it, I had put the ingredients in a blender and then I poured it into a glass and took a big slurp through my straw and……Honey Sugah baby, this is some good stuff!  

When I told my mother I made a sweet potato pie milkshake, she looked at me like I had three heads, but when she took a sip she was pleasantly surprised:-)

Kitchen experiments are how I arrive at many of the delicious recipes I share with you. My friends, family, colleagues and even next door neighbors have all been my willing guinea pigs when I go to work in my creative lab (the kitchen). I bet you wish you lived next door to me!

The great thing about these cute little milkshake shots, is that they are perfect for just a taste of something decadent when you are beyond stuffed from all that turkey and dressing.

I like to make this look elegant by serving in double shot glasses rimmed with brown sugar. I also think it makes a great presentation with a dollop of whipped cream and nutmeg on top. You can also make this very adult by adding a shot of bourbon, which complements sweet potato beautifully.

 Ingredients

1 slice sweet potato pie, roughly chopped into pieces
3 cups vanilla ice cream
1 cup eggnog

A few ice cubes as needed

1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1 teaspoon vanilla
Whipped cream, for serving
brown sugar for rimming the glass

Blend together the pie pieces, vanilla ice cream, nutmeg and egg nog or milk in a blender. Add additional eggnog if needed to achieve desired consistency. Pour into a tall glass, top with whipped cream and a sprinkling of ground nutmeg or cinnamon. Serve immediately.

Note: you can substitute milk for the eggnog. If you substitute milk, add a tablespoon sugar. Add ice cubes if needed to obtain milkshake consistency.

 A delicious brown sugar rim is the perfect compliment

Fresh Whipped Cream and nutmeg really enhances the flavor

Add cute straws cut in half for an even nicer presentation

Stay tuned for the next delicious recipe!

Rose Water Ice Cream in Rose Petal Mint Leaf shot glasses

I am so excited to share with you my recipe for Rosewater Ice Cream. I discovered Rosewater Ice Cream several years back when a colleague who was from Persia introduced me to this wonderful treat. One day she walked into the office with this ice cream, but it did not look like ordinary ice cream, it looked super rich and creamy and had the consistency of Gelato. When I asked her what kind of ice cream she was eating, she said "Rosewater". My response to her was: "Rosewater? you mean this ice cream is made from rose petals? she said yes and I insisted she take me to this place with ice cream made from roses. We walked down the Sunset strip to Mashti Malones and I got to experience it for myself. All I could say was....WOW!

Through trial and error, I experimented and came up with this recipe. You only need a hint of rosewater. Traditional rosewater ice cream looks just like Vanilla ice cream, but I thought it would be pretty to tint the ice cream pink. I also made shot glasses out of rose petals and mint leaves. This makes such a stylish presentation and the possibilities are endless! You can use lemon slices or any fruit you like and sorbet or ice cream. If you don't have time to make the ice cream yourself, use store bought and then make the shot glasses for an amazing and stylish presentation. All you need is a shot glass mold, H2O, mint leaves and rose petals.  You can purchase the molds at Bed Bath and Beyond or any store that sells culinary supplies.

 This is all you need for the shot glasses. Add Water to the mold and place mint leaves and rose petals in the water. Make sure your rose petals are pesticide free.

Mint leaves add an extra special touch to these shot glasses

Rose petals add pizazz and elegance

 Rosewater

This is what the shot glass looks like after it has frozen overnight.  You could also serve a drink in these, but I love the idea of putting a frozen dessert or fruit in them. These melt very quickly. Place a beautiful towel or piece of fabric under the ice to catch the melting water.

Ice Ice Baby!

Isn't this beautiful?

Are you ready to make rosewater ice cream? Here we go!

Rosewater ice cream

Ingredients:
1 cup heavy cream
2 cups whole milk
1 cup sugar
4 egg-yolks
1/3 tsp salt
1 tablespoon rosewater (you can purchase rosewater at any middle eastern grocery store)
Method:
Heat the milk and the sugar in a pot, take care not to boil it. When all the sugar melts, turn off the heat.
In a bowl, beat the egg yolks until foamy and add the heavy cream to it.

Add the warm milk-sugar mixture to the yolks-heavy cream mixture. Add the salt and the rosewater. Stir well.
Return the mixture to the pot and cook on medium heat. Keep stirring until the mixture coats the back of a spoon. Cool mixture and pour into ice cream maker.

Rosepetal Ice Cream served in a rose and mint leaf shot glass, surrounded by rose petals and a 14K spoon. The good life......You betcha:-) You will feel like royalty when you enjoy this amazing treat and if you serve this at your next dinner party or any function where you want a little extra panache, your guests will feel like royalty too! Do you deserve such riches? ABSOLUTELY!!!!!

Red White and Blue

Hello Beautiful Ones and Happy July 4th! I hope your day is filled with sunshine, friends and family and of course finger lickin good barbecue! Don't forget to take a moment to honor those who gave the ultimate sacrifice.

I created a really fun mocktail that is perfect for July 4th. I call it: "Cherry Bomb!" This is a very easy drink to make and it has great taste, and a little sizzle action too. I named this drink after those explosive Cherry Bomb Fireworks. What makes this drink so fun is the cherry pop rocks that rim the glass. you get a burst of flavor and some popping action too! Ready to make this drink?

Cherry Bomb

Ingredients

Cherry Sorbet

Sprite

Cherry Pop Rocks

You can serve this drink in any glass, but I thought the martini glass gave it some extra oomph:-) To make this drink, simply put a scoop of sorbet in a glass and pour sprite over it. Rim your glass with Cherry pop rocks and Voila! Cherry Bomb!

Cherry Bomb? Yes please!!!!!

Happy 4th of July!