Fourth Food

July 4 - Thanksgiving obviously reigns supreme, but the Fourth of July is an underrated food holiday. And if you’re anything like me, it’s another day where it’s acceptable to go completely overboard with food and drinks (my favorite kind of day). This year it did not disappoint, as Bob took advantage of my hired hand to help prepare way more food (and sangria) than we could ever actually need.

On the menu: beer can chicken, baked mac and cheese, grilled bratwurst, burgers and zucchini, steamed corn on the cob, taco salad, and a berry cobbler for dessert. For the most part, I spent the day as Bob’s sous chef, slicing, dicing, doing any job he needed. I sautéed peppers and onions, tried to avoid crying while cutting onions, and watched and learned about different cookout recipes, including more on how to work the Green Egg. If you have one and have the cookbook along with it, definitely try out the mac and cheese recipe, as it’s been a favorite of ours for a while.

While I was mostly a helper throughout the day, it was my job to work on dessert, so I was responsible for the cobbler. Appropriately nicknamed the “Liberty Cobbler,” the stars of the dish are strawberries and blueberries. It is essentially a cake with strawberries baked into it, spread out in an even layer, covered in a thick and beautiful blueberry sauce. I made the cake, whipped cream in the mixer, and prepared the sauce (heated simple syrup, lemon juice and blueberries) in the early afternoon so it could sit out of the way, ready for when we finished the rest of our cooking and eating.

Once we were ready, I put the sauce back on a burner to be heated, and cut up the cobbler. We poured generous servings of the sauce and added whipped cream, plus extra blueberries for decoration. It was rich and very good, but I think I was too full to completely enjoy it. However, it was really easy, looked impressive, and finished the day on a nice fruity note. I’d say it’s a perfect recipe for any cookout, with red and blue that make it especially great on the Fourth. Now, time for a lonnnng food-induced nap.

#chef #recipe #food #cherrytable