Ahhh yes, Independence Day. The day we cook meat over fire and blow stuff up after dark!

The 4th of July saw many tasty foods of which I ate a lot. Here’s a small sampling of what I had.

Look! It’s meat! It’s a stick! It’s meat on a stick!

Beef, onions, red bell peppers and green bell peppers cooked in the backyard over a flame. Yum.

Then I had a little of this:

I mean really, what 4th of July BBQ would be complete without the watermelon? Well actually, my husband would tell you every single one of them because for some odd reason, he doesn’t like the stuff. That’s just the weirdest thing to me. Not to mention UnAmerican!

Of course there were chips, veggies and dip, BBQ meatballs, cookies, cupcakes, and the like, but it was also 2 days before the host’s son’s birthday. So there was cake! A gigantic cake decorated with a football theme. When the cake was about to be served, Tyler (the almost b-day boy) was asked which piece he wanted. He pointed to the laces on the football indicating those, and only those. What he got instead was a whole lot more!

No, that’s not a small cake plate he’s holding. That’s a 9″ dinner plate. His grandmother cut out the entire football and slapped it on the plate. Of course he thought he’d have no problem eating the entire football, but after what would have been a smallish piece if served to anyone else, he was over it. His sister gave him crap for it because he talked the talk, but wasn’t able to walk the walk. It was all in good fun though.

A good time was had by most, if not all. The food was good, the company was good and the fireworks were most excellent. We had a fantastic spot for viewing the local high school’s show which lasted for 25 minutes.

I hope you all had a great 4th/Friday.

No dinner pictures for this entry. While I was prepping and packing dinner, I had something like 6 or 7 kids running around under my care. By the time we sat down to eat it, it was pretty much dusk and I couldn’t get a decent shot of the food. So in place of a picture, you get a story.

Last night our family and several others headed out to La Mirada Regional Park to get an early start to our 4th of July celebration. Every year the park, which is across the street from La Mirada High School, puts on a big July 4th party on the 3rd. Around 9:15 p.m. they shoot off fireworks at the high school.

There are a lot of food vendors and we could have opted to buy our dinner there. They had Carl’s Jr., Hot Dog On A Stick, and many other non-chain food booths as well.

Instead of spending a lot of money on sub-par food, I made dinner at home and we took it with is.

Last night’s spread:

“Campin’ Packets, potato salad, chips, cherries, grapes, pineapple, cupcakes and lemon pound cake.

Campin’ packets is one of the foods everyone over the age of 2 agrees on at our house, and it couldn’t be any easier to make.

Diced potatoes, diced carrots, Little Smokies (miniature smoked sausage links), olive oil, your favorite blend of seasonings.

If you’re cooking this in the oven, coat potatoes and carrots with olive oil and seasoning mix, bake in 350 oven until the potatoes and carrots are almost cooked through. Add the little smokies for the last 10-15 minutes of baking and there ya go!

If you’re camping out or cooking on a grill, place all ingredients on a sheet of foil and fold into a packet. Pop on the fire and cook until done.

Of course you can add onions, corn, celery… the list goes on and on. But for my family, I like to keep it simple. The less in there, the more likely they are to eat it.

I can say without a doubt our dinner was better than anything we could have bought there. A good time was had by all too.

Happy Independence Day everyone! Stay Safe. And don’t forget to check back to see what we’re cooking up for the 4th.