Happy Fourth of July With A Lovely Summer Recipe

Ooooh!  Aaaaaaaah!  How I do love fireworks!

 On this day before the Fourth of July I am thinking about some of my favorite Fourths.  When I was young and living in Milwaukee I remember staying at home and making home-made ice cream.  We had the old fashioned hand crank kind of freezer and I remember taking turns sitting on it while Dad did the cranking.  Getting to lick the dasher after Mum took it out was a favorite thing for the whole family.

  After dark we would lay on blankets in the yard and watch the sky.  In those days every suburb and small town around Milwaukee had their own fireworks.  We lived on the outskirts very near the State Fair Park which had great fireworks.  Of course the biggest ones were down on the lake shore.  Anyway, we could see fireworks all over the sky from all these venues.  It was great.  After that we had sparklers for all the neighborhood kids.  Guess what, none of us ever got hurt but then our parents used common sense and stressed safety to us even back then.

Four generations picnicing on the Fourth of July in Twin Falls, ID.

Other memories include spending the Fourth in the old Laramie hospital 4 days after Danny was born, Watching home done fireworks in the mountains of Pennsylvania with my cousins at their summer cottages, watching some of our teenage summer workers on the ranch shoot off fireworks up on the Delaney Butte adjacent to the ranch, and going to Steamboat Springs with our grand kids and other relatives to watch the best fireworks around shot off the top of the ski jump mountains.  One year was memorable when a huge thunderstorm came up during the fireworks so we had the lightning show along with the fireworks over at Steamboat!

Erin, JJ and Ozzie at Steamboat Springs waiting for the fireworks on the Fourth of July

 Oh and who can forget running for your life up in the fairground grandstand in Walden when the volunteer firemen tried their hand at shooting off fireworks and wayward ones might come at you right into the stands!  There are so many different experiences now that I think of it.  I could go on and on.  One last memory was when I had students in Boston over the Fourth.  What a sight that was with all the small boats on the James River, the Boston Pops Orchestra playing in the Park with more that a million people along the river, on the river, and in the parks.  The music of the 1812 Overture and spectacular fireworks was overwhelming.  So much for the reminiscing now for a great hot weather recipe not normally associated with the Fourth of July!

This is how Bob enjoys watching the fireworks at Steamboat Springs.  None of that fresh air for him!

This is a recipe that Carla came up with here in Phoenix where it was pretty hot even in late April.  We didn't want to heat up the kitchen and were too busy running back and forth to the hospital, so it was convenient to just stop at the store on the way home.  Of course when I am at the cabin I need to do the chicken cooking at home, but then it isn't that hot up there even in the middle of summer.

Carla's Curried Chicken Salad

Ingredients

1 broasted chicken from the grocery store 

1/2 - 1 cup seedless grape halves

1 apple cored and cubed

1/2 cup celery, chopped ( this is my addition--Carla doesn't do celery!)

1/2 cup glazed or sugared pecans, chopped

1/2 cup Craisins

1/2 cup mayonnaise

1/2- 1 tsp. curry powder 

1/2 cup whipping cream

Directions:

1.  Remove the chicken from the bones and cube.  I would guess you would get more than you need for this recipe so you could use it for enchiladas or fajitas.  Use about 2-3 cups of chicken.  Put it in your salad bowl.

2.  Cut grapes in half, chop your apple and celery and put these in the bowl with chicken.

3.  Chop your pecans into nice size pieces so you know what they are in the salad.  Add them and the craisins into the bowl.

4.  Stir the curry powder into the mayonnaise and then stir into the chicken mixture.

5. Whip the cream into soft peaks and then fold into the salad.

Keep chilled, serve and enjoy!

The whipped cream makes the difference in this recipe.  It is delicious.

So what are we doing tomorrow here in Phoenix for the Fourth of July?  Our plans are pretty quiet.  Watch Happy Feet 2, watch the Diamondbacks play the Padres on TV,  go to Outback for dinner and watch fireworks on TV.  Too hot outside and we can't see any fireworks from this part of town......

I hope everyone has a great Fourth of July holiday this year!