Happy Fourth!

Here's a quick run down of our yesterday.

On the menu: Steak, Chicken, and Shrimp Kabobs on the barbie (grill), Homemade potato salad, and watermelon. Then for dessert Trifle Cake and Oatmeal bars.

Chopped veggies and fruit. Cherry tomatoes, zucchini, red pepper, pineapple, green pepper, red onion, orange pepper.

Here's the expert kabob-maker working on the steak skewers.

Here's the shrimp bowl.

And here's some cubed chicken. I know ya'll would be lost without my play by play.

Then we marinated them in Carribean Jerk for about five hours. Mmmm.

Here are our helpers. I guess us prepping food made them hungry. Boone is looking for more it appears. They are so precious.

Then everyone (Jerry, Sandra, Mom, Dad, Colin, and Kaleigh) came over (Kate, Casey, the girls and I were already there...of course...since it is our house), and grillmaster Casey started cooking.

Here's what he came up with as he sweated his you-know-whats off at the 600 degree grill in 200 degree weather.

Looks delicious, huh?

And I made potato salad (with my sous chef Casey boiling the potatoes and eggs to perfection). It's real easy. We had a 3 lb bag of small red potatoes, washed and cut them into quarters. They were boiled until desired doneness. Then we threw in 6 chopped boiled egg whites, some salad cubes, some finely chopped celery and red onion, and some light mayo. Mix. And voila. Potato salad.

For the watermelon, we just bought a large melon and chopped it up. We had buckets of it. This is only part of it. Perfect though. Absolutely perfect. Nothing like some watermelon in the summer time. Am I right or am I right?

Here's the dessert Momma brought. How 4th of July appropriate. Angel food cake cubed, nonfat vanilla yogurt, light whipped cream, and berries galore (raspberries, strawberries, and blueberries). Layer it all up and make it look real pretty and professional on top. It's so light and refreshing. Perfect for summer.

Then I made these. Because I felt like baking. Cause I love baking. And they are super easy. See recipe below.

Chewy Oatmeal Bars

Ingredients:

1/2 cup butter (1 stick) softened

2 cups brown sugar

2 eggs

1 tsp vanilla

2 cups flour

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

2 cups quick cooking oats

optional: 1 cup either chocolate chips, nuts/raisins, etc.

Cream butter and sugar together. Beat in eggs and vanilla. Add flour, salt and baking soda. Stir in oatmeal and any optional additions. Will be stiff. Spread evenly into greased 9x13 inch pan.

Bake at 400 degrees for about 15 minutes (no more, no less).

For this batch I mixed in 1 c white chocolate chips and put 3/4 of the dough into the bottom of the pan. Then I spread raspberry preserves over the top and then dolloped what dough/batter was left on top. It came out with a really pretty swirl on top. They were so delightful. By far my favorite combo. Please try these!

Anyhow, Happy (late) 4th of July to all! Go America.

On a side note, Brooks could care less about fireworks. Fearless. Boone is scared silly over them. So sad. She's a definite cuddler when she's scared.