Fourth of July Gas-tronomical Holiday

July 4, 2009

And, what did YOU prepare for the 4th of July holiday? We spent the holiday at our friend’s home in Los Altos with 40 other people. We had BBQ smoked ribs, chicken breasts, chili beans, grilled corn, about 6 different varieties of salads, and about 8 desserts. Yes, of course, it was a pot luck for sides, salads and desserts.

I took my Olive Oil & Butter Garlic Bread. It reduces the amount of bad fat and has better saturation (I hate garlic bread that has a thin layer of garlic butter only on the top of the bread!). People rave about my garlic bread because I
1. use Acme Bread, Sweet Batard (only Manresa’s bread is better!)
2. partially precut the bread so I can use a pastry brush to brush the garlic mixture on the sides as well as the top of each slice.
3. prebake the bread at 300º for 10-15 minutes to allow the garlic mixture to soak into the bread.
4. Just before serving, I put the bread on the grill to crisp up the crust and warm up the bread, and add a few grill marks.
5. I wear latex gloves to finish separating the bread into a bread basket.

I also took Macadamia Double-Decker Brownie Bars and a Plum Pie for the desserts. The Brownie Bars are from a Fine Cooking magazine recipe. It got rave reviews too so if you are want this recipe, let me know. I made two versions. The first time I tried it, the brownie part was too gooey for me so I added more flour to the second version. I also tried it the second time with chopped walnuts.

The plum pie was pretty basic. An interesting lattice crust to try next time you make a pie for the 4th of July is to cut wavy lines and stud them with stars cut out of the remaining crust.

I hope you had a great Fourth! It was hard to not overindulge because all the food was delish! One dish that I did not prepare but was very interesting and delicious was a Watermelon Salad with Feta. There are several renditions if you google it.


It was sad to see that some cities did not set off Fireworks this year…a casualty of the hard economic times we are in.

Well, I must do some experimental cooking from Richard Onlney’s book now…

Bon appétit!