Our festive July 4th!

I hope every ones Fourth of July was spectacular!

I grew up in a family that always cooked and hosted the holidays dinners. So it is only natural that I start taking on my own traditions of hosting parties! And Man let me tell you-I am hooked! I love it, I love cooking for people, I love having company over, hosting get togethers. Chad says, (which is funny b/c I have never seen it in myself) but he says, I have an addictive personality, and when I get hooked onto something, I obsess, and obsess. I was floored when he told me this, I never, ever imagined myself having an addictive personality.
So..... naturally, I demanded examples, after the funny face he said "facebook, myspace, blogging, cooking, television (since we got cable) fruit stickers, you tend to stick onto the counter, then you can't get them up. Its a pain in the ass to clean them up, but you are still compelled to do it, shoes, clothes, any subject you are interested in that particular week, markers, pens, office supplies, your favorite authors...shall I go on? Your poor cat...you constantly annoy"
Anyways, the point is, I am now addicted to entertaining.

This is my knife, my very expensive, very coveted J.A. henckels knife. It was a wedding present from my aunt, who is also quite the foodie. I love this knife!!

Here, I am creating my Sun dried tomato blue cheese cilantro paste for the hamburgers.

The recipe ended up being sooooo simple, but creating it was time consuming! Next time will be much easier!


I got the concept from Pinch my salt, but I modified the recipe.

Here is the bottom layer for which I put the paste on, then I created another thin patty to put on top. But getting a picture of this motion....was really hard to do. I got tired of washing my hands. Taking a picture. Moving along to the next step. Washing my hands. Taking a picture...You get the point!

Doing the meat double decker style was awesome b/c you got an oozing surprise of yummy goodness!

I made 8 total!

My wonderful peach cobbler!



I snagged this idea from recipegirl!!

While I was busy making all the wonderful blackberry and peach cobblers....Chad put together the cupcakes for our friends kids. And let me tell you, they were a HUGE hit!



We separated the batter into 3 containers, dyed each one, blue and red.

Kinda layered the colors randomly. (My idea of random, and Chad, who is an engineer and very pragmatic by nature..his idea of random....are as different as night and day!)

Swirled em together with a toothpick! Baked em!



I also got star cupcake holders....




And we had ourselves-patriotic cupcakes!


I opted for solid white icing, b/c my friend's twin girls are 19 months old...and I was scared where all dyed icing might end up! Considering my house is not all that kid friendly. One of the twin girls found my misplaced screw driver, and she was beating the cat with it!!
...poor calamity! He still hasn't recovered from that assault!


To the right in the star bowl is my corn cilantro relish! I could swim in this, I love it soooo much!




You can't see the lights we strung from the tree to the house, and along the back side of the house. It created a wonderful glow! It was a perfect warm summer night!


To the left, are my sweet potato fries! Served with a sour-cream cilantro sauce!




And finally!
My Sun-dried blue cheese cilantro burger!



P.s. Now that July 4th is over-My awful Red-Rum kitchen will be no MORE!
I hate that kitchen color~ I need cool-calming colors, and walking into a Red-Rum kitchen every day...is zapping all my energy! Oh I hate it!