The Fourth of July’s fireworks are history now, but we can keep going with other fun times coming up all through the rest of July and all this summer.
Keep on cooking, too, because that always helps keep summertime’s good times rolling. Good foods for get-togethers with friends and family are always a great enjoyment anywhere anytime, not just for the holidays.
We can always find or create reasons for even more summertime special occasions we want to celebrate in addition to all of the calendar’s big traditional annual events and celebrations like Fourth of July.
Get the backyard grill hot and going strong just as evening starts cooling away an afternoon’s heat, then bring out some baking potatoes to cook on the grill. Colorfully fill some big serving bowls with hot baked beans and chilled fresh salad vegetables. Line up those baked beans and the big veggie salad alongside some other main-dish items on the picnic table in your back yard, including a pie or cake, cookies or dessert to follow those grill-cooked potatoes and other main meal foods. Top it all off with freshly made lemonade or iced tea.
Any summer day or evening can be the right time for such a well celebrated feast of fine food as well as the good company of family and friends invited to gather together and enjoy a good meal in your back yard or at a nearby park or maybe at the ocean or wherever in the great outdoors you most enjoy being!
Deciding what foods to choose for these summer picnics can be a challenge, but it is helpful if you have a good collection of our Apopka community cookbooks locally created through the years.
Choosing your recipes selections might be the hardest part of planning your back yard “dinner out” or a nearby park picnic for family and friends
Planning your picnic menu can be as much a part of the fun and festivity as will be the eating of all that good food when you get out into the great outdoors for that picnic on some beautiful July early evening.
A picnic project might start with the usual quick search through our collections of cookbooks in search of recipes, this time recipes perfect for a fun picnic project in a nearby park or ocean’s edge woods or your own backyard.
The recipes below from some of our Apopka community cookbooks might help you decide just what you would like to bring to your outdoor moveable feast.
KAREN GREEN’S
TACO APPETIZER
Recipe from St. Francis of Assisi Parish Cookbook
1 large ripe avocado
2 (8-ounce) packages cream cheese, softened
1/8 cup milk
1 teaspoon garlic salt
1/2 bottle hot green chili sauce
Mash together all ingredients and whip mixture until smooth. Spread on large glass plate. Sprinkle with shredded lettuce, chopped tomato, sliced green onion and shredded Cheddar cheese. Serve with Doritos.
GLORIA McCULLOCH’S
GARDEN RICE SALAD
Recipe from Favorite Recipes of Sweetwater Oaks
4 cups water
2 cups regular long-grain rice
3 medium tomatoes, diced
4 green onions, chopped
1/3 cup chopped parsley
1/4 cup salad oil
1/4 cup lemon juice
1-1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1/4 teaspoon ground allspice
Lettuce leaves (amount as needed)
About 30 minutes before serving (or earlier in that day), in a three-quart saucepan over high heat, heat the four cups water with two cups rice to boiling point, stirring occasionally.
Then reduce heat to low, cover and simmer for 20 minutes or until rice is tender and all liquid is absorbed, then remove saucepan from heat. To cooked rice in the saucepan, add tomatoes and next seven ingredients.
Toss rice mixture to coat with dressing. Line salad bowl with lettuce leaves. Spoon the rice mixture onto lettuce in bowl. Serve warm or refrigerate to serve chilled. Recipe serves 10.
JEAN AND BOB DAHL’S
PARTY POTATOES
Recipe from St. Francis of Assisi Parish Cookbook
1 (32 ounce) package frozen hash brown potatoes
1 medium onion, chopped
2 cups mushroom soup
1 (eight-ounce) carton sour cream
1 cup shredded American Cheddar cheese
Salt and pepper (amount to your taste)
In large bowl, mix together all ingredients except cheese. Place mixture in 8-inch by 12-inch baking dish. Cover with cheese.
Bake at 300 degrees for 1-1/2 hours.
LILLIAN J. CLEGHORN’S
SWEET POTATO PIE
Recipe from
Apopka Historical Society’s
Preserving The Big Potato
2 cups cooked and mashed sweet potatoes
1 egg, slightly beaten
1/4 cup evaporated milk
1/4 cup sugar
2 tablespoons margarine, melted
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 cup flaked coconut
1 unbaked nine-inch pie shell
Combine first six ingredients. Beat at medium speed until well blended. Spoon into pie shell. Bake at 425 degrees for 35-45 minutes (as needed) or until a knife inserted halfway between center and edge of pie comes out clean. Cool pie before serving.
ALBERTA ESPEY’S
AMBROSIA SALAD
Recipe from
New Vision Community Church’s Feeding The Flock
2 cans fruit cocktail, drained
2 small cans mandarin oranges
1 small jar maraschino cherries
1 large bag miniature marshmallows
1 medium container sour cream
2 (each eight-ounces) Cool Whips
1 small bag coconut
Mix all together and serve.
KIMBERLY HEARD’S
STRAWBERRY DELIGHT
Recipe from Calvary Church of The Nazarene’s
A Harvest of Recipes
2 cups thin pretzel sticks, crushed
3/4 cup butter
1 tablespoon sugar
1 (8-ounce) package cream cheese
1 (8-ounce package Cool Whip
1 cup sugar
1 six-ounce box Strawberry Jell-O
2 cups boiling water
2 packages frozen strawberries
Mix together the two cups crushed thin pretzel sticks, the 3/4 cup butter and the one tablespoon sugar. Bake at 400 degrees for eight minutes. Let cool.
Blend together the cream cheese and sugar until creamy. Stir in Cool Whip until well mixed. Spoon onto crust.
Make Jell-O according to package directions. Add strawberries. Pour on top of cream cheese layer and refrigerate overnight.
