Happy 4th Of July

Happy Birthday America!!! Hope everyone has something fun and fantastic going on today. We are having a cookout with friends and family. We were going to have it outside since there are too many people to fit comfortably in my house but we got one heck of a storm last night and all my patio furniture is soaked and we are expecting more rain today. After several weeks of no rain, I am NOT going to complain! We are just gonna get REAL CLOSE inside!!!
We are having the standard fare of grilled hamburgers. I make my burgers by combining ground beef and ground deer in a 2:1 ratio. Then, for every 3-4 pounds of meat, I mix in 1 envelope of Lipton Onion Soup mix. The burgers are to die for!!! I also make my own buns. I thought that I had already shared my recipe for buns but, after a quick scroll through my post list, I see that I have not. No worries. I have a NEW recipe that I just discovered the other day that is really good...maybe even better than the original! I'll be sharing them both soon.

You can't have a cookout without potato salad and my mother in law makes THE BEST potato salad!!! Just for me, she puts big chunks of dill pickle in it. No little itty bitty relish! I love pickles!
My mom is bringing fruit salad which is so cool and creamy for a hot day! One of our friends is bringing a rice dish that my entire family loves. I don't make it anymore because it calls for canned soup, but once I redo that recipe, we will be eating it again. Th original recipe is one can beef consomme, one can french onion soup, 1 cup long grain rice (can be white or brown), 2 Tbsp. butter. Mix all together and put in a casserole dish and bak at 350 for about 45 minutes (a little longer if using brown rice). Scrumptious!!!!!!

To keep everyone from starving to death while the burgers are grilling, we will have chips and dip (doesn't everybody????) and a great little dip I found on the blogoshphere called Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Dip. It is outrageously good with graham crackers or apple slices....or a spoon!
I'll be sharing that recipe soon, too!

To end the meal, I will be making a blueberry crisp with blueberries from my bushes and crisp from...my pantry. AND I came across this little firecracker cake on ziplist. It will be making an appearance at my house this afternoon!

We hadn't planned any fireworks due to the extreme drought and the simple fact that we didn't want to burn our farm! I really am okay with that. We will probably watch some on tv tonight if we are in the house. If not, cest la vie. We will enjoy ourselves anyway!

Have a wonderful, SAFE, fun, SAFE, enjoyable and SAFE 4th of July!!!! Feel free to share with me what your family is doing for the 4th. I would LOVE to hear it, er... read it!!!