Red, White, Blue – It’s a Festive Foodie Friday!

Salut! Happy Friday and happy 4th weekend! I always think of food first for the holidays and July 4th is no exception being the best summer holiday. Even though I’m going to try and be healthy, this weekend is going to do nothing good for my waistline. Oh well, I’m living la vie en Rose! No, seriously, I’ve got two bottles of nice Rosé waiting for me this weekend. Red, white, blue – it’s a festive foodie Friday!

Red

The strawberries looked beautiful at the grocery, and the raspberries too. What about a tomato salad for a beautiful red dish? Keep it simple and let the tomatoes shine. Use a variety, hopefully that you find at the farmers market. A perfect summer salad. We’ll have this with our burgers and potatoes for dinner on the 4th.

Tomato Salad

3 cups tomatoes – a variety of tomatoes: cherry or grape tomatoes-halved, heirloom tomatoes-sliced, plum tomatoes-quartered, whatever you can find at the market!
1/2 c. chopped red pepper
1/4 c. chopped red onion
2 T. fresh herbs of your choice
2 T. olive oil
1 T. balsalmic vinegar
salt & pepper to taste

Place tomatoes, red pepper and red onion in a bowl. Add herbs, olive oil and vinegar, toss to combine. Salt and pepper to taste.

White

In Wednesdays post I mentioned a Rosemary Rhubarb cake. Dusted with powdered sugar, it would be a perfect white recipe. Pretty little white meringues would be a great addition too. Using a star tip to pipe them out they kinda look like stars too! You could always put them along side some blueberries and raspberries for something red, white and blue. And for some extra pop! I added some white pepper, why not?

White Pepper Meringues

4 large egg whites room temperature (I like to put the egg whites in a bowl in the fridge overnight to “age” them)
1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup granulated sugar 
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 t. white pepper

Preheat oven to 225 F and line 2 cookie sheets with parchment paper.
Combine egg whites, cream of tartar and salt in the bowl of your stand mixer. Whisk on low speed, increase speed to high. Gradually add sugar, a teaspoon at a time, until sugar is dissolved. Beat until mixture has stiff peaks. Stir in vanilla extract and white pepper. Add meringue mixture to piping bag with large star tip. Pipe onto cookie sheets. Bake for 1 hour. Turn off oven and allow to cool in oven for 1 hour more. Serve and store extras in airtight container at room temp.

Blue

I am going to make the Blueberry Pie I wrote about for sure. I wanted to add another blue recipe though, that didn’t involve blueberries. Blue nachos sounds awesome. I think they would go great with the dogs/brats and baked beans we’ll make for lunch on the 4th.

Blue Nachos

4 large handfuls of blue corn tortilla chips
1/2 c. crumbled blue cheese
1/4 c. chopped red onion
Cilantro
pickled jalapenos

Preheat oven to 350 F. Arrange chips on foil covered cookie sheet. Sprinkle with blue cheese and onion. Bake for 5 minutes or until cheese is melted. Transfer to plate. Add cilantro and pickled jalapenos. Serve.

Ok – so happy Red, White, Blue – It’s a Festive Foodie Friday! I hope you have a happy, healthy and safe 4th. Break out the sparklers and the Rosé! Make sure to count your blessings here in our beautiful country. God bless! À bientôt!