Hi Bonnie,

 

This isn’t a recipe but an anecdote about 4th of July food. Somehow your mom heard my mom talking about 4th of July menus and got the impression that all we ate on the 4th were bacon rolls and brownies. Apparently that became a staple in your mom’s repertoire!

 

I remember the cousins’ least favorite addition to the 4th of July picnic menu was the carrot (or other veggie) aspic that dear Nellie Van Sickle used to bring every year! 

 

Also memorable was the watermelon pit spitting contest and my mom saving all the rinds to make watermelon rind pickles!

 -  Heather 

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Ahhhhh- the delectable bacon rolls! Makes me drool just remembering them! Basically they are a lightly toasted hot dog bun, spread liberally with strawberry jam (preserves preferred), and loaded with crispy strips of bacon. That's it -- but the crunch of the bun, and the interplay of the salty bacon and sweet strawberry jam was awesome. In addition to the brownies, slices of watermelon was the other item usually on that menu. I remember Charlie's Joan being horrified at hearing about this menu -- so much starch, sugar, fat, and salt! But we all loved it.   Also, one of my favorite parts of the 4th of July get-togethers on the driveway by Blackie and Joan's garage, was the "4th of July Declamatory Speech" that was given by different people each year. They were always very interesting -- sometimes serious, sometimes amusing. I was very proud that one year I even got to deliver one myself. A great tradition.

 -  Hyla

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Bacon rolls! No brownies. But deviled eggs, watermelon, carrot salad (not aspic) and trifle! 

 

Sang “America the Beautiful” and reminisced about declamations supervised by Uncle Charlie and Ti fireworks. Xie Yong and I shared the celebration with a British friend who sang “God save the Queen” as I sang “My country, ‘tis of Thee”… Quite a lovely time. 

 

Wishing everyone a great 4th weekend!

 - Heather

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I must straighten one thing out, however.  It’s an addition to Heather’s anecdote.  Nellie’s dish wasn’t a veggie aspic.  It was red jello with fresh cherries andpeaches, and I LOVED it.  I always had at least two helpings.  Was I the only one?  . After she passed, George tried to duplicate that fabulous recipe, but alas, it wasn’t quite the same.

 - Joan

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My mom always made her Famous Chocolate Fudge cake and later I started making a Stars and Stripes sheet cake - strawberry stripes and blueberry stars. Bacon rolls were not at the 4th of July picnic to my memory - they were a breakfast item in our household. I do remember saving our watermelon rinds for Aunt Camilla's incredibly delicious watermelon pickles! There was also delicious potato salad and coleslaw. 

 

Originally there were no commercial grills, which my father thought were "suburban" but we had a substantial fire pit next to our driveway.

 - Jen

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Remember when we greased the watermelon and opposing teams had to try and squirt it in their row boats and row to shore?! Ken won in a questionably brilliant move swamping our boat to the lake bottom while we were focused on the slippery melon - and then he loaded it up in his one remaining floating boat and won handily! Andy called cheating. It was so much fun - I never laughed so hard in my life!

 - Nicole

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