Hi Everyone!

The 4th of July is nearly over and I am beat.  We have had 3 celebrations in the past 4 days.  On Sunday we celebrated Robbie's birthday and since his real birthday was on Monday we celebrated it again on Monday.  Today we celebrated the 4th of July.  I had planned a festive menu, but decided to use up the leftovers from our previous celebrations and just add a few new things to the menu. 

The current July 2012 issue of Better Homes & Gardens featured "The New All Americans" with "clever spins" on burgers, hot dogs and shakes.  I think it's funny that so many people say, "I rarely eat a hot dog, but once in a while I love one that's been cooked on the grill, served with some sort of special condiment, etc."  Well, folks I actually LOVE hot dogs and have fond memories of Saturday night suppers of hot dogs, baked beans and brown bread.  When I was in junior high (yes, middle school was called "junior high" back in the dark ages) every Thursday the cafeteria served a (disgusting looking) plate filled with baked beans with 2 hot dogs floating on top of them.  My friends and I wolfed them down!

So when I saw the recipe for "Barbecue Potato Chip Crunch Dogs" in the magazine I knew I had to add those hot dogs to today's menu.  And guess what!  I found the recipe on the Better Homes & Gardens web site for YOU at this link...click here!  They were a hit so make some!

Hot dogs are more fun when they are served in their own tray, so I created some...with red and white stripes of course. 

I put a little flag on each hot dog.

Mmm, good!

We had some leftover frosting in the refrigerator that I had tinted green for Robbie's cupcakes and Robbie thought I should use that up.  Don't know what's wrong with that boy of mine.  Green frosting on the 4th of July?  Not in this house. 

I whipped up a new batch of cupcakes.  I made confetti ones by adding 1/2 cup of red, white and blue sprinkles to the batter of a white cake mix.  When you bite into a cupcake there are splatters of red and blue in it.   This was an awesome and oh, so simple way to make cupcakes for this holiday and we can just change the colors for other holidays. 

I put a stripe of red and blue gel food coloring in my decorating bag before I added white frosting to it.  As I piped the frosting it came out striped.  The first couple of cupcakes were a little too "vibrant" because I had been a little heavy handed when I added the food coloring, but after about the 3rd one they came out just the way I had hoped they would.  Of course I delivered some to Bob and Jan and the rest were/are for us.

Happily we get a few days off before the next "celebration".  8 days to be precise.  My sister Paula and her husband arrive here from Seattle on July 11 and we're celebrating birthdays on July 12.  Jeanne's real birthday is July 16 so that will be round 2 for her party!

Off to bed...
Carol