sweet & sugary, colorful & creamy

The week of July 4th, we attended 4 different family dinners. I wanted some ideas of food to take, because I wanted to take something different to each party. I figured it was a great time to try a new monthly recipe for my 2012 goals, too. I looked on pinterest, and found some great ideas. I decided to try a few of them, and I used the same concept but changed the recipes.

The first dinner was at Cockrell Campground on July 2nd. The Jack Tolman family was having a reunion and invited us to join them for the evening. The main course was desert pies, and I brought a tapioca fruit salad to share (it's tapioca pudding mixed with orange juice, strawberries, bananas, mandarin oranges, and pineapple). It was a fun evening for the kids, very relaxing for the adults, and we all ate great food!

The second dinner was at Dennis & Janoa's house for the 4th of July. Some of the Jack Tolman family came, as well as the Cummings family and some of Josh's family. The main course was roasted hot dogs, and I brought cream cheese strawberries as a side dish. We ate home made ice cream for dessert afterwards, and for the first time in my life, I made homemade ice cream to bring, too. My parents had given me an old ice cream maker years ago that I'd never used until this summer! (the black/wooden one in the front of this photo)

I'd seen a photo of the strawberries on Pinterest, but  never clicked on it to get a recipe. I found a fruit dip made from cream cheese in my recipe box, and I decided to use that as the dip for the strawberries. And I discovered some blue sprinklers in my cupboard to dip them in to create the patriotic color blend. Although they weren't as pretty as the Pinterest photo, they were still really yummy!

The third dinner was July 6th in Edward & Kathy's yard. All of Josh's siblings were there, as well as several members of the Harris family. The main course again was roasted hot dogs. I wanted to bring finger foods that would be easy to eat without using utensils for the kids, and I decided to bring 3 different ones. The first was deviled eggs. I'd had a craving for them, and I really wanted some! The second item was a different version of the cream cheese strawberries. I cut out the green tips, put the same cream cheese dip inside a plastic baggy, cut a corner tip from the bag, and squeezed the dip inside the strawberries. Again, I saw a photo on Pinterest, but never got a recipe, so I just used it as the main idea. I needed a container to hold the strawberries upright, and I thought of an egg carton to place them in. Voila! Everybody loved them, and the container didn't need to be washed afterwards!

The third item was dip-filled cucumbers. Again, I saw the photo on Pinterest, but totally created a different recipe than the one that was listed. I peeled part of the cucumbers off, cut them into slices, scooped out the seedy pulp, and added a small dollop of ranch bacon dip into each one (I also found the recipe for that dip in my recipe box). They were so good! And easier to serve and eat than sliced cucumbers and a bowl of dip! They were a big hit of the dinner! I'm definitely going to make these again and again!

The fourth family meal that week was a lunch in Edward & Kathy's yard on July 7th, with just Josh's siblings and parents. We ate a variety of sandwiches and salads. I brought a big broccoli salad (with broccoli, tomatoes, purple onion, cheese, & italian dressing) and the tapioca fruit salad again.

I think I gained 5 pounds in just that week alone. There was SO much good food, and a lot of sitting around talking with family! But it was worth it; I enjoyed every minute and bite of it!