July Monthly Goal (I Get Excited About All-Things July 4th)

 I'm not much of a summer person but July

does give me something to get excited about:

patriotism, decorations, food, explosions.

It's all there on the 4th!

Just a heads-up:  this is a long post with a whole

round-up of inspiration for the upcoming holiday.

For those visiting from Elm Street Quilts' link-up,

my OMGoal is at the end but I'd love for you to

hang out a bit and maybe share some of your

own July 4th faves if you have the time!

I love Revolutionary War history!

The HBO mini-series "John Adams" is one of my

favorites and I watch it almost every summer. 

The book John Adams (McCullough) is very

long but very good--worth the time.  (For

history, you can't go wrong with McCullough.)

I know I've mentioned this before but several years

ago on a trip to Boston where we took in all the

historical sites, we slipped down to Quincy, MA

for the day and visited John and Abigail's

homes, most notably, Peacefield:

Oh the history!  I was in heaven.  SO much to see!

 If you've seen the mini-series, you'll recognize this

home, though it was later that his son John Quincy

who finished the library to the left there and there

are more trees and flowers all around.  

This is my kinda place.

"The Patriot" (Mel Gibson) is another goodie.

There is also the series "Turn" which I think is still on

Netflix.  We dropped Netflix quite a while ago so I

couldn’t say but I should get my hands on the dvd.

I recently surprised hubs with the book

that it's based on--he was verrah happy with that.

(Washington's Spies by Alexander Rose)

Gettysburg ('93) and Gods and Generals ('03) are

both good ones, based on the Shaara novels.

Michael (father) and Jeff (son) Shaara books

make great gifts for the men in your lives but if

you are into history at all, you will enjoy them

almost as much.  Hubs has every single one;

I've read two now so lots to go.  You can find

them on audio, too, btw.

Two years ago we visited Philadelphia

where we caught more of our country's

revolutionary history. 

This must be done in the fall, btw!

I keep some pics on my phone to use as wallpaper.

I love the red, white and blue decor!

I just don't have enough of it so I'm trying to make

 at least one new thing every year but, just like a

FQ bundle greatly trumps a single fat quarter,

making five new things would be better.

I should work on that.

I love fireworks.  I can be a real piro, and it just

isn't a real party without my Saturn missiles!

If you're into mortars, you can't beat Excalibur

and the Never-Ending Fountain is a whole lot of

spark for your buck.  A few tips from a piro!

I've already made my trip to the tent and

I'm ready to go.

And the food.  Oh my goodness.  Holidays are the

time to forget the diet.  FOR-GET it!  But you also

don't want to spend the whole time in the kitchen.

There is nothing wrong with good ol' hotdogs!

Around here, it's Chicago-style dogs, and we

take 'em seriously.   And Mexican Street Corn

(elote); if you don't want the mess of cobs, here's

 a fantastic Mexican Street Corn Dip that can be

made up ahead of time and kept in the fridge

till it's time to bake--even easier, use a disposable

foil pan.  And for the hubs, I make a blueberry pie

with lattice top.  Every. Single. Fourth.

With the 4th on a Sunday, we'll be celebrating

all weekend around here.  We're a whole family of

foodies so we love foodie-movies like Ratatouille,

The Hundred Foot Journey, No Reservations and

Chef.   Appalling language aside, Chef inspired

us to try out the Cubanos (yes, his actual recipe).

For this killer sandwich, I guess you could go buy

bread <insert food-snob snort here> but we're

aiming for authenticity and just where can you find

Cuban bread smack in the middle of Kansas anyway?

Trust me, this Medianoche Bread is easy-peasy.

You can even make it the day before.

Don't think about the calories; remember, this is

 the only holiday of the summer and all diets are OFF.

Speaking of OFF, make sure that's on your grocery

list--the mosquitos, you know.

Also put lard on the list because you'll want to use

that and not the optional shortening in this recipe.

Shooting for AWE-THIN-TISS-I-TEE!

(Life, love & sugar)

To finish OFF this meal, I've chosen to make

Strawberries and Cream Cheesecake Cake.

There's no describing this one.  Beyond words.

 It's one of the top 3  5  8  10 best things I make.

(Gosh darn it, I have a LOT in my cooking

repertoire so it's really hard to pick a "Top" list!)

I know I just said not to spend the whole day in

the kitchen so I just pick and choose my

showstoppers (preferably all make-aheads!)

and the rest could be bagged chips for all I care.

But, everyone likes to bring their own

show-stoppers so we end up with quite the feast. 

(It's a proud mother that I am!)

Anyway, this thing will bring you to your knees.

I'll drop my mic there.

One other little thing that has nothing to do

with this holiday but it does occur at the same

time:  pumpkin and gourd planting.

I was up bright and early this morning putting

in five varieties of gourds (a few multis) and five

varieties of pumpkins.   I looooove them all. 

This day always means fall is on the way!

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ 

Apparently I felt the need to share ALL of my

July goals but I'll now wrap this up with the goal this

post is supposed to be about:  something quilty.

 Here she is, my patient patriotic persons:

My July Goal

To finish both of these Positivity quilt tops!

Well, I guess it doesn't seem all that awesome of

a goal since one top is already done and the other

isn't that far behind so let's add in quilt them!

There.  That should make me an overachiever.

I'll leave off completely finishing, binding and all,

but don't be surprised if I do.  Gotta leave myself

open for squirrels and such.

Now go out there and blow something up!

(If you're lucky enough to be where you're

free to do that.  If not...I'm so sorry!)

Happy Quilting!
Linking up to Elm Street Quilts

One Monthly Goal