3 Delicious Recipes for the 4th of July

BY Jenica June 30, 2021

The sun is out, the fireworks are prepped, and you have dinner guests appearing this holiday weekend. Need some creative ideas to impress? Dress up your dinner spread in red, white, and blue this Independence Day with these simple recipes:

Spinach Berry Salad

Fruit is the easiest way to brighten up a meal. Use these ingredients to create a gorgeous patriotic salad.

Spinach

A handful of Berries (raspberries, blueberries, blackberries, strawberries)

Honeycrisp Apple Slices

Feta Cheese

Candied Walnuts

Shredded grilled chicken (optional)

Your favorite Poppyseed Dressing

Baby Back Ribs

Can you even say you had a 4th of July celebration if you didn’t barbecue? These fall off the bone ribs are guaranteed to be the hit of your party!

Ingredients

3 pounds baby back ribs

1 tablespoon ground cumin

1 tablespoon chili powder

1 tablespoon paprika

BBQ sauce:

¼ cup onion (minced)

2 garlic cloves (minced)

1 teaspoon olive oil

14 ounces ketchup

½ cup brown sugar (firmly packed)

½ cup apple cider vinegar

¼ cup honey

3 tablespoons hot sauce

1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce

½ teaspoon kosher salt

Instructions

Preheat grill to 250 degrees F. Rinse ribs with cool water and pat dry with paper towels.

In small bowl, mix together cumin, chili powder, and paprika. Coat all surfaces of ribs with rub. Place on grill, cover with lid, and cook fully covered for 2-3 hours.

While the ribs are cooking, sauté onions and garlic in olive oil in saucepan over medium heat until fragrant and golden brown, 3-4 minutes. Add remaining sauce ingredients and stir to combine. 

Once the meat has pulled back from the bones, cover with your BBQ sauce and continue to cook, covered, for the last 15 minutes of your grilling time to really get the sauce to sink in and stick. Remove ribs from grill, slice, and serve by covering with additional BBQ sauce to your liking.

Classic Cherry Pie

This recipe will likely win some awards as well as your heart. 

Ingredients

4 cups fresh, sour cherries or three (14.5 oz) cans sour cherries

1 cup granulated sugar

1/3 cup cornstarch

2 Tablespoons butter

2 Tablespoons lemon juice

red food coloring , optional

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Homemade pie crust 

Try this excellent crust recipe from Tastes Better From Scratch

1 large egg white, beaten with a fork

Granulated sugar, for sprinkling on top

Instructions

If using fresh cherries:

Pit and halve the cherries. Add them to a mixing bowl with the sugar, cornstarch and lemon juice and toss to combine. Set aside while you prepare the pie crust. (When using fresh cherries you don’t need to cook the mixture, like you do with the canned cherries).

If using canned cherries:

Drain the juice from the cans of cherries into a saucepan, reserving 1/3 cup in a small bowl. Set the cherries aside. 

Add cornstarch to the bowl with the reserved 1/3 cup of juice and stir well to combine.

Heat the saucepan (that has the juice in it) over medium heat. Add the sugar and stir well. Bring mixture to a low boil. Stir in dissolved cornstarch mixture. Cook, stirring, until thickened, about 2-3 minutes. Stir in butter and lemon juice. Fold in the cherries. Add a few drops of red food coloring, if desired.

Allow mixture to cool to room temperature while you prepare the pie crusts.

Prepare Pie:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Grab your 9” deep dish pie pan. (You can use a regular 9” pan but you may have more filling than you need).

Remove one chilled pie crust dough from the fridge. On a lightly floured counter, roll out your dough to about 12” in diameter. Gently place in the bottom of your 9” deep dish pie dish. Spoon the cherry filling into the unbaked crust and sprinkle a little cinnamon over the filling.

Remove the second pie crust from the fridge and roll it out in a similar manner. Use a pizza cutter, knife or pastry wheel to cut the crust into long strips, about 1/2” wide. Lay strips over the crust in a lattice pattern. (If you’re lazy, like me, you can just lay half of the strips going one direction, and the others on top, going perpendicular, leaving a small space between each.)

Pinch the edges of the top and bottom pie crusts together and crimp the edge, if you like. Brush a thin layer of beaten egg white over the top of the pie crust and sprinkle the crust pieces lightly with granulated sugar.

Bake at 400 degrees F for 40-45 minutes. Check it after about 25 minutes and gently place a piece of tinfoil over the top crust to keep it from getting too brown. I remove this tinfoil about 5 minutes before it’s done baking.

Remove to a wire cooling rack and allow to cool for several hours. Once cooled completely, you can cut and serve it, or cover it and refrigerate it overnight to serve the next day.