Saturday, July 4, 2015

Happy Independence Day!!

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I may have mentioned this before but my nephew, Jacob, was born on the 4th of July!!  He's my Yankee Doodle Dandy and always will be, even though he is a grown man of whom we are very proud.  His Dad's birthday is July 5th. 

My brother, Larry and his wife, Mary and their grandson, Jack arrived on July 2nd so we started our celebrating early with a family dinner last night.  Not all the family....that party is on the 18th....but my other 2 brothers and their spouses and my sister and her husband and son's whose birthday's were mentioned above.  My brother, Dan is no longer with us.  His birthday is the 24th of this month along with my Pop's birthday.  They celebrate together now in heaven but they were both with us in spirit last night.  Also in attendance were my daughter Amy and her guy, Doug.  Our daughter, Tingting and granddaughter, Melody. And our friends John and Kirsten because they are more family than friends.


Our Sibling photo from left to right.
My brothers, Dick, Gary. Larry, my sister, Dawn and me.
And there, hovering in the background, between Dick and Gary is my brother, Dan.
I know he was there, I could feel him.

I baked hams on the grill, made some cheezy potatoes, baked beans and broccoli salad.   I had gotten more rhubarb from Kirsten and made a rhubarb chutney to serve with the ham.  It turned out wonderfully and I am sharing the recipe with you.  

Today we are going over to our friends, the Bendas, for their son's engagement party and Greg's deployment party.  What better day to celebrate his going to Afghanistan to protect our country than on Independence Day.  May God bless him, keep him and return him safely home to us in 6 months time.

I have never made rhubarb chutney before or chutney of any kind for that matter so I did what I always do.....I flipped through cookbooks, I looked on pinterest, I did a google search and I looked over every rhubarb chutney recipe I saw.  Then I made my own rhubarb chutney.   It's a keeper.

Whatever you do today, please do it safely and have fun!!!


Saute up your aromatics.
Add the wine. sugar, spices and dried fruit.
Add the fresh fruit and let simmer until softened.


Rhubarb Chutney

1 T. Olive Oil
1 small, sweet onion, diced
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 T. ginger paste
Kosher salt to taste
1 c. dry white wine
1 c. dried cherries
1 c. sugar
1/2 t. cinnamon
4 c. rhubarb, cut into 1/4" moons

Saute onions, garlic and ginger until fragrant and translucent.  Season to taste with salt.  Add wine, sugar, dried cherries and cinnamon.  Bring to a boil and stir until sugar is dissolved.  Add 1/2 the rhubarb, return to a boil, reduce heat and simmer for another 5 minutes until the rhubarb begins to lose shape.  Add remaining rhubarb, simmer for a couple of minutes until rhubarb softens but retains it's shape.  Remove from heat. Let cool completely.  Print Recipe

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