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July 4th.

2011 July 8
by Thehousedaddy

When I was a little kid I loved July 4th. On our little street, we had eighty kids who were all roughly the same age. Historically, the day started off with a family softball game followed by a bike parade and then a massive scavenger hunt. We followed up the games with a street picnic that featured multiple grills and everyone’s favorite family food specialty. It was awesome. I now live on the same street with my family and the kid to adult ratio has changed. We have about fifteen kids now and a few grandchildren attend. While the event is much mellower than in the past, it is still something that we look forward to. The highlight for the kids is the bike parade and it always quickly deteriorates into a bike race. That would be fine except there are kids on tricycles, scooters and babies in strollers. My biggest concern is one of my kids flying into a grandparent spectator.

Directly following the parade is a neighborhood brunch. No more grills, but a large potluck buffet. I am never a fan of potluck. I rarely like to relinquish control of any meal. I like themes and flavors and tastes that work together. Some of the food looks really good, but it doesn’t always work together and as vegans, there is usually very little to eat. As my friend Adam, who hates cheese, always says, “there is hidden cheese in everything.” As a vegan, I am always amazed how much cheese is used in food. It is hard to find a salad without it. Noah and Sasha love bagels so there is usually a bagel and humus platter and along with what we make, is enough to give the meal a little heft for them.

For some reason our traditional potluck dish for this event has become a grilled corn, onion and tomato salad. This time of year Twin Springs market has the most amazing, corn, onions, tomatoes and herbs so this might be our inspiration. It is really easy to make and everyone seems to love it and the general comment is “can I get the recipe.” I shuck the corn and try and remove all of the hair. We then put them in a baking pan and lightly coat with grape seed oil, salt and pepper and then grill. I also cut onions in rings and season the same way and place on the grill. The end result should be that both the onions and corn are lightly brown on all sides. We cut the corn off the cob. It is easy to do once you get the feel. I like to lay the corn on a cutting board and use a sharp knife and start from the pointy end of the corn. With the knife tip I cut about three rows off at time and then rotate the cob. Some people stand the corn on end and cut down, but I find it to be much harder to handle and the corn flies all over the place. Once the corn is cut, I combine it with diced tomatoes and the diced grilled onions. I then add some olive oil, rice wine vinegar, salt pepper and this year fresh thyme and basil. I like it all to be chilled so the tomatoes don’t weep as much.

Virginia always brings a dessert and loves to be festive with the baking. Her chocolate vegan cupcakes are awesome and everyone who has ever had one hasn’t noticed that they don’t contain, butter, eggs or milk. Sometimes she makes them gluten-free so she can eat them. I will at some point have real recipes, but since we don’t really use them, it is hard to put them in. I hope to have an exact recipe for everything soon. We did all this in about an hour in between morning swim team practice and the start of the bike parade and still got to the local pool for what was a real kids party by noon.  As if the day wasn’t full enough, we headed downtown for dinner and fireworks.  Burma is one of our favorite places to eat.  We can literally have twenty vegan gluten-free dishes that are all completely unique and flavorful.  After stuffing ourselves we walked five blocks down to our favorite viewing spot just off the Mall.  We don’t go into the madness of the crowd, but can see everything and have a quick exit back up to Chinatown and our car.  The ride home is even better than the National firework display.  We drove a back way to avoid the traffic and rode through some little neighborhoods that have their own totally illegal, incredibly dangerous but very entertaining displays.  It was a long day filled with food and fun.

One Response leave one →
  1. John Monday permalink
    July 8, 2011

    I know a lot of folks who don’t eat eggs (they’re allergic, for health reasons, or concerns about animal cruelty). Here’s an awesome site that gives tips on cooking and baking without eggs: http://EggFreeLiving.com

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