Last night, we had my cousin and sisters over for dinner, and did traditional Fourth of July meal of … pasta. :) It was what we were in the mood for and it’s easy for a crowd. I’m still craving things cooked over fire, but I’m generally craving things cooked over fire; hopefully we’ll break out the grill this week.

We started out with baguettes and butter and chopped up tomatoes doused with a little olive oil, onion powder, salt, and pepper. I’ve made these baguettes for every company dinner involving bread for awhile now, and they’ve never failed me. I doubled the recipe, getting 4 big loaves out of it, and all that was left this morning was one 4-inch long chunk. What can I say - we like our bread. :) Half of it went to work with Jeff to go with his lunch today, and I’ll get the other half. (The flour was organic, and the tomatoes and butter [well, the cream that made the butter] were local.)

Dinner was angel hair pasta (purchased, not homemade; I’m not up to make angel hair yet) and red sauce (a jar of sauce that my mom put up from her garden a couple of years ago, plus a little organic tomato puree to thicken it up, since it just wasn’t thickening on its own), white sauce (local butter and milk, organic flour, little bit of olive oil), with a little grated cheese on top (Ohio, sold at our farmer’s market) and a big tossed salad (Farmer’s market lettuce, tomatoes, and green peppers, and cucumbers from my daddy’s garden). I tried this ranch dressing, and it wasn’t bad. Far too sweet. I doubled the recipe but left the sugar and vanilla at single-recipe doses, and it was still way too sweet. It was also way runny, even with adding extra mayonnaise. However, the spices were dead on, and the dill really stuck out. It works, but will just need some tweaking next time.

Desert was Breyer’s ice cream (buy one get one this week, about the only frozen food we still buy) and homemade blonde brownies, from How to Cook Everything. They took a lot of butter, but they were so tasty:

• 8 tablespoons butter
  
• 1 cup brown sugar (medium, dark, whatever you like. I used half light and half dark)
  
• 1 egg
  
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
  
• pinch salt (I used 1/8 a tsp)
  
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
  

Grease an 8×8 cooking pan (and grease it well; I had a heck of a time getting the first brownie out of the pan). Melt the butter (I just threw it in the microwave for 30 seconds or so). Mix in everything else in order; until you get to the flour, a hand mixer will make it much faster. Pour into the pan and bake in a 350 degree oven 20 to 25 minutes, until just set. These will make your whole house smell like butter and sugar, and waiting for them to be done will be torture. :)

Most of dinner went together in about 40 minutes, so I wasn’t away from the socializing for too long, and it was a good Fourth. We watched a movie and played board games. I hope everyone had a safe and happy holiday.