USA! USA! USA!

Happy Fourth of July!!!! Again, I failed to take any pictures, but it was a rather low key holiday for me.  It is rather odd to not spend Fourth of July with my family in Milwaukee, so a lot of comparisons were made.  I did receive the most hilarious email for my family about how they spent their Fourth - Subject line read: "Thew family crushes water balloon competition"


Did I mention my family is hyper-competitive?  It's probably necessary information before you read this email.  


In a display of total domination, the Thew family team of Luke and Dad took first prize in the all comers division of the water ballon toss at the Elm Grove 4th of July celebration.  The Junior Guild did try to give just about everyone a chance at a medal by having age divisions divided up by months, but at the end of the day Luke and Dad showed all of Elm Grove who can toss a water balloon over ten feet and still catch it.  Some participants were complaining of hot conditions and Mom was overheard saying "suck it up or just get out of the competition you wimp."  Seven year old J.Smith was next seen running crying to his mommy.  After the competition the winning duo were seen taking a victory photo and providing comments for the local paper.  As a victory celebration the winning competitors were seen splashing life guards in the pool.


Maybe it's only funny to me, but seriously intimidating a seven year old is up there with only-in-my-family type stories.

Corn Salad

Peace glazed chicken

Adam and I spent a rather low key Wednesday at the pool, but Tuesday night was the real celebration.  Of course the hostess of all hostesses, Katie, had us all over to her house for a delicious barbecue.  I had been salivating over the menu for a few days since all the recipes had been added to Pinterest earlier in the week.  Here's just a teaser of some of the food we had had. 


Katie also threw together one of my favorite things to eat - chips and salad combining a trio of salsas including a homemade mango salsa, Salsa Verde, and one salsa with some real heat!  I offered to make my favorite portion of the meal --- dessert! I whipped up a batch of my ULTIMATE Chocolate Chip Cookies, which was a challenge given the 100+ degrees of our apartment.  (We don't have air conditioning; it's not bad unless you want to turn on the oven too....oops!)  


In order to cool the cookies, I resorted to sticking the pan of cookies from the oven into the freezer to chill for a few minutes.  It was quite a success! The cookies were wayyy too oily and melting without cooling them; it would have been a disaster if I hadn't improvised.  To top it all off, we added vanilla custard and made them into ice cream sandwiches.  To my delight, they were very well received as satisfying chocolate-y goodness.  


Here's the recipe:


1 1/2 Cup Butter Flavored Crisco
1 1/4 Cup Light Brown Sugar (firmly packed)
1 1/4 Cup Sugar
4 tbsp Milk
2 tbsp Vanilla Extract
---- Mix
2 Eggs 
--- Mix
3.5 - 4 Cup Flour
1 1/2 tsp Baking Soda
2 tsp Salt
--- Mix
2 Cups Chocolate Chips 
(Walnuts can be added too if preferred --- I left them out this time because I wasn't sure if there was a nut allergy for any of the guests)


Bake at 350 degrees for 8 - 10 minutes or until golden brown and enjoy! 


Hope everyone had a great Fourth of July!!!! Did anyone see any great fireworks? I was SUPER warn out from being at the pool all day, and I didn't make it to see any this year :(