The 4th of July is here!

Monday, July 4th

This year, I have really been looking forward to the 4th of July and we had such a fun and delicious day!

I’m one of those lucky people that can truthfully say that my husband is my best friend and we always have (ok, usually always have) a great time together, no matter what we are doing.

Monday morning he surprised me by telling me that he’s taking me to see Air Supply for my birthday!

Air Supply

In highschool, I didn’t listen to much of the current music.

I’ve always been an old soul and most of my favorite bands were from the 60s and 70s.

Air Supply, along with Eric Clapton, Led Zeppelin, America, Strawberry Alarm Clock, Cat Stevens, Scott McKenzie, Jim Croce, The Band, The Yard Birds, The Guess Who, The Animals, Eric Burton, Derrick and the Dominos and Jefferson Airplane where some of my favorites.

And I am so excited to actually see Air Supply in concert this coming August!

My husband is so good to me! He’s not keen on Florida at the end of August or Air Supply but he’s taking me!

He keeps teasing me that he’s going to sneak away from the concert but I know he won’t, he’ll be right there holding my hand!!

Anyway…

About the delicious part of the day…

Since we were not having company over, my menu continued to evolve and change right up until I started cooking.

This year’s 4th of July Menu

What I ended up making was:

Bacon Cheeseburgers with ground chicken instead of beef,

French fries,

Ambrosia fruit salad, which I served with our meal but was also meant to be our dessert

and Jason made us Margaritas!

I always make as much as I can from scratch.

I always make as much as I can from scratch. I guess it’s a matter of pride.

Sort of a, “I am woman. See me bake”, kind of thing. Lol

I’m sure it could be argued as to what exactly makes something “from scratch”, as opposed to “homemade”.

In the case of Ambrosia, it’s a childhood treat that my mother used to make. It uses canned fruits and cool whip, so I suppose it doesn’t qualify as “from scratch” but I do think it still qualifies as homemade because, after all, you do assemble all the ingredients yourself.

I hadn’t even thought of Ambrosia for years.

I used to love it when I was little and I remember making it for my son, too.

But, I really couldn’t tell you when it slipped out of my memory, though it definitely did.

Recently, while visiting a friend, the History Channel was on in the background. We were not by any means watching it but I kept hearing the word, “Ambrosia.”

Curious as to why the word kept coming up, I looked and the presenters were saying something about “Ambrosia being an elixir that allowed humans to travel in space.”…

And I thought, I have no desire to travel in space but I wouldn’t mind some of Mommy’s yummy Ambrosia! Lol

So, I started trying to remember how to make it but I thought I was missing an ingredient.

I checked with my mother, she remembered the same ingredients that I did but also felt that she was forgetting something.

I did a Google search for Ambrosia, Ambrosia Fruit Salad, Fruit Salad with cool whip and a few other iterations but none of the recipes I found seemed just right…

In the end, I just made it as my mother and I remembered it and it tasted right, so I guess we weren’t really forgetting anything, after all.

Jason doesn’t really care much for sweets, while I have a definite sweet tooth, so we weren’t sure he would like it but he did!

The key to making Ambrosia that isn’t cloyingly sweet is…

The key to making Ambrosia that isn’t cloyingly sweet is to use canned fruits with the least sugar you can find (usually called light syrup).

Drain the fruit with a wire mesh strainer for 30 to 35 minutes. If you don’t have a wire mesh strainer, you can use a colander.

This will get most of the syrup out.

Then press even more of the syrup out by pressing down with a paper towel.

Another reason to do this is to help dry the fruit as much as you can, so that the cool whip isn’t watered down by fruit juice. Soggy Ambrosia is not something anyone will want!

Recipes

I’m sorry I’m not able to give you a recipe print button yet but please feel free to screenshot and print my recipe cards!

As you may know, I was a vegetarian for many years, so I got as far as mixing the chicken and all the ingredients together.

Jason kindly formed the patties and cooked them because, I just couldn’t look at the raw meat any longer.

I always cut my own French fries, although, I’m not necessarily opposed to having a store bought bag of frozen fries in the freezer.

I cook my fries the same way that a European friend taught me to do years ago and if you try it, you’ll taste the difference!

Here’s how I make and cook them:

I hope you had a safe and delicious 4th of July!