Summer Holiday cooking

Weather its for Memorial Day, Fathers Day, or July 4th, it's time to start planing out your holiday menu. For those of you who have yet to select your dishes, these suggestions for an informal, low-key holiday meal below from Tastefully Entertaining will make you summer cooking extra yummy.

- Creamy Red Potato Salad

- Grilled Marinated Vegetables with Fresh Mozzarella

- North Carolina Pulled-Pork Barbeque Sandwich

- Watermelonade

- Blueberry Hill Cupcakes

- Watermelon, Lemonade and Blueberry Ice Pops

Click through the links for the recipes and instructions for each menu item. Enjoy and Happy July 4th!

Strawberry Margarita Pie

Strawberry Margarita Pie featured on The Hostess with the Mostess daily blog

Ingredients:

2 cups hulled fresh strawberries

2/3 cups sugar

1 ½ cup graham cracker crumbs

1 stick butter, softened

¾ cup sweetened condensed milk

6 Tbsp tequila (cause every things better w/ Tequila)

4 Tbsp triple sec

1 Tbsp fresh lime juice2 cups heavy cream

Instructions:Toss strawberries with 4 Tbsp sugar and set aside. Blend graham cracker crumbs, rest of sugar and butter in food processor. Press into bottom and up sides of buttered 9 inch springform pan.
Next, puree strawberries and sugar with condensed milk, tequila, triple sec and lime juice in processor or blender. Transfer to large bowl.
Whip cream until stiff peaks form. Fold 1/3 of cream into puree. Gently fold in remaining cream. Pour filling into pie crust, cover and freeze until firm, preferably overnight.
To serve, run hot, sharp knife around the sides of pan, remove dies and cut into wedges. Garnish with mint leaves and fresh strawberries.

Cutest Cupcake Toppers Ever

Oh my goodness, these cupcake toppers are to cute. I wouldn't even attempt to make them myself, not when I can go over to Clineffs Confections esty shop and buy em, plus I doubt I could !! Check em out.

Turtle Cake

While searching for ideas for my son's 1st birthday party, I came across this in a back issue of Parenting. Though I went with a different theme, I definitely put this one in my idea file. How stinkin cute!!!

Turtle Birthday Cake Design
How to make a turtle birthday cake with fruit chews. Easy, step-by-step recipe, diagrams and pictures
By Karen Tack

Serves 16
Ingredients:
1 can (16 oz) vanilla frosting
Green food coloring
2 (9-inch) round cakes
4 Funny Bones snack cakes
1 jumbo cupcake or muffin
½ cup chocolate frosting
2 green M&M's
1 tube black decorating icing
1 bag Tootsie Rolls
12 green Jolly Rancher Fruit Chews

What you'll need:

1 resealable sandwich-size plastic bag
A serving platter
A bread knife
A rolling pin or a heavy bottle

For the white and green frosting:

Spoon 2 Tbsp of the vanilla frosting into a resealable plastic bag.
Add food coloring to the remaining vanilla frosting to tint it green

Trimming the cake:

Place one 9-inch cake on a serving platter. Using a bread knife, trim the top to make it level.
Spread some of the green frosting on top. Place the second 9-inch cake on top to make a 2-layer cake.
Bevel the edges of the top cake to make the turtle shell's dome shape.
Spread the top and sides of cake with the remaining green frosting; make smooth.

Assembling the cake:

Trim 1 inch from one end of each Funny Bone. Press Funny Bones, cut side in, against the turtle-shell cake for the turtle's legs.
Trim the jumbo cupcake or muffin and place in the front for the turtle's head. Spread chocolate frosting over the cupcake and make smooth.

For the icing decoration:

Snip a small corner from the bag of untinted vanilla frosting.
For the turtle's eyes, pipe white dots onto the cupcake head and attach the green M&M's. Pipe white dots on the M&M's.
Pipe white dots on the tips of the snack cakes for the turtle's claws.
Using the black decorating icing, pipe black eye brows and nostrils.

For the shell pattern:

Press 3 Tootsie Rolls together. Using your rolling pin or a heavy bottle, roll the Tootsie Rolls out on a piece of wax paper. Use a sharp paring knife to cut the flattened Tootsie Rolls into hexagons of varying size. Repeat with the remaining Tootsie Rolls to make 7 brown hexagons.
Press 2 of the green Jolly Rancher Fruit Chews together and roll out on a sheet of wax paper. Cut out a smaller hexagonal shape from the flattened green Jolly Rancher Fruit Chews. Repeat with remaining green Jolly Rancher Fruit Chews until you have 6 green hexagons.
Arrange the chocolate and green hexagons on top of the cake as pictured.
Press some of the Tootsie Roll scraps together and shape into a 2-inch cone. Bend slightly and attach as the turtle's tail.

Cake Anatomy:

Cake Cutout: