Since yesterday was Saturday and there were lots of Independence Day shenanigans going on in my part of town, I kept thinking it actually was July 4th. We spent the day at the lakehouse working on the decking (not too much longer until we’re done!), and I came away with sore muscles and a teensy sunburn.
On the way home from the lakehouse, Mom and I stopped at a roadside market to get some supplies for a July 4th gastronomic experiment…all shall be revealed soon. 
…and then I hit up another vendor on the way home to stock up on a Southern summer staple…
(“Mooooom, stop embarrassing me!!!”)
Boiled peanuts!
Best enjoyed with a beer* or two.
*After my last post, I realized how sad I would be if I laid the smack down on myself on July 4th weekend. My traditional “it wouldn’t be July 4th without these” foods/drinks are ok, as long as I don’t just go apeshit and eat/drink them all.
For dinner, we wanted to do shish kebabs on the grill, so I made a bowl of Pineapple Peach Pico de Gallo
Pineapple Peach Pico de Gallo
- half a red onion
- 1 peach
- 2 thick slices of pineapple
- 1 tomato
- a few strips of bell pepper
- ~1 clove garlic
- ~1 Tbls lime juice
- cilantro, chopped (or do what I do and use the easy squeezy tube stuff)
- salt and pepper
Dice all the fruits and veggies and toss with the rest of the ingredients. Let it chill for an our or so before serving. The next time I do it, I want to add some kind of mildly-hot pepper, because this was a little too sweet and didn’t have as much depth as I would’ve liked. This would be a great side dish if you added corn and black beans, too!
The shish kebabs included mushrooms, vidalia and red onions, pineapple, and red and green bell peppers, and I skewered the shrimp separately to ensure even grilling.
After dinner, I went down to the lake to try to take some pictures of fireworks, but an open shutter does not like a floating dock (there was a big fireworks show last night, so dozens of boats returning home did a number on my pictures). Also, it’s friggin’ hard to focus a camera in the dark! I still managed to get a few neato-looking pictures.
They turned out much better when I relocated to the deck (which is firmly attached to the house).
Tonight I’m going to attempt to take more using the tripod…I hope everyone didn’t shoot off all their best ones last night!
What did you do/are you doing for the 4th of July? Have you ever tried boiled peanuts before? What did you think of them?