July 4th - A Day to Celebrate

from Coronado Magazine July 2021

Relfections on Coronado with Adm. Lou Smith

Create your own hot dog stand with refrigerated breadstick dough wrapped around hot dogs, speared with a wooden skewer, and baked. Add Colby cheese stars on top for added spangle.

Red, White & Blue Sangria

Fill a clear pitcher with blueberries, strawberries and pineapples (cut into stars) with water for a flavored, refreshing drink. Or try this delicious sangria, adapted from diyprojects.

2 bottles white wine 1 cup triple sec 1/2 cup berry flavored vodka 1/2 cup fresh lemon juice 1/2 cup simple syrup

Stir, chill and serve.

Use any sugar cookie recipe you like or try this one, adapted from sugarspunrun.com.

1 cup butter, softened ¾ cups sugar 1 teaspoon vanilla extract ½ teaspoon salt 1 large egg yolk 2 ¼ cups all-purpose flour (295g)

Marble Icing Glaze

3 cups powdered sugar sifted (415g) 3 tablespoons light corn syrup 3-4 tablespoons milk ½ teaspoon vanilla extract ¼ teaspoon almond extract, optional Gel food coloring - gel highly recommended for bright swirl colors* Silver star sprinkles* Luster dust/disco dust, optional* * Can be found at cake supply stores or Amazon; Americolor gel "red red" and "electric blue” used here.

• Preheat oven to 350º. • Using a mixer, beat your butter until creamed. Add sugar and beat with the butter about 30 seconds. Stir in vanilla extract and salt, stirring until well-incorporated. Add egg yolk and beat until combined. • With mixer on medium-low speed, gradually add flour until well-incorporated, scraping sides of bowl. • Transfer dough to clean surface and use your hands to form it into a cohesive ball. Flatten into a disk, about 1" thick, cover with clear wrap; chill for 15 minutes. • Once dough has chilled, transfer it to a clean, lightly floured surface and use a lightly floured rolling pin to roll out to about ¼" thickness. Lightly flour cookie cutters and cut out shapes, transferring them to an ungreased cookie sheet, lined with parchment paper. Recombine scraps, roll out and cut out again, repeat until all dough is used. • Bake on 350º for about 10-12 minutes; allow cookies to cool completely before frosting.

Marble Icing Glaze

• In a large bowl, combine sifted powdered sugar, 3 tablespoons milk, and light corn syrup. Whisk until smooth. If mixture is too dry, add additional milk, one teaspoon at a time until mixture can be stirred. Stir in extracts. • Glaze should be thick, test consistency by dropping a few droplets on top of a test cookie. If the glaze remains stiff, it needs to be thinned. If it runs off the cookie, it is too thin and needs more powdered sugar. If it settles down smoothly, it is just right. • Divide glaze into four small flat plates with a lip. • Working with one plate at a time, add eight tiny drops of food coloring around the plate in the white glaze, four red drops, and four blue drops. • Dip the surface of each cookie into the glaze. Adjust whorls, but note that as each cookie is dipped, the colors will begin to muddle together. When that happens, move on to a second plate and repeat the droplet/swirl process. Add silver star sprinkles and luster dust. Allow to harden at least 30 minutes or longer for glaze to set. • Store cookies in an airtight container at room temperature.

Super simple! Let kids of all ages dress up a packaged ice cream sandwich in decorative sprinkles.

Many have banners of red, white and blue cheering up their outdoor spaces. Here’s a simple, easy way of creating your own individualized bunting with cut out fabric triangles and twine.

What’s in Season?

It’s Ice Cream Season!

Herald in summer by perusing the frozen dessert aisle, noting all the flavors from simple to unique that are available as ice cream, sherbet or gelato to bring home and enjoy. Creamy frozen desserts are commonplace today, but it didn’t start out that way.

Ice cream has a long history, going back to the Roman Empire where they would send runners to the mountains to find snow, bring it back and flavor it with fruit and honey, like today’s flavored ice. Sherbet came about in the Far East at about the same time ice cream appeared in Europe, sometime in the 16th century. Ice cream, or cream ice as it was first called, was a luxury dessert loved by Washington, Jefferson and Madison.

For a long time cranking cream and sugar in an ice cream maker was the only way to get this frozen treat. Widespread availability for ice cream came about with freezers becoming common place in the home and technology leading to mass production.

Today there are many flavors, many toppings, many ways to enjoy ice cream, sherbet or gelato. Different varieties are available for those with nutritional restrictions. Either way, you can’t miss out - nothing says summer like ice cream!