Sunday, 7/4/2010

We were invited over to Chris & Larry's house for dinner tonight. They told us they would provide hamburgers and brats with condiments. Everyone else was to bring the sides. Ben's mom made a macaroni salad. Ben and I took chips, beer, and wine. Other than having to go back to Fred Meyer for more beer and wine, our contribution was pretty easy.

Spencer made a jalapeno appetizer. He sliced jalapeno peppers in half, scooped out the seeds, filled each half with cream cheese and wrapped them in bacon. They went onto the grill, cheese side down first, just long enough to cook the bacon. There was quite a range of hotness (taste not temperature) to each pepper. My mom had one that had hardly any heat to the pepper. Ben, on the other hand, had one that was soo hot that he frantically grabbed Katie's sippy cup after one bite, expecting it to have whole milk in it. He was sorely disappointed to find it had water in it. He suffered while the rest of us laughed at him:) Despite Ben's reaction, we all found them quite tasty. I think I will try to make this appetizer someday.

My parents took brownies and mint chocolate chip ice cream. No problem with the ice cream, but the brownies presented a challenge. My dad baked the brownies last night. When he started to cut them up this afternoon, he realized that they were super hard and would not be good to share. Thankfully, he had a 2nd brownie mix. Although our departure was delayed while the brownies baked, we were able to take our annual 4th of July family photo while we waited. A great use of time--if I do say so myself. I must thank Jennifer for suggesting we take a silly photo too. The shots below are priceless!