4th of July Treats

July 04, 2018

4th of July Treats

Happy 4th of July, y’all!! I hope you’re having a wonderful day so far and staying safe with all your celebrations. I’m sure you’re probably busy today, so I’ll try to keep this post as short as I can. I know I have a tendency to ramble! In case you need a few last minute festive snacks to entertain with, I’ve got just the thing. Delicious stuffed strawberries that anybody will love and a super easy three-ingredient adult beverage that’s so refreshing!

What you’ll need for the strawberries:

~Strawberries (duh)

~Blueberries

~8 oz package of cream cheese, softened at room temp

~½ cup powdered sugar

~1 tsp vanilla

Put the softened cream cheese, vanilla, and powdered sugar in a medium-size bowl. Beat it all together with a hand mixer until it’s light and fluffy. If you’d like it a little more thin in consistency, add in a little bit of milk. I like it a little thicker because it’s more like cheesecake rather than icing.

Rinse the strawberries and cut off the tops so they can sit flat. I only have nine strawberries pictured, but it might take a little more than twenty to use up all the filling. Once the tops are off, cut a “x” from the top down being careful to not cut all the way through.

Gently open the cuts of the strawberry and add in the filling. I used a bag and a piping tip, which worked pretty well but I did have to enlist the help of my husband to hold the strawberry in place. Not all strawberries are perfect and the different shapes is what made it a two-person job...at least for me, anyway.

Plate them up and add a blueberry on top to complete the whole red, white, and blue theme. I tried them right away because I just couldn’t help myself -- that cream cheese filling is so delicious! However, they are a little better after sitting in the fridge for at least 30 minutes to an hour.

Now onto the drink! The three ingredients needed are:

~1 oz Blue Curacao

~1 oz Coconut Rum

~2 oz Pineapple Juice

Add all the ingredients into a cocktail mixer with some ice and shake well. The pineapple and coconut mixture is the perfect refreshment on a hot Summer day. And if you wanna feel a little fancy, add a few cherries on a stick, garnish the glass with a pineapple, or pop in one of those cute toothpick umbrellas. Adorable!

I hope this gave you some inspiration if you’re looking for some festive 4th of July treats that only take a few minutes to whip together. Some things that I would recommend, though, is to add as much filling to each strawberry as possible. More is better! What I love about those is that they’re not messy to eat. Because of the slices, they’re easy to bite off into individual sections without getting it all over yourself.

My second recommendation would be to add some ice in the beverage glass. It helps to cut down the foam from being shaken and (obviously) makes it more chilled. Also, if you noticed, I purposefully set aside the strawberry tops. Those make great healthy treats for any little doggies running around!