Fourth-of-July Holiday-Recipes Collection

Handyman Baby Back Ribs!

The Fourth-of-July is, I think, the ultimate American BBQ Holiday. So, with that said, I visit my neighborhood butcher for the best rack of Baby Back Ribs I can find and start this section off with an easy BBQ recipe.

Here's how you do it:

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees. Cover the bottom of a shallow pan with water and 1/4 cup of vinegar. Salt and pepper the ribs and place on a rib rack in the pan. Cover tightly with foil and cook for 1.5 hours. Remove the pan after 1.5 hours and drain.

Slather your ribs with your favorite BBQ sauce and place back in your oven for 30 more minutes...or do what any self respecting handyman would do and place them on the BBQ grill to cook an additional 30 minutes, it is the Fourth-of-July you know.

That's all there is to it...enjoy!

Is it Corn-On-The-Cob or 4th-of-July-Cupcakes ...YUMMY!

You're going to have fun with this one. The cupcakes are really easy to make and you're sure to impress your Fourth-of-July guests.

Just in case you're wondering...I didn't come up with this one on my own. The idea comes from a cook book titled "Hello, Cupcake!". Here's how you do it...

The kernels are loaded with jelly bean flavor, the butter pats are fruit chews, and the salt and pepper is black and white sugar. The black and white sugar used on the cupcakes is actually black and white sprinkles... purchased at Michael’s Art supply store. You can get the sugar from a baking specialty shop as well.

Here's what you'll need...

24 vanilla cupcakes baked in white paper liners. You can adjust the amount as needed. I cut the recipe in half.

1 can (16 ounces) vanilla frosting
Yellow food coloring
About 3.5 cups small jelly beans(Jelly Bellys) in assorted yellow, cream, and white colors (My local Farm Fresh has them in large Bins so I just pored the colors I needed into a bag.)
4 pieces yellow fruit chews (I used Starburst but Laffy Taffys will work as well)
1 tablespoon each black and white decorating sugars
8 sets of corn holders for the added presentation...optional of course!

First step is to tint the vanilla frosting pale yellow with the food coloring. Be careful...add just a couple drops at a time to make sure you don't add too much.

The Starburst were just the right size so I just nuked-em for 10 seconds to soften them a little, molded them by hand to make them look like pats of melting butter. Then just place one on top of each group of 3 cupcakes (one corncob). Sprinkle with the black and white sugars. Insert your corn holders on each end and you've got yourself some Corn-on-the-cob cupcakes. A great way to cap off your Fourth-of-July festivities!