Creating 4th of July Firecracker Push-Pops with Kool-Aid Beverages

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Summer is now officially here and the temperature is rising. If you are like me, you probably find yourself reaching for a cold beverage to help cool yourself off. And nothing goes better with with a tall glass of Kool-Aid than a good conversation with neighbors. Everyone is coming out. With all that talking and catching up, one of my newest simple pleasures is the 96oz. Ready-To-Drink Kool-Aid. No stirring required, just ice and a glass. That leaves plenty of time to hear great stories from the neighbors living around us.

Yes, the warm weather gets everyone outside. From the morning walkers to the bike riders and folks out for an afternoon convertible ride, our little area of the country has attracted a wide variety of folks. It is a quiet rural with many older couples and open farm fields. Just living down the street there are two WW2 Veterans with a whole lifetime of experiences to share and unique perspective on current events.

The farm shop is just across the street from our house and seems to be a great meeting place for storytelling and possibly a fair amount of tall tale re-telling as well. Being a 5-generation farm, I am sure  My husband shares all the funniest stories with me at the end of day.

With the 4th of July coming up in just over a week, I am feeling patriotic, neighborly and fortunate to be living in an area where being neighborly is normal. Yes, I am feeling very proud to live where I do and also proud to be an American.

Of course, the 4th of July fun requires provisions. I headed to my local Walmart to stock up on a few things. Kool-Aid was at the top of my list.

I found the ready-to-drink bottles in the juice aisle. My favorites are both the Watermelon and Grape.

I also grabbed an assortment of Kool-Aid liquid and Kool-Aid powdered drink mixes. Yes, I might have gotten more than I needed for the holiday, but I have a whole Summer to quench.

I think every good backyard bash needs a fun and simple treat. I decided to use Kool-Aid to create Firecracker Push-Pops. I planned to use the Kool-Aid liquid to color and flavor a simple white cake.

I made my cakes thinner than usual, spreading them out over 3 pans instead of the usual 2. This left me enough room to have both a white and red layer of cake with blue frosting in between. To get the perfectly sized cakes cut, use one of the push-pop molds to cut them out.

To make my push-ups look more like firecrackers, I cut out simple red circles. I traced a wide-mouth canning jar cover. Resourceful, huh?

Cut a slit halfway through the circle, wrap it around itself to form a cone, then tape and secure to the plastic caps.

The last component for my cake was the frosting. The mixed berry makes a bright shade of blue. I mixed it with a few tablespoons of heavy cream and beat that into my traditional buttercream frosting.

Then let the layering begin! Start with cake, then pipe in a little buttercream, top with more cake, more buttercream and then decorate with patriotic sprinkles.

Firecracker Push-Pops How-To:

Using your favorite white cake recipe or mix, divide the better into 3 bowls. You will bake them in 3 9" cake pans. Stir Kool-Aid Liquid drops into 1/3 of your batter until your achieve the desired color. Bake as usual, but begin checking your cake 5 minutes before the minimum time listed.

Cool cake, cut out rounds and set aside.

Mix Kool-Aid powdered drink mix with 3 tablespoons heavy cream. Make your favorite buttercream recipe and thin with the Kool-Aid mixture. Pipe between and on top of the cake in your push-pop mold.

Top with sprinkles, add on your paper cone and enjoy!

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The best part about these Firecracker Push-Pops? I have more than enough to share with any neighbors that might pop by. I love the chance to share my love of the holiday with others.

Excited about the 96oz bottles yet? Want to learn more? Well, Jim Dillard, pro fisherman, could be coming to your local Walmart to help promote the new Kool-Aid bottles! There will be product giveaways, t-shirts, games, and more fun activities!

Friday August 8th 5-7pm:

360 Harbison Blvd Columbia, SC WM Supercenter

Saturday August 9th  3-5pm:

1326 Bush River Rd Columbia, SC WM Supercenter

Saturday August 9th 6-8pm:

2401 Augusta Rd West Columbia, SC WM Supercenter

Looking for more Kool-Aid inspiration? Be sure to follow #KoolOff on twitter and check out my previous Kool-Aid fun with, DIY Lip Gloss, Meringue Cookies, and Dyed and Felted Star Wars Coasters.

How will you be spending your 4th of July? Will you #KoolOff with Kool-Aid?

DIY 4th of July Baby Outfit

Independence Day is just around the corner and  I'm busy working on shirts for each of the kids. Of course, they all have different  ideas on what they want to wear. I just enjoy the chance to make them something special to wear for the holiday. My youngest doesn't have much input yet, but I am excited to introduce him to the fun of the 4th. You know, BBQ weather, fireworks and parades?

I wanted to make Elliott something festive and comfortable so I used the Silhouette to cut a vinyl stencil and used fabric paint for the design to decorate both a onesie and cotton pants.

This was my first time creating a fabric stencil and it was very easy.  No, really, if I could do it...

I found a graphic outline for the statue of liberty and then added USA underneath. This design involved large peices so weeding the stencil was easy. Just take away the design you wish to paint onto the fabric.

Then I picked up the stencil with transfer tape. It is sticky enough to pick up all the small peices and details, but will peel back off the stencil easily once it is placed. There were a few small peices in this design in the crown of lady liberty and also some stars in the words below.

I paid special attention to the edges of my stencil and was careful to dab the fabric paint on the shirt, taking care not to push it under the vinyl. Once the paint dried I peeled off the stencil and was left with a simple and cute outfit for my youngest to wear for the upcoming holiday.

So simple, so easy! Now I can't wait to get started on the rest of the family. Less than a month to get them all done, plenty of time considering this only took me a morning from start to finish.

Have you tried out Silhouette's vinyl stencil material yet? What would you make with it?

Want to Check Out More Silhouette Projects?

My Silhouette Challenge buddies and I are all sharing projects on our blogs today, so peruse the projects below for a wealth of Silhouette inspiration!

 
1. Our Rosey Life // 2. My Mom Made That // 3. The Kim Six Fix // 4. Create & Babble // 5. The Frill of Life // 6. My Paper Craze // 7. Kate's Paper Creations // 8. Simply Kelly Designs // 9. Dragonfly & Lily Pads // 10. Mama Sonshine // 11. Lil Mrs. Tori // 12. Tried & True // 13. It Happens in a Blink // 14. McCall Manor // 15. The Thinking Closet // 16. unOriginal Mom // 17. Sowdering About // 18. Weekend Craft // 19. The Outlandish Momma // 20. Adventures in All Things Food // 21. Practically Functional // 22. Silhouette School // 23. Please Excuse My Craftermath... // 24. Ginger Snap Craft // 25. Pineapples And Pinecones // 26. Black and White Obsession // 27. TitiCrafty // 28. Architecture of a Mom // View all
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Enjoying Bigelow Teas - #AmericasTea for Dinner Versatility

This 4th of July really snuck up on me. The new baby has taken most of my spare time, so I didn't put as much thought into planning a holiday meal for my family. Despite it being the busiest time of year on the farm, I still wanted to spend the day with family and good food. We love to fire up the BBQ for holidays like this, and this year I chose to embrace the versatility of Bigelow Tea and try using our favorite teas to flavor my dishes. It is #AmericasTea for a reason and since it was America's big day, it seemed fitting. We already enjoy iced tea, but I wanted to see if I could also marinate, bake and use tea in a dessert.

I have great memories from my childhood linked to a cup full of tea. My first babysitter introduced me to a simple mug, a little milk and honey. It soon became my drink of choice, even in elementary school. After living abroad in Japan tea became the new love of my life. We drank it everywhere and hot, cold, sweet or bitter, but the selection is amazing back here in the US. So many tea flavors to choose from!

My local Walmart carries a wide selection of Bigelow Teas. You can see our family shopping trip to Walmart and what I had to choose from. Usually I purchase mint tea or simple fruit teas to enjoy while I read at night. It is my favorite why to unwind after a long day. For this meal I was determined to think outside the mug. With it's low price, I grabbed several flavors to try and experiment with. We left the store with Earl Grey, Constant Comment, Orange & Spice, Perfectly Peach as well as an Herb Tea Assortment plus all the veggies and other baking items I needed for my meal.

Burgers, dogs or steak? We have done it all before. This year I went for a more unconventional meat, a local lamb, yum! The Bigelow site had an intriguing recipe for marinating lamb kebabs. It called for Constant Comment tea, a spicy tea blend with hints of orange. This was the first time I tried this tea and the aroma from steeping it made my whole house smell amazing.

It was as simple as steeping the tea, adding in the other ingredients, honey, cumin and cloves, and letting the meat marinate before adding to a pre-soaked skewer. We grilled half of them on the BBQ, and cooked the other half in the smoker. Both were delicious, but the smoker added even more flavor to the meat.

I loved this meal because preparation was simple and cleanup was just as easy.

I also wanted dessert to be special. The idea of Earl Grey flavor packed into a little shortbread cookie sounded like the perfect way to savor my favorite hot drink in cookie form. I added in a little more tea than other recipes to boost the flavor along with vanilla and made sure the sugar was pulsed up fine.

Earl Grey Tea Cookies

You Will Need:

• 3 Tbsp. Earl Grey tea (about 8 bags of opened tea)
• 3/4 c. granulated sugar
• 1/2 c. confectioners sugar
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 2 c. AP Flour
• 2 sticks butter, unsalted at room temperature
• 1 tsp. vanilla

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

In a food processor, pulse up the tea and granulated sugar. Make sure the larger leaves of tea are broken up. Then add the confectioners sugar, salt and flour and pulse till well incorporated.

Then add the butter and vanilla. Mix until the dough comes together and is evenly moistened throughout. It should just hold together but not be too sticky. You can add a tsp. of water if necessary.

Turn the dough onto a piece of waxed paper and roll out to 1/4" thickness. Use a cookie cutter to cut out stars or your favorite shapes. Place onto a lined baking sheet and chill for 10 minutes.

Bake for 10 - 15 minutes depending on the size of your cookie. I used two different sizes of star cookie cutters and adjusted the time for each tray. Bake until they begin to turn golden around the edges.

Cool on the tray for 5 minutes and then transfer to a wire rack to finish cooling.

Being Summer, I had a crunchy treat for dessert, but I also wanted something to help us cool off. We enjoy making snow cones because they are simple, inexpensive and delicious.

I also used Bigelow Tea to make my syrup for snow cones. If you haven't made your own snow cone syrup, you have to try it. It tastes so much better than store-bought. I used Perfect Peach flavored tea and jazzed it up with pureeing up one ripe peach for the little fruit chunks. It was a huge hit with my family!

The tea added a nice complexity to the seasonal fruit. Dare I say it was an improvement on a perfectly good peach?

Perfect Peach Snow Cone Syrup

You Will Need:

• 3 Bigelow Perfect Peach tea bags
• 1 c. water
• 1 c. sugar
• 1 ripe peach

Bring 1 cup of water to a boil and then turn off the heat and steep the tea bags for 5 minutes. 

Discard the tea bags and add in the sugar. Bring back up to a boil  and stir the mixture till all the sugar has dissolved. Let the syrup reduce slightly over a low simmer for 5 minutes. Remove from the heat and let cool slightly.

Add a sliced ripe peach and the syrup to a blender and pulse till you achieve desired results. I left some small chunks of peach in my mixture. Let this completely cool then put in a jar and store in the refrigerator till you want to use it.

I make crushed ice in my Blendtec and then gently spoon the syrup over the top to serve. Enjoy!

A whole meal with tea? Yes. Tea is still my favorite warm beverage, but the flavors are so much more versatile than I first imagined. Bigelow Tea comes in such a wide variety of flavors that it works perfectly with everything from lamb kebabs to family-friendly desserts. All the bags are individually sealed to hold in all the freshness and aroma - the perfect compliment to fresh food at my Summer BBQ.

Be sure to follow Bigelow Tea on Facebook, Twitter as well as check out their Bigelow Tea Pinterest Board.

I want to know, what would you make with Bigelow Tea?

For more great Summer ideas, check out the Summer E-Guide Below:

Happy Fourth of July! Past Post Inspiration

I hope everyone is celebrating a safe and happy 4th of July. I am so excited to share our festivities and recipes with you and will have that post up this weekend.

Till then, I wanted to share some fun inspiration and images from our past 4th of July celebrations.

Keep the kids busy with these Simple Firework art projects using Elmer's glue.

Celebrate with a classic cherry in this simple Biscoff and fresh pie cherry parfait. My family loves them.

Create fun and Patriotic Shirts with spray glitter, plain shirts and Elmer's glue.

Create your own signature snow cone syrups easily with fresh fruit or Kool-aid. So easy and inexpensive!

Make simple ice water 4th of July ready with red and blue berries and small star cookie cutters.

No matter how you celebrate, I hope it is a great day. I can't wait to share what we have been up to. It involves the BBQ and of course, it is going to be delicious!