A Happy 4th of July!

Time to celebrate our freedom and enjoy the 4th of July weekend! Hope you and yours have a simply splendid time of gathering together and enjoying this special day in our country’s history.

(pics from BHG.com)

Are you doing anything fun? We don’t have a lot of outdoor things planned for the day (it's SO dang HOT), but we will be attending the Birmingham Tea Party again this evening. Hope to see a few of you there!

Happy 4th of July! We are blessed to have our freedom.

Light some sparklers and shoot off some fireworks!

I haven't even checked the paper yet to see if there are many yardsales this weekend, but even if I don't make it to any (and I probably will :), I'll still have the party starting Sunday evening. See you then!

Happy 4th of July!

Brownies that I'm taking to a get-together this evening. This is a from-scratch recipe that is always a treat. Made with cocoa powder, I almost always have the ingredients on hand for a pan of these delectable brownies.

Brownies:

1/4 cup plain flour
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
4 tbsp. cocoa
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla
1/3 cup cooking oil

Mix oil, sugar, add eggs one at a time & vanilla. Mix with flour, salt, cocoa & baking powder. Add 2/3 cup nuts (if desired). Bake at 350* for 20-30 min. until done.

Chocolate Icing:

1/2 stick butter (melted)
1/2 box powdered sugar
1/2 tsp. vanilla
2 tbsp. cocoa
3 tbsp. milk or 1/2 & 1/2
Chopped pecans

Melt butter in microwave, add milk & other ingredients. Stir until creamy & spread on top of cooled brownies. Let set before cutting. This recipe makes half of a 11x13 pan. I doubled the recipe for this standard sized glass baking dish.

Enjoy!!

Hoping you all have a wonderful 4th of July with your families & friends. We are off to American Village tomorrow to check out their patriotic activities & look forward to celebrating this wonderful Independence Day in a very special way, ending with fireworks.
Thought I'd leave you with some beautiful pictures of patriotic porches all decked out for the 4th of July.
Have a wonderful day & eat some watermelon for me!