Monday, July 4, 2022

Food for the 4th by Maya Corrigan Potluck Monday

Image by Miesha Moriniere from Pixabay 

Happy Independence Day! Food cooked over a fire is as much a hallmark of 4th of July celebrations as fireworks. An estimated quarter of the U.S. population will celebrate with a barbecue today, weather permitting. The practice of grilling meat over a fire originated in the Caribbean, where the indigenous Taino people called this type of cooking “barbacoa.” Hot dogs, burgers, and chicken are the most common meats that are grilled on the 4th of the July. Red, white, and blue desserts are popular, with the color often coming from berries that are ripe in July.

If you’re looking for delicious ideas for your 4th of July celebration, check out these recipes from our archives:


For Caribbean Flavor

My Caribbean Jerk Chicken

Lucy Burdette’s Caribbean Salad

Peg Cochran’s Caribbean Grilled Chicken Breasts


For Dessert

Krista Davis's Berry Trifle 



Daryl Wood Gerber's Red White and Blue Tart 


Cleo Coyle’s Blue Velvet Cupcakes



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If you're in the mood for Christmas in July, check out my latest Five-Ingredient Mystery, Gingerdead Man.

"A wonderfully seasonal cozy mystery"

--Criminal Element

The 7th and latest book in Maya's series is Gingerdead Man.

During Bayport's Dickens of a Holiday festival, Val is hosting a private tea party for the volunteers dressed as Dickens characters including Scrooge and the Ghost of Christmas Past. A Santa who's more naughty than nice also comes to tea. An unexpected guest arrives, "shrouded in a deep black garment" like the eeriest Dickens ghost, and hands out gingerbread men with white icing skeleton bones. Though the creepy treat called a gingerdead man looks like a Halloween leftover, cookie addict Santa can't resist it. When the man in red turns blue, Val and Granddad have a cookie-cutter killer to catch.

"Plenty of red herrings, mixed motives, and recipes for foodies make for a spirited holiday cozy." -- Kirkus Review of Gingerdead Man



Maya Corrigan writes the Five-Ingredient Mysteries featuring café manger Val and her live-wire grandfather solving murders in a Chesapeake Bay town. Maya lives in a Virginia suburb of Washington, D.C. Before writing crime fiction, she taught American literature, writing, and detective fiction at Northern Virginia Community College and Georgetown University. When not reading and writing, she enjoys theater, travel, trivia, cooking, and crosswords. Visit her website for book news, easy recipes, mystery trivia, and a free culinary mystery story.

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What's on the menu for your 4th of July celebration?


6 comments:

  1. Growing up it was always grilled burgers, homemade ice cream and watermelon that was seen on our 4th menu and often the setting was at a park surrounded by extended family members while we were on our vacation.

    Today our menu will be fixed for just the two of us at home and will be grilled pork chops, corn on the cob, banana peppers out of the garden stuffed with pimento cheese and a big bowl of right out of the garden tomatoes.
    2clowns at arkansas dot net

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  2. Happy Birthday to America! Cheers, Maya, for the delicious Independence Day post. Marc and I wish you and everyone a very Happy Fourth. xoxo

    ~ Cleo

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  3. Leave it to Cleo to have a blue cupcake!

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  4. All of the recipes here sound delicious. We are having hot dogs, potato salad, coleslaw, baked beans, fruit and ice cream. Yum.

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