Fourth of July

Happy Fourth to my fellow Americans. I love this holiday, especially now that our elderly dog is too deaf to hear the fireworks which used to cause three straight hours of her trying to dig to safety in the bathtub. 🙂🇺🇸

Weather

A flawless summer day in NYC. Sunny, low humidity and just a touch of a breeze. So naturally, we will be spending most of the day indoors. 🤷🏻‍♀️

Listening to

I will probably belt out wobbly alto version of Lee Greenwood’s “God Bless the USA” at some point today, but most of the the summer bbq / Fourth of July playlists out there start to get a little monotonous, like we’re only allowed to listen to Springsteen, Katy Perry’s “Firework” or country everything.

So I made my own playlist, one that probably only Anth and I will like.

It has everything from Dolly Parton to Third Eye Blind to Oscar Peterson to Taylor Swift to Natalie Cole to Abba.

Put it this way: you will for sure have a moment of, “What the hell is this?” but … so will everyone else you’re with. Something for everybody to hate!

What can I say, I like the surprise of not knowing what genre’s coming up next. Could be jazz … could be rap … could be country. You just don’t know! Can’t buy that kind of anticipatory thrill, people.

Watching

We watched Independence Day last year (which I remember being a lot more fun than it was on rewatch 🤔). Anyway, weren’t feeling that again this year, so I put together a list of campy favorites. We won’t get to all of them, but here are the contenders.

National Treasure

• Nicholas Cage steals the Declaration of Independence? I mean, you’ve gotta. (I unapologetically love this movie).

The Parent Trap … the new one

• Has absolutely nothing to do with the holiday, but it’s got flawless summer vibes and a great soundtrack. Impossible to watch without instantly wanting to relocate to Napa.

The Sandlot

• American nostalgia at its best . “You’re killing me, Smalls!”

Jaws

• I’m not sure I’ve even seen the whole thing! But apparently it takes place on the Fourth of July.

Maverick

• Anth and I love this movie more than is strictly healthy. I like it better than Top Gun. I said what I said.

If we’re feeling ambitious and brainy:

Ken Burn’s Baseball or American Revolution documentaries. The latter’s only 12 hours, shouldn’t be a problem.

Eating

We always do fried chicken on the Fourth, but we’re changing it up this year!

We’re big Thomas Keller fans, and some internet sleuthing led us to this Fourth of July menu from his restaurant Ad Hoc.

We’re going to try and recreate parts of it.

Watermelon & Friseé Salad

• Our version: watermelon, friseé, mixed pitted olives, radishes, drizzled with balsamic and olive oil

Lobster rolls

• We don’t mess around with celery or even lemon. Butter, a ton of lobster, stuffed into the most basic of hot dog buns. That’s it. Maybe some chives. Maybe.

Corn on the cob & red potatoes

• Low-key boil, then served with some chive-garlic butter.

Homemade Oreos with Peanut Butter Filling

• I don’t have a sweet tooth, and always skip desert. My two exceptions are Oreos, or anything but peanut butter, so I’m counting the minutes until these!

Sipping

• Whispering Angel rosé, Vermentino. Perhaps a Negroni for Anth (red!) and a Manhattan for me (American whisky!.) ← This is about the point that “God Bless the USA” will make its appearance, sung by yours truly.

Enjoying

Life.