{"id":3732,"date":"2009-07-06T11:14:24","date_gmt":"2009-07-06T15:14:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ourgrandmotherskitchens.com\/?p=3732"},"modified":"2009-07-07T20:29:46","modified_gmt":"2009-07-08T00:29:46","slug":"a-glorious-fourth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ourgrandmotherskitchens.com\/?p=3732","title":{"rendered":"A Glorious Fourth"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Liza

Liza ALWAYS dresses appropriately.<\/p><\/div>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

At Singing Brook Farm in Hawley, Massachusetts, we celebrate Independence Day in a low-key but festive manner.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Our impressaria for the occasion, Liza Pyle, organizes an annual pot-luck lunch near the Dam (where the water forms a lovely if\u00a0frigid pond), followed by what she terms “hijinks”–games for the young and the not so young.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

This year it started to rain just as the time came to light the fire by the Dam so we moved to the Play House, a\u00a0building\u00a0constructed by Liza’s grandfather just for days like this one. We had enough chairs, enough food,\u00a0and eventually enough sunshine for everyone.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

The edible offerings included things one\u00a0couldn’t be without on July 4 (hot dogs, baked beans, devilled eggs, farm-fresh tomatoes, brownies), plus a new dish to me, grilled baked potatoes supplied by Liza and her brother David. I can’t wait to make them. I’m not much of a griller, but honestly I think even I could manage these!<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Before I get to the semi-recipe (it’s more of a narrative), here are a few pictures of the hijinks.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\"This

This was a relay race in which participants had to don clothing as they switched off. For some the shoes and hat were just A LITTLE too big.<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Our

Our National Game<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Away

Away from the water the annual rubber-duck race had to get creative.<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Alice

Alice was the queen of the egg-and-spoon race (and much else).<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Water

Water balloons provided plenty of summer fun.<\/p><\/div>\n

\"We

We had occasional (short-lived!) displays of attitude.<\/p><\/div>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

As you can see, a good time was had by all (mostly!). The day revolved around community, the fruits of nature, and future generations. In short,\u00a0our\u00a0July 4\u00a0was almost iconically American.\u00a0And now\u00a0here is how\u00a0one fixes the potatoes:<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Bake several potatoes until they are\u00a0almost done. A fork should be able to penetrate them, but they should still be firm.
\n<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Cut them in half lengthwise; then brush (or rub!) extra-virgin olive oil on both sides of both halves.
\n<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Grill the potatoes until they brown nicely (this won’t take long!).
\n<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Serve with sour cream into which you have mixed chives, salt, pepper, and anything else that takes your fancy (mustard, other herbs, horseradish–whatever!).
\n<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Don’t forget to sing “Yankee Doodle Dandy.”<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\"Grilled<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0 At Singing Brook Farm in Hawley, Massachusetts, we celebrate Independence Day in a low-key but festive manner. \u00a0 Our impressaria for the occasion, Liza Pyle, organizes an annual pot-luck lunch near the Dam (where the water forms a lovely if\u00a0frigid pond), followed by what she terms “hijinks”–games for the young and the not so […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[17,429],"tags":[168,595,593,594,592,596],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ourgrandmotherskitchens.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3732"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ourgrandmotherskitchens.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ourgrandmotherskitchens.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ourgrandmotherskitchens.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ourgrandmotherskitchens.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3732"}],"version-history":[{"count":22,"href":"https:\/\/ourgrandmotherskitchens.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3732\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3767,"href":"https:\/\/ourgrandmotherskitchens.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3732\/revisions\/3767"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ourgrandmotherskitchens.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3732"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ourgrandmotherskitchens.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3732"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ourgrandmotherskitchens.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3732"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}