So, Independence Day, July 4th, fell on a Wednesday this year. It was a bit odd, but still nice to have a day off work. A little midweek breather if you will. We decided to be sociable this year and head to our friends’ (Kellie and Andy) BBQ. We also brought Illidan to play with their dog, Marshmallow. They have had puppy play dates before and are BFFs.

I was actually really proud of how well Illidan handled everything. He got along with Marshmallow even when people were eating around him and liked almost everyone there. He was scared of 1 woman at first, but he got over it quickly. Overall, he did really well.

Kellie and Andy are also awesome and throw great parties. We have known them since living in the bay area and still play board games with them on a semi-regular basis. They made hamburgers and hot dogs for the party that were delicious. It was meant to be a pot luck thing, so I decided to make something sweet and something savory.

For my savory element, I made homemade pizza bites. These are super simple but seem to go over well at parties. They are portable and easy to eat without making a mess. You take biscuits (you could make the dough, but I just bought the can for convenience) and flatten them out. You then put with pizza sauce, cheese, and any other filling you like, pepperoni, peppers, mushrooms, pineapple, etc., on the middle of the biscuit and fold in the sides pinching them together so that the dough fully incases the pizza filling. Put the pinched side down on the baking sheet and rub the tops with a butter, garlic, herb mixture (I actually forgot to do this part, oops). Then bake according to the biscuit package directions. Easy peasy.

For my sweet element, I decided to try making macarons. I had never made them before this event, but I always wanted to try to make them. I was turned off by the amount of people who claimed they were exceedingly difficult to make though. I tried anyway. I made a vanilla macaroon with a cream cheese lemon curd filling (I had homemade lemon curd in my fridge, lol). I wanted to dye them red for the fourth (red with a white center), but they came out pink. :/ Overall, I was really happy with them though and when we left, there were none to take home, so I’ll take that as a good sign.

I was a bit worried about messing up the macarons though, so I also made peppermint chocolate cookies. I’ve made these before and they always go over well. Though, I did have some of these to bring home (I just brought them to work Thursday, lol). Still, I think people liked them. My work liked them for sure anyway.

We did leave early too. I was worried how Illidan would handle the fireworks and didn’t want him in a strange place while it was happening. So, we left just before dark. At home, we didn’t really hear any fireworks, so I still don’t know how he would handle it, lol.

Well, that’s about it for this post. We were social on July 4th, including Illidan and everyone had a good time. How was your holiday?