HAPPY FOURTH OF JULY!

Fourth of July, Independence Day, Red White and Blue, Summertime, BBQ – the list goes on and on. In Seattle, it used to mark the “real” first day of summer (i.e. when the sun would finally start to come out). Here in San Francisco, it seems like just another perfect excuse to get outside and enjoy the city.

One of my personal favorite parts of the Fourth is coming up with a festive menu that is sure to please any crowd. Admittedly, we are staying very lowkey and local this year so the menu below is what I WOULD have if we were getting together with a bunch of people.

For starters…or I guess more as a finisher…Strawberry Shortcake is hands down one of my favorite summer desserts of all time. I recently picked up Gaby Dalkin’s new cookbook, What’s Gaby Cooking, and she has the simple and perfect biscuit recipe. Instead of the normal berry filling, I switched it up and went with Strawberry Basil. You can find her recipe for the biscuits here and for the Strawberry Basil filling I simply used the following:

4 Cups quartered Strawberries
3 large basil leaves
Juice of 1/2 Lemon
1 T Sugar

For the whipping cream, I used 1 C of heavy whipping cream and 1/2 tsp of vanilla bean paste!