fourth of july Archives - 2 Sisters 2 Cities

Posted by Keelin Hollenbeck on July 1, 2014

Well, it is officially the week of Fourth of July and you know what that means..S’more season is here! What is better then (or equal to a s’more,) but a S’more Chocolate Chip Cookie combination.

The boyfriend and I have a bit of an obsession with chocolate chip cookies. I feel like we haven’t baked much of anything else this year except for white sandwich bread and chocolate chip cookies. My boyfriend has become a chocolate chip cookie baking-pro over here. While he was gone today, I decided to make a new cookie recipe. We had this bakery near our old house in New Jersey that sold really good cupcakes and cookies. They had the most amazing S’more Cookies and ever since then I have been trying to recreate them. This recipe is pretty darn close!

One Thanksgiving, my mom was making Martha Stewart’s recipe for Sweet Potato Casserole and asked me to cut up large marshmallows to put on top because that is what the recipe called for. We joked that maybe Martha didn’t realize they made mini marshmallows. This particular cookie recipe calls for mini marshmallows, which of course I forgot at the grocery store. Luckily, I had large marshmallows and got to cut them up like old times!

S'more Cookies

Author: 2 Sisters 2 Cities

Ingredients

¾ cup unsalted butter, softened
½ cup white sugar
½ cup brown sugar, packed
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla extract
1¼ cup AP flour
1 cup graham crackers crumbs
¼ tsp. salt
½ tsp baking soda
½ cup semi sweet chocolate chips
½ cup milk chocolate chips
3-4 Hershey Bars broken into squares
1 cup of mini marshmallows or large marshmallows cut up

Instructions

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
In the bowl of a mixer, cream butter and then add both sugars. Once mixed, add in egg and vanilla extract.
In a separate bowl, combine flour, graham cracker crumbs, salt, and baking soda.
Add the dry mix into the wet mixture, scraping down the sides to make sure everything is incorporated.
Mix in chocolate chips (not the Hershey's squares yet.)
Scoop the cookie dough into 24 balls and spread out on two cookie sheets lined with a silicone baking mat or parchment paper.
Bake one tray at a time for 8 minutes, take out of the oven, closing the oven door so you do not lose heat. Press marshmallows and Hershey's squares into the top of the cookies (I did 1-2 squares and then 3-4 marshmallows in each cookies). Put tray back in the oven and bake for an additional 3-4 minutes. Repeat for second tray.
Let cookies cool for 5-10 minutes and then move to cooling tray. Store in an airtight container.

Source- Adapted from Carl’s Bad Cravings Blog

Looking for more S’more desserts? Try these:

S’more Ice Cream

Raspberry Truffle S’mores

Frozen Cupcakes S’mores

Posted by Keelin Hollenbeck on July 3, 2013

S'more Ice Cream for Dessert

Happy Fourth of July everyone! I hope you have a great menu planned for your long weekend . I am sure with all this time off, my boyfriend and I will be cooking/baking up a storm. Here is a last minute dessert idea to celebrate your Independence Day with.

Last weekend I tested out another new flavor of ice cream with my new ice cream maker. The pistachio ice cream I made first had turned out so well I was excited to try another flavor. Since it is Fourth of July weekend, I thought it would be the perfect opportunity to make some s’more ice cream. This ice cream has toasted marshmallow-flavored ice cream with graham cracker pieces and fudgy layers, making it the perfect dessert for summer time. I could have really just stopped at the toasted marshmallow ice cream because the flavor was incredible! It would also be the perfect ice cream to make s’more ice cream sandwiches with, by layering the marshmallow ice cream between a layer of Hershey’s chocolate squares and graham cracker halves. However you decide to make this ice cream, you will be happy with the results! I scream, you scream, we all scream for ice cream!! (If you look close enough to my picture you can see my boyfriend watching tv in the background..whooops!)

S'more Ice Cream

Author: 2 Sisters 2 Cities

Ingredients

For Toasted Marshmallow Ice Cream:

1 bag marshmallows, preferably large but small will do
1 tbsp. vanilla bean paste
2 cups whole milk
5 egg yolks
½ cup sugar
Pinch of salt
1 cup heavy cream
1 tsp. vanilla extract

For the Fudge Layers

½ cup granulated sugar
½ cup water
⅓ cup light corn syrup
6 tbsp. Dutch-process cocoa powder
½ teaspoon vanilla extract

To add to Ice Cream:

1½ cups coarsely chopped honey graham crackers

Instructions

Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Place marshmallows on baking sheet. Place the pan under the broiler for 30 seconds to 1 minute until toasted, watch closely because they will burn easily. Turn marshmallows over and toast the other side the same way. Once both sides are toasted, place marshmallows in a blender and set aside.
Add milk to a medium saucepan, add in vanilla bean paste and slowly bring mixture to a simmer.
In a large heatproof bowl beat the egg yolks, sugar and salt together with a whisk. Slowly add warmed milk to the egg mixture and return to saucepan. Heat mixture over medium-low heat stirring the entire time with a heat proof rubber spatula. Stir until the custard thickens and easily coats the spatula (around 170-175 degrees F.) Pour the custard through a metal strainer into a large bowl. Let cool for 15 minutes.
Add the custard into the blender (where the toasted marshmallows are) and blend together until the marshmallows are completely broken down. Add heavy cream and vanilla extract to blender and blend for 10-15 second to combine. Pour the mixture into lidded container and refrigerate overnight.
To make Fudge Layers: In a medium saucepan set over medium heat, whisk together sugar, water, corn syrup, and cocoa powder. Whisk the entire time, until the mixture comes to a low boil. Allow mixture to boil for one minute, continuing to whisk. Remove the chocolate sauce from heat and stir in vanilla extract. Add mixture to a jar or an air-tight container and let cool before covering. Place in the refrigerator and let cool for at least 2 hours before layering into ice cream.
Before adding the custard to the ice cream maker, stir vigorously until mixture is smooth. Add custard to your ice cream maker and churn ice cream according to manufacturer’s instructions. When ice cream is done, gently fold in chopped graham crackers with a rubber spatula. On the bottom of the container you plan to store ice cream in, add a layer of fudge sauce to the bottom. Scoop the ice cream into the container, adding layers of the fudge sauce between layers of ice cream (do not stir the ice cream at this point since you will want the layers of fudge.) Continue layering ice cream and fudge sauce, ending with an ice cream layer. Cover container and freeze ice cream until firmer, about 2-3 hours.

Source- Adapted from Brown Eyed Baker

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Posted by Meaghan Barry on July 3, 2013

I’ve been a little quiet on the blogging front lately and just wanted to share why. Baby N decided to grace us with his presence a week before his due date! We’ve been happily adjusting to our new family of four over the past couple of weeks. We don’t normally share photos of ourselves or our family on 2 Sisters 2 Cities, but like with Baby T, I wanted to share one snugly newborn photo. This photo was taken the morning after he was born.

baby n

I think he looks pretty much just like his older brother did when he was born! N is a chill little guy and his older brother has been really great with him (for the most part anyway.)

Hope you have a great Fourth of July weekend! Just in case you were looking for any last minute recipes, here are ten 2S2C recipes perfect for your summer cookout:

sister m signature

Posted by Keelin Hollenbeck on June 23, 2013

The other week, my boyfriend and I were craving the Chicago-style hot dogs that we experienced on our first trip to Chicago a few months ago. We were reading recipes online and I found a recipe for homemade hot dog buns. I got really excited about this because I have been wanting to make my own hot dog roll for some time now. Also, I could easily make these homemade buns into some poppy seed buns that are required for Chicago hot dogs.

Although the hot dog bun recipe has poppy seeds on them, you can make these plain by skipping the topping instructions. Bread-making wise, these are really easy to make and you won’t believe how good they taste! Make them now and put them in the freezer for your Fourth of July party. Your friends and family will be super impressed when you say “ Yeah I made these, no biggy!” (yes I totally just made up this scenario, but it could happen!)

Homemade Hot Dog Buns

Author: 2 Sisters 2 Cities

Serves: 8-10

Ingredients

1 tbsp. granulated sugar
1 tbsp. active dry yeast
¼ cup warm water
1 cups warm milk
1 tbsp. vegetable oil
1 tsp. salt
3 cups (plus more if needed) all-purpose flour
1 egg
1 tbsp. of cold water
2 tbsp. poppy seeds (optional)

Instructions

In the bowl of stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, mix together sugar, yeast, and warm water. Let the yeast mixture sit for 5 minutes. It should get foamy.
Add in warm milk, vegetable oil, salt and 1 &1/2 cup of the flour to the yeast mixture. Mix on medium-high for about 2 minutes. Switch to the dough hook attachment and turn mixer onto low. Work in additional flour, ¼ cup at a time, until the dough come together and pulls away from sides of the bowl.
Let the mixer go to 8-10 minutes on low to knead the dough.
Oil a large bowl. Form dough into a ball and place into the oiled bowl, turning to coat. Cover bowl with a clean towel or plastic wrap and let rise for 1 hour. It should double in size.
Ones the dough has risen, punch out the dough on to slightly floured surface. Divide the dough into 8-10 equal sized balls. (I used my kitchen scale and measured the dough to divide it. I also made 8 rolls and they were a little big for normal sized hot dogs.)
Roll the dough balls into long rolls in your hands. You will want them to be about 4 and ½ inches long, then flatten each slightly with your palm.
If using topping, sprinkle baking sheet with poppy seeds and lightly roll each dough piece in poppy seeds.
Place the rolls on baking sheet so that they are equally spread out. Cover with towel and let rest for about 45 minutes.
When there is 15 minutes left to the dough resting, preheat the oven to 400 degrees.
Whisk together the egg and water in a small bowl to prepare egg wash. Brush the top of each roll with the egg wash and sprinkle each with poppy seeds (if using.)
Place the roll in the oven and bake the rolls for 20 minutes. The roll will be lightly golden brown when done. Remove from baking sheet and let cool on wire rack
When ready to serve rolls, slice lengthwise pulling the knife only ⅔ the way through, leaving other side closed. Store in airtight bag or container.

Source– Adapted slightly from Curvy Carrot

Recipe for Chicago-style hot dogs to come!

Mmmmmm….

Posted by 2 Sisters 2 Cities on January 3, 2013

Continuing along with M’s Favorite Posts from this year, I have a few posts to add that were my favorite. We appreciate all our dedicated readers and I am excited about all the projects and recipes that I will get to share with you in 2013. Here are my top five favorite posts of 2012:

1. Earlier this year I threw my boyfriend’s Mom a pink-themed 60th birthday party. I used all different shades of pink for all the decorations. It was a lot of fun to go to various stores to find things that would work with my theme. Even though the party was just a small and intimate gathering, putting in the extra time and effort in planning a theme turned out really well.

2. The Jalapeño Popper Stuffed Chicken is one of my favorite meals to make. It is so delicious and so easy to make.

3. I love these Garlicky Meatballs. These make it into our menu rotation once every few weeks. They are really easy to make as a quick weeknight meal. I make a whole batch and freeze half of them for another time. I usually make a batch of quick pasta sauce and pasta to serve with the meatballs.

4. My Trip to Costa Rica last Spring was my main vacation for the year. It was definitely an experience to remember and I love all the photos I took of the breathtaking views of the volcanoes, beaches, and wild life. My boyfriend and I also got really great pictures of us together that we have since printed and now hang in our home.

5. For my family’s Fourth of July party this year, my sisters, Mom, and I pulled together our creativeness while throwing our annual family reunion wiffle ball tournament and lunch. I was inspired by Pinterest for a lot of the ideas and had a lot of fun coming up with decorating ideas. We also got to try out a lot of fantastic recipes from fellow food bloggers!

2012 was a great year for 2 Sisters 2 Cities. I can’t wait to share more with you all in 2013!

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Posted by 2 Sisters 2 Cities on September 27, 2012

I’ve been a busy guest-blogger this week- today I’m guest-posting at the Scribble Shop blog. I shared a number of K’s amazing (looking and tasting) cut-out sugar cookies that she has made to celebrate special occasions. The post also has K’s favorite cut-out cookie recipe. My Scribble Shop guest post can be found here.

Scribbleshop.com has tons of arts & crafts supplies, as well as an extensive amount of cookie and cake decorating supplies. They have set up a special coupon code just for 2 Sisters 2 Cities’ readers to receive 15% off your order. Just enter promotion code: 2CITIES2 to receive the 15% discount. This promotion code is valid until November 1st! It’s the perfect time to start stocking up for the holiday trifecta coming up.

Do you enjoy making cut-out cookies? What’s your favorite cookie cutter that you own? My personal favorites are some of the Christmas cookie cutters that my Grandma used to bake cookies with.

Posted by 2 Sisters 2 Cities on July 8, 2012

We are fully in the midst of summer and I wanted to share some fun summer party ideas! The theme for my party was actually a red, white, and blue Fourth of July party, but a lot of these ideas could be customized and used at any summer party.

At my family’s annual reunion, each year we have a wiffle ball tournament. For those of you that don’t know what wiffle ball is, it is similar to baseball/softball except played with a plastic ball and bat. You probably have seen them at the grocery store or Target/Wal-Mart during the summer.

My family is extremely competitive and the winners of the annual wiffle ball tournament get bragging rights all year. A few years ago, we started hosting the wiffle ball tournament at my parent’s house because of their large back yard and proximity to where everyone is staying. After the wiffle ball game, we then have a lunch for everyone.

This year, my mom and I started thinking about summer party ideas weeks before the lunch. We wanted dishes we could make ahead of time and pull together easily after the game. Some of the desserts are repeats of recipes I have posted about, but the rest of the recipes are new and I will post more details about them through out the week.

Our Summer Party Menu:

Lunch
Mediterranean Dip with Pita Chips
Tex-Mex Pimiento Cheese Dip with Red, White and Blue Tortilla Chips
Mixed Greens Salad with Strawberries, Grilled Chicken and Poppy Seed Dressing
Sliders with Cheddar, Colby Cheese or Plain
Baked Beans
Kielbasa with Caraway-Root Beer Sauce
Kettle Chips
Lemonade, Ice Tea, and Water

Vanilla Cupcakes with Buttercream Frosting
Sea Salt Caramel Brownies
White Trash Party Mix
Party Favors:
Sugar Cookies

Summer Party Decorations

I was inspired by Pinterest to make decorations for the party with a Red, White, and Blue theme since it was Fourth of July weekend. Earlier this weekend, I posted about the Pennant Banner that I made for the party. I hand-folded the stars in the background by following this post at The Gunny Sack.

For the flowers we bought red carnations and white filler flowers, and then cut lavender from my mom’s garden. We placed them in mason jars and tied red, white, and blue ribbon around the jars. Then we placed the jars in a red 2-tied basket.

For the napkins and silverware, I wrapped the plastic silverware in a white napkin and then wrapped a red or blue star napkin folded in half around the bundle and tied with the opposite color ribbon. I found two small red and blue baskets at Jo Ann’s Fabrics that I placed all the bundled silverware in and topped off with flags in the sides of both displays.

Here is a close-up of the flowers:

Outside we had two tables, chairs and a tent. I made confetti for the tables using a paper punch and some leftover red, white, and blue paper. It was a very windy day so we used tablecloth clips to hold down the tablecloth and taped down the confetti.

Simple, yet beautiful center pieces we made for the outside tables. We had to wait to bring these out to the tables because of the wind.

We had mason jars with ribbon tied around the rims and colorful patriotic themed paper straws all ready for my family to use as their drink glasses. The paper straws are from this cute store called Shop Sweet Lulu. I made homemade labels for all the food and drinks, which I will be posting about later in the week to explain how to make your own.

Another view of the island being set up for the lunch. I hung handmade paper garland from the lights by sewing together scalloped edged circles punched out with a paper punch (adapted from Nest Of Posies.)

The dessert table decorated with white tablecloth, red runner, and the handmade garland.

The drinks station set up on the counter.

The Mediterranean Dip with Toasted Pita Chips. Recipe to come soon, this one is a keeper!

The Tex-Mex Pimiento Cheese Dip before it went into the oven.
$Tex-Mex Pimiento Cheese Dip with Tortilla Chips$

After is came out of the oven, it was gone after a few minutes. Please don’t worry though- I have made it twice since because I wanted to get good photos of it cooked. The sacrifices that I make for our loyal 2S2C readers! Kidding- this dip is seriously amazing, I really have made it twice since, but it was by no means a sacrifice. Yum!!
Delicious Baked Beans, and yes, that is bacon on the top.

Sliders with your choice of cheeses or no cheese. I have decided that a slider is the perfect size burger for me. I was so full after one (and all that pimiento cheese dip .)

We had these really cute squeeze bottles filled with ketchup, mustard and mayonnaise and a bowl of dill pickle chips for the sliders.

Mixed greens salad topped with Strawberries, candied almonds, grilled chicken and poppy-seed dressing.   This is one of my favorite summer salads.

A tower of my classic vanilla cupcakes and buttercream frosting.

The cupcake liners are also from Shop Sweet Lulu. Love them! They really inspired me to keep the cupcakes simple with white frosting and flag toppers.

These Sea Salt Caramel Brownies were heaven! I am dreaming about them now.

The White Trash Party Mix placed in small polka dot red and blue paper cups, which we also bought at Shop Sweet Lulu.   I added patriotic sprinkles to this batch of white trash and I was so happy with the results.

Last, but not least, the sugar cookie party favors were given to everyone as they left.

This party was a lot of fun to pull together with my mom and sisters.   I know that Fourth of July has already passed, but many of these ideas can be translated into Summer cookouts or summer birthday parties. I can’t wait to share more details about the recipes and craft ideas from this party with you for the next week or two.   Stay tuned!