4th of July Picnic Ideas

You can show your patriotism all throughout the year, but there's nothing quite like a good 4th of July picnic to celebrate America's freedom and the birth of our nation. Finding ideas for the get-together, however, may be difficult at times. You may want to use some of these ideas to help make this year's 4th of July picnic a little more colorful.

Potato salad is generally a mainstay for any picnic during the summer, but this year you can let your patriotism show by making red, white, and blue potato salad. This summertime and picnic staple is easy to make. For this recipe, you need new red potatoes, white potatoes, and blue potatoes. They are boiled with peelings on to create this dish.

Boil all of your potatoes, about 1 1/4 pound of each, until they are fork tender. This will take about 15-20 minutes. Drain them and let them cool, leaving the skins on the red and white potatoes, but removing them from the blue ones. Dress as usual and then arrange them in to a bowl or casserole dish where the red are bunched together, then the white, and finally the blue. Your family and guests are sure to love this variation on an old favorite.

Another dish you could plan for to show your patriotism is a summer berry trifle. To properly show it off, you'll want to have a glass pedestal bowl, although any clear glass bowl will do. For this dessert, you'll need on package of vanilla pudding, a total of four cups of fresh berries (strawberries, blueberries, and blackberries), 1/4 cup sugar, 2 teaspoons of fresh lemon juice, a teaspoon of vanilla, 1 cup whipped cream, and 24-36 ladyfingers.

Prepare the pudding and set it aside. Then slice the strawberries and mix them with the sugar and lemon juice. Whip the cream, vanilla extract, and two tablespoons of sugar until they form soft peaks. Next, layer the ladyfingers on the bottom of the bowl followed by berries and then part of the pudding. Add another layer of ladyfingers, followed by the remainder of the pudding. Finish the dessert off with another layer of ladyfingers, berries, and then the whipped cream. Garnish the dessert with berries. Refrigerate it until you're ready to serve and then enjoy!

If you'd like to keep with the red, white, and blue theme, you can easily find recipes online. You may also be able to adjust recipes you traditionally serve by adding some extra color to your meal. Of course, how you decorate your table for your 4th of July picnic and the dishes you use can also lend to the festive mood.

When you're ready to celebrate the 4th of July, a picnic is a perfect start to a great day of fun. Choose patriotic-themed foods and then enjoy the afternoon in the great outdoors. When evening falls and it's time for fireworks, you'll be ready for them.