america

Crab Salad

7:30:00 AM


Summer is in full swing here in Wisconsin, and if you're anything like me, yours is full of events that involve eating delicious food. July is probably the busiest summer month, and my favorite time of the year. 

Crab Salad

 If you've been reading my blog for awhile, you know that my parents have a Fourth of July celebration with our family and friends. One of my favorite dishes this year was definitely the crab pasta dish! Being in South Carolina last month, definitely encouraged my love of all things from the sea. 

 If you're having a family gathering, or just want to make this dish here's what you'll need:

1 box rotini noodles, cooked and cooled
1 package imitation crab
2 stalks celery
1 can sliced black olives
1 packet Hidden Valley Ranch dressing (powdered mix)
1 cup mayo
1/4 cup milk

For our party, we actually doubled the batch and made a huge bowl for the 39 people who showed up and enjoyed it. Here's how you put it all together!
Multi-Color

Make the noodles and strain them, let them cool first!
In a small bowl, mix ranch, mayo and milk together
In a large bowl mix noodles, crab, olives and celery together
Pour the dressing over and mix well. 
Chill/ store the dish in the fridge for awhile before serving. 

American Dish

This is honestly, my favorite dish and I hope you all create it and enjoy it as well! 
Do you have a favorite dish at parties? Have you had any gatherings this summer? 
Make sure to leave a comment below! 

Read my last Fourth of July posts at these links! --> 2014 2015

Balloon

Summer Daze

1:00:00 PM


As much as the humidity is absolutely killing me, I really don't want to see this summer roll to an end. With work and my online math class, I feel like I haven't fully enjoyed it. Though the math class will soon end (let's all cross our fingers that I pass it!) I will hopefully have more free time to do what Summer is for. 

 Adventuring. 
Laying out on the deck.
Eating bowls of watermelon.

One sign of mid-summer in my town is the annual balloon festival. I unfortunately haven't been able to attend the last few years as I have always been out of town, but this year I was able to! 

The balloon festival brings in about half of my towns population (so about 1500). It's held in a massive field, and as soon as you walk inside you're greeted with a large handful of food choices, a petting zoo, and colorful balloons ready to pop up into the sky. 
The main food that is eaten here is called pulled pork. It's delicious, and covered in barbecue sauce, this year I tried a side of homemade cornbread from one of the stands. I only ate half of it, as it was a massive piece, but it was delicious!!! 

The lines are very long, but worth the wait in my opinion. Sometimes the people standing in the queue with you even join in conversation, while we watch the balloons take off. 
This year, while waiting in line, my dad and my sister popped out to grab some cheese curds. They were delicious! 

A few of the balloons flew over while we waited for our turn in line and then found a table to eat dinner at. 
Though it's only a once a year deal, it's still fun to go and see the balloons as I have been doing since I was young! 
After eating, while my dad and his girlfriend went into the beer tent, my sister and I walked a few blocks over to my grandparents house where we were going to watch fireworks from their driveway. It's always worked out, you get a nice view of the fireworks, do a bit of people watching, and not get lost in a large crowd. 


And as far as firework shots go, I think I did pretty well! These are my favorite ones! 




Have you gone to any festivals lately? Do you plan to? I really want to go to a music festival at some point in my life! Those always look like fun! 
Thanks for reading! Make sure to follow me on all the social medias! :) 
xx
Kenzie




america

Fourth of July Festivities

10:31:00 AM



There are a lot of holidays that certain countries celebrate just for themselves, though you definitely do not have to be living there or even born there to celebrate with the crowd. For America, it’s the Fourth of July. It’s our Independence Day and we celebrate with friends, family and neighbors from all around.

 Of course, different families celebrate in their own unique ways. It’s pretty typical where I live, to celebrate the holiday two different ways, the first one being, pack up the car and head up north to send fireworks into the air on a lake. The second typical way to celebrate America’s Independence Day is to gather at someone’s house and have a party.

 So Kenzie, what do you do to celebrate the Fourth of July?

 Well, personally, for my family we celebrate on Saturday. Since the actual Fourth of July can be any day of the week, we usually pick that Saturday to celebrate. This year it was the fifth. If you’re not confused already, the fourth of July was celebrated on the fifth of July at my house. I do have to say, we did pop over to the local Fourth of July fair that was happening in town for a little while on the actual fourth, then had desserts at my grandparents after. We also took a ride in my step-dad’s convertible, the weather was so nice!

The best thing about the Fourth of July celebration is that there is a lot of food. Which is great! I love food! Usually, families will cook up hamburgers, hotdogs or brats, or even a combination of the three. We had hamburgers and brats this year. There’s also usually Beer, Water and Soda to drink. The house was decorated with red white and blue all over. In the garden, on the shed, in the planters, where ever you looked you would probably spot a flag or colors of it.

                           




 The party was great! People came with smiles on and bellies to fill! Did I mention there was a lot of food? It’s a good way to see people who have busy schedules in the summertime and have a bit of a catch up time. Everyone brings a dish to pass, which is really great! Everyone makes such good food! There were an array of desserts, pasta salads, dips, fruits and a lot of other things! My favorite were deviled eggs. Anytime I can get my hands on some of those is great!


At the party, I wore a navy blue dress from Old Navy, a red necklace I made when I was probably in the 7th grade and my favorite strappy sandals also from Old Navy! The weather was amazing, it wasn’t too hot but it wasn’t too cold! Just perfect!





After eating the crowd stuck around for a while, thinning out here and there until there was a nice sized group around the fire pit. I love sitting by the fire, it’s one of my favorite things about summer. There weren’t any s’mores though, we were all stuffed full of food anyway!  There were a few fireworks shot off of course to end the night!


There’s a group of people who stay over night, my parents friends, from Minnesota (that’s to the right of Wisconsin if you look at the map ) and in the morning we all have a nice breakfast. The adults drink Bloody Mary’s while my step-dad cooks up the bacon and eggs over the fire. 

Even Sadie got in on the action! 

It’s so good! My grandparents come over as well, since they live nearby.
It was a really great Fourth of July weekend! I hope you had fun wherever you celebrated, and if you didn’t I hope you had a great weekend anyway!
 Thanks for reading! 

Xx

Kenzie

Instagram