It’s almost 4th of July – are you excited? I’m getting some shopping and preparing done at Chicago Deli and I decided to whip up a nice recipe I’ve been meaning to make for the past month (but have been so busy).
Anyway, today I wanted to talk about 4th of July (and yes, the recipe but that’s later).
You see, I was not born in the United States. I was not even raised here. You shouldn’t be surprised to hear this if you’ve been following this blog for a while but I was actually born and raised in Poland and I came to the US when I was 13 going on 14 years old and into my 7th grade (education system is different in Poland and I could have been placed in 8th but since I didn’t know the language that well I didn’t mind waiting an extra year before the horrors I expected in high school- the teen movies definitely made it out to be much worse than it was though, haha).
So I didn’t really celebrate 4th of July much other than it being a day off of school.
But as years went on and I assimmilated, I began seeing myself more and more as part of the community and part of the society in my new country of living and my parents and I began to create traditions of our own that took place on the 4th of July weekends.
Although my family is not large, we still enjoy the celebrations of our own.
The one thing that has stayed constant through the years (on most years anyway) is that my mom would make some delicious cake usually (I absolutely adore her cakes as you already know) and then later when the dark falls, we would walk over to this park close to our home with our dog and watch their big fireworks show. It’s nice and fun and pretty. Who doesn’t love fireworks?!
The first year we did it, it was just a thing we did cause we wanted to see the fireworks. But as time and years went on, we began to look forward to the weekend because we had these traditions of our own – celebrating our living a new life in the United States and being grateful for being here.
So, in the spirit of 4th of July I created a super easy recipe (if you can call it that). I went to #MyMarianos (duh) and I got some good ingredients to make this fabulous Berry Trifle. I’ve been meaning to make a trifle for like a month now but I haven’t had the time to do so – finally the time is perfect and it’s about time I make it.
It’s a beautiful patriotic trifle made with blueberries and raspberries, some healthy yogurt (cause this is a healthy living blog after all, right?) and delicious pieces to top the entire thing off in the best way possible. Mmm. I’m drooling just thinking about it.
For some great recipe ideas check out Mariano’s Tastemaker. You can follow them on Twitter, Facebook, or Pinterest as well.
PS. Have you checked out the awesome opportunities and fun stuff I have for all you SOLOPRENEURS? If not, check it out here.