Inspirations by D: 4th of July

Hello, and Happy Independence Day Weekend! Today I wanted to share
with you this delicious Patriotic Pie recipe from TipHero.com, thank you tip hero!
I have added a couple of extra things to mine.
It is a perfect patriotic dessert to share with family and friends during the celebration
of our Nation's Independence. It may look harder than it really is, but it is pretty simple.

The ingredients that you will need are as follows:

Makes 1 (9-inch pie)
Approximately 2 hours & 45 minutes

Pie dough shells (2) 9 inch
Star cookie cutter (2 inches) and/or (1 inch)
Knife
4 ½ cups fresh strawberries, hulled and sliced
1 ½ cups fresh blueberries

½ cup granulated sugar
⅓ cup of corn starch
½ teaspoon almond extract, divided
1 large egg, beaten for egg wash
orange or lemon zest
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
a pinch of sugar for sprinkling over the pie

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees Fahrenheit (220 Celsius).

2. On a lightly floured surface, place your dough. If it's on a pie plate, turn upside down
and gently unfold the edges so that it will lay flat on the surface.

3. Roll it flat with a dough roller, if you have one on hand.

4. Cut out your stars using the cookie cutter and cut the stripes with a knife. Set it aside.

5. In a bowl, combine sugar and cornstarch and mix well.

6. Take ¼ cup of the sugar mixture and a ¼ teaspoon of almond extract and add it to the blueberries in a separate bowl. Add the cinnamon and a pinch of zest to the blueberries.
Toss to coat. Set aside.

7. In another separate bowl, add the remaining sugar mix to the strawberries and add
¼ teaspoon of almond extract and another pinch of zest, toss to coat.

8. Take a piece of aluminum foil and fold it in half several times to create a two-inch-wide strip.
Fold the bottom corners so that it fits well inside the pie dish, separate the sections by 1/3 and 2/3 areas.

9. With one hand holding the foil in place, gently pour in the strawberries into the 2/3 section, then the blueberries in the 1/3 section. Gently level out the berries and remove the foil.

10. Using the dough that was cut out for the stars and stripes, place the stripes over the strawberries making sure to leave space between the stripes. Layout the stars over the blueberries.

11. Brush the dough carefully with egg wash, sprinkle lightly with sugar, then cover the
edges of the pie with 2-inch strips of foil to prevent burning or a crust shield.

12. Bake at 425 degrees for 25 minutes, then remove the foil or crust shield, reduce
heat to 375 degrees and continue to bake for 60 minutes or until the edges are golden and
the fruit is bubbling.

13. Cool pie for an hour before serving. Goes well with vanilla ice cream!

Enjoy!

Hey there friends, today I have a special DIY Patriotic Burlap Wreath Project!

With a little effort and patience and some items from the Dollar Tree, you can put

together this beautiful Patriotic Wreath to welcome your friends, family, and neighbors.

Natural and colorful, this wreath will look great on your front door, over the mantel,

or even as part of an Independence Day centerpiece.

Items That You Will Need:

10 or 12-inch Metal Wreath Ring- You may use mesh ribbons for this project.
glow in the dark stars or sticker stars (Dollar Tree)
burlap ribbon from Hobby Lobby
pipe cleaners -Shop Patriotic Party Supplies at DollarTree.com
or hot glue gun & glue sticks (optional)

I will start with the blue ribbon, my blue ribbon was narrower than my other two ribbons, so it may look different.

Take your metal wreath ring and on the first inner row, loop in the ribbon as seen below. Do this by one of the metal wire endings, these are the ones that divide each section.

You may secure it with the pipe cleaner by twisting it and then cutting any extra pipe cleaner. You may also secure it with hot glue. This will form the first loop in the inner row of the wreath. Use your fingers to pull the amount you want; I made my loop about 2 inches out.

Then go to the second row above it and form another loop and then the third row and another loop. So it should look like the second and third image on the left below.

You will then push it gently aside causing it to scrunch like on the third image on the right.

Secure it by twisting the ribbon once or twice. At this point, you may either cut the ribbon or secure it with a pipe cleaner. Then you will begin again from the first inner row and work your way up to the third row above again. You will repeat this until you have two sections of the metal wreath covered with the blue ribbon. You may decide to do half of the metal wreath if you like as I have seen on some wreaths. (I ran out of the blue ribbon, so I did two sections of blue.)

Then when you are done with the blue ribbon, tuck it in on the back and secure with either a pipe cleaner or hot glue.

Now you will begin with the red ribbon and do the same thing. Start from the inner row by forming a loop and secure it with hot glue or pipe cleaner. Continue to loop on the second and third row then secure it by twisting it with the pipe cleaner. At this point, you may cut the ribbon to start with the next color. Begin the same way with the natural or white burlap ribbon. Begin from the inner row and work your way up to the third outer row by forming the loops in each row. Then push the ribbon toward the other ribbons to scrunch it. Secure again with a pipe cleaner and cut, then begin again with the red ribbon.

You will repeat this looping and scrunching process until you run out of room.

When you have covered the metal wreath, cut your ribbon and tuck it into the

back side of the metal wreath, you may secure it with the pipe cleaner or hot glue.

When you are done, your wreath should look something like the one below.

At this point, you are ready to make any adjustments to your ribbons by

fluffing them or sliding them carefully to make sure the metal is hidden by the ribbons.

Now take your glow in the dark stars or sticker stars and spread them out over your blue
ribbon to see how you want to lay them out. Now that you know where you want them,

hot glue them onto the wreath or if they are stickers just stick them on. You have the option of painting your glow in the dark stars white if you like.