Quick 4th of July Astorian Round-Up

Image by La Guli Pastry Shop

Happy 4th of July Astoria!  Hope everyone has a fun day planned, either at home or if you're spending it away.  In case you're hanging around the nabe, I wanted to provide you with a quick, little food game-plan.

Singlecut Beersmiths - Fun times! Singlecut will be hosting a special 4th of July trivia night tomorrow starting at 8 p.m.  There's plenty of communal tables that are great for hanging out - so bring your family, bring your buddies and brush up on your fun fact knowledge with a cold one.  19-33 37th Street, Astoria.  718.606.0788

Brunch - There are lots of restaurants in the nabe featuring a special 4th of July brunch including the Queens Kickshaw, Ovelia, El Ay Si and others.  The Bohemian Hall & Beer Garden will have special Karaoke night tomorrow starting at 7 p.m.

Dessert - While you may find some bakeries observing the holiday, others such as the Astor Bake Shop and La Guli are open and serving up some patriotic treats.  Just have a look at La Guli's pretty red, white and blue cookies and cakes.  

Something homemade - If you're spending the 4th at home or at a friend's house, consider making something homemade and special.  A few recommendations that have gone over well for me are this chocolate peanut butter ice box cake, these chocolate chunk with a hint of sea salt cookies, and perhaps some messy (but still very delicious) brownie ice cream sandwiches.

Hope everyone has a great 4th of July!

A Happy 4th Was Had With Blueberry Squares

With the 4th of July holiday this weekend, as well as my friend Adam's legendary Rib Fest celebration (more to come on that this week), I wanted to bake something special--not only in the spirit of the holiday but something that would make the aftertaste of ribs that much sweeter. 

I got inspired by the above blueberry-lemon squares once again from a fellow Foodbuzzer, Only Nature Food Porn. Funny name.  Cool blog.  His beautiful blueberry squares decorated with fresh blueberries and lavender really enticed me.  I was especially interested in using fresh lavender flowers on my squares, as they're edible and look really beautiful.  There's plenty of lavender over at friend's, Kim and Ken's garden and since my mom and dad and taking care of it while they're on vacation, we borrowed some for this recipe.  Kim, if you're reading this, I hope you don't mind!

The actual cake was a breeze to make, aside from the fact that I had to convert all measurements from the Metric system.  It's actually quite simple and you can use the following online converter. 

I loved that the flavor of the cake was extra lemony because in addition to putting lemon zest into the dough, I also poured lemon juice on top, after it was baked. The frosting was a cinch as well, consisting of powdered sugar and fresh lemon juice. Easy, breezy.

Now the difficult part was the topping.  I waited too long for the frosting to set and had a hard time putting the blueberries on top.  In the end, I got it done but the delicate little lavender flowers didn't cooperate.  So I ended up using them as a garnish instead.

Try it out for yourself.  It's a great summertime dessert and it received high marks at Ribfest - actually it didn't make it out on to the serving table since everyone gobbled it up upon its reveal.

See recipe here and enjoy.