For my own records, below the cut!

Every year (but one) for the past eight years, we’ve headed over to Kristen’s house for the fourth. She throws a pretty swell party and it may be Noah’s number one favorite holiday (after Christmas). I’ve noticed that in the past few months he comes most alive with he’s with his friends. Sometimes when he’s stuck at home with us I can tell that he’s just counting the minutes until he can call, message or see his people.

I like to see him with his friends (it helps that I like his friends a lot) and I like to see him stretching his way past his insular family even though I’ll miss him when he’s well and truly gone. (I’m sure he’ll visit. Some.)

Anyway. I decided that in honor of the great American tradition of the suburban potluck I’d make a Pepsi Cake. I found the recipe in a cookbook we had at work (our organization does a whole lot with small Ohio towns and one of them put out a cookbook as a fundraiser). The Pepsi Cake was a hit although I couldn’t bring myself to eat a whole piece — too sweet! Mostly I just wanted to try it because it sounded hilarious only I wanted to make it with Coca-Cola since that seemed more patriotic. Brett doesn’t like Coke as much as Pepsi because he’s blasphemous but since he’d be the one drinking the left-overs, I let him make the final decision.

The result was a very very very moist cake with a tiny bit of a bite like the first burn when you sip soda. There wasn’t any left when we headed home so I guess folks liked it (I know my father-in-law did). Next time I’d like to try it with chocolate and maybe a cherry cola. Here’s the recipe:

1 box white cake mix (didn’t I tell you it’d be very American??)

4 eggs

1/2 cup oil

1/2 cup Pepsi

Mix it all up and bake it according to the box instructions. I did it in a bundt pan but then had trouble getting it out because I need a new bundt pan. (Note: Some people add a package of vanilla pudding to this mix. And some people add nuts to the bottom of the pan.)

The topping is the kicker:

stick of butter (I use real butter even though this recipe really cries out for Oleo if you want to keep with the theme)

1/4 cup Pepsi

1/4 cup water

1 cup sugar

Stir it up on the stovetop and bring to a boil. Boil for 3 to 4 minutes then pour over the hot cake. It’ll all soak in (it may take some time so pour slowly) and you’ll end up with a very juicy cake.

Apparently cooking with soda pop is a time-honored American tradition and colas work especially well as a meat tenderizer. And when I was hunting around the internet, I also found a ton of people who make a “diet” cake by using a box of cake mix with a diet soda, no other ingredients. Stir it up and bake it. There are long bulletin board discussions about which flavors go with which flavors. Like lemon cake with diet 7-up or yellow cake with diet orange Faygo. I will leave you to that because I think this recipe is as far as I want to go down the soda pop baking path. (The diet soda cake doesn’t ring my bell AT ALL.)
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Now playing: Lynn Miles – I’m The Moon
via FoxyTunes

First, update on Get Them Blogging!. We now have almost 200 bloggers in the database, which is great but I’ve gotten the tech stuff worked out to where I’m ready to add more More MORE! To do this week:

• Create blogads for those of you nice enough to offer me some ad space;
• Write pitch letter and (gulp) start sending it out to bloggers outside my sphere;
• Advertise on Craig’s list;
• Pass out some of the business cards I got to solicit blogs.

And recipes!
Peanut Butter Mousse Cake — It was easy (although it took a lot of mixing bowls) and pretty damn good. I used the Omega-3 peanut butter because I just couldn’t stand feeding anyone the hydrogenated oils in the regular stuff and it doesn’t work with natural peanutbutter. Next time I’d use a milk chocolate topping to make it more like a Reese’s cup.

Focaccia Bread — I make this in the bread machine then dump it out (it’s very sticky) and coat my hands with olive oil to shape it. It ALWAYS turns out and people ALWAYS comment about how good it is. Usually guests will outright ask for left-overs. I use it for sandwiches (last night we had turkey, provolone, artichokes and tomatoes covered with a really good Italian dressing and broiled open-faced ’til the cheese was bubbly) so shape it to be fat enough to cut open.

We’re on to happier things (at least — ominously — for now).

We are having a slew of people over tomorrow for Trick or Treat. Brett’s parents, my dad and one of my little sisters, Jessica and maybe Nate. I’m making focaccia for sandwiches and serving a cake because I broke my toe right before my dad’s birthday so didn’t make him one then.

I made this cake in an attempt to replicate the Buckeye Pie we had here. It’s chilling right now; I’ll let you know how it turns out.

Can’t remember where I found this (oh wait, I found it — Hillbilly Housewife) but here’s the basic recipe first:

Self-rising pizza crust
2 1/2 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon yeast
3/4 cup water
1/4 cup oil

Smush it up, let it rise. Bake at 400 degrees for 12 to 29 minutes. Makes one crust.

And here’s how I do it:

Put everything in the bread machine (yeast in first, dry ingredients next, oil/water on top) and use the dough setting. Also I use 1.5 cups of whole wheat flour (all whole wheat works fine, too, but I use this when visiting kids come over and the mix goes down better) and add a teaspoon of oregano to the crust. I bake it for ten minutes and then either top it and stick it back in to finish or freeze it from there. You can also sprinkle parmesan on top if you want and/or substitute some or all of the water with tomato juice. (I don’t love this but Brett does.)

I also use this for our calzones.