Happy 235th Birthday America! How about some cake?

Fireworks, barbecue and great music all seem to be part and parcel of July 4th celebrations. To this, different people add their own traditions and twists. Mine happens to involve cake, and it all started with my college best friend Stephanie Bencze.

She is a Belgian/French-American and a Martha Stewart/Mother Hen. In college, she took this lost foreigner under her wings and introduced me to all things American. She stranded me on a highway with orders to just get in the driver's seat and drive. How else would I ever learn? She took me on my first trip to Galveston. She also invited me to my first ever July 4th bash.

And every year, I attended college I celebrated Independence Day with Steph and the group of college students she managed to pull together into a family. We had our traditions: blankets on the Outdoor Miller Theater hill in Houston, a picnic feast, and cake. The cake was to celebrate the birthday of another friend, Larry. But to me it was also to celebrate the birth of my new country.

To this day, there's nothing more I enjoy than cake under the July 4th fireworks. Brings back good memories.

So for my column that was published around July 4th, I put together a cake that not only celebrated my adopted country, but also my adopted state: An American Flag Texas Sheet Cake.

And my editor, Tim Archuleta of the Standard-Times is the coolest because he and his family made it for July 4th this year. Here's the picture he shared:

Happy July 4th y'all!

The Cowboy & I Cook for Valentine's

The Cowboy and I have a special tradition: we celebrate Valentine's by throwing a party at our local soup kitchen.

Love and food are basic human needs. So what better way to celebrate our love than working together on a project to bring love and food, served with joy and verve, to more than a hundred of our homeless and working poor.

The plus side is we avoid the stiff competion for reservations and long waits at crowded restaurants.

Yes, we do fall into a bone-tired heap at the end of it all...but it's usually in the hot tub with glasses of wine or bottles of beer and each other. A pretty happy ending, by all accounts.

And, best of all, our love grows stronger, deeper, having worked side by side at the soup kitchen and being surrounded by love all day.

You can read about all the great plans for the 2011 Peace Ambassadors' Valentine's Lunch (our sixth) in this article.

To see pictures and stories from last year, click the San Angelo Standard-Times' link.

If you're able to help out in any way, we'd love to have you join us!
Happy Valentine's Y'all!